We rolled into Zion in the late afternoon on Monday, and we were fortunate enough to reap the benefits from someone who had to cancel their camping reservations (yay!!) So we set up shop, and began looking over the handy brochures and maps to pick out what hikes and sights we wanted to do/see. Of course I tended to veer away from the ones that stated: "extremely strenuous, steep exposed cliffs with long drop offs, not for those with a fear of heights." So what hike did we end up doing the next day? Angels Landing of course! (Scared out of my mind - but the view was totally worth it). The peak we hiked to is actually the one above Curt's head:
A little something to get my anxiety levels sky-rocketing. You want shaky legs before you start hiking the part where you hold on to chains and you have a 1,200 ft. drop on one side, and an 800 ft. drop on the other, right??
They weren't kidding. Cliff exposures? Notice the chain in the corner of the left picture?!?
As Curt leaped from one rock to another like a gazelle, I held onto the chain with sweaty palms for dear life. In the end... the view was amazing, and I am glad we both made the trek, and made it up and back down in one piece. The view from the top:
The Emerald Pools were also amazing.... (and not so scary to get to)... though I am realizing that we actually didn't take many pictures of the pools. Oops. And to be quite honest, they weren't really emerald. At any rate, the surrounding scenery stole the show:
We also wanted to hike "The Narrows" -- which follows the Virgin River through one of the many canyons in Zion. Darn those required permits! (Though, let's be honest for a second here, the 16 mile hike through mostly water with the constant reality of a flash flood snuffing you out in seconds did make me feel a tiny bit better about not being able to do it. That and the people we witnessed going farther and farther upstream -- some up to their chests in icy cool, rushing water, yeeesh). Don't get me wrong, however, Curt and I fully plan to go back and do it, anyone else interested??
All for now... more summer adventures and pictures coming up!
