Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Angels Landing, Zions National Park


This past weekend I decided out of complete impulse to go and surprise one of my best friends for her Birthday! It was a non-stop weekend, we all had such a blast. On Saturday we decided to go hike Angels Landing, we were getting pretty discouraged on our way there when it decided to start rain, but we decided to keep driving hoping that it would clear up.  We pulled up to the entrance to Zion's park and decided to ask the ranger if the hike was safe , and if by chance the weather was going to clear up. She told us yes, then proceeded to tell us that it was closed for search and rescue this morning but we should be fine to hike it now. All that was going through my head at the time was, "SERIOUSLY?! You just had to tell me THAT of all things?!" definitely not something that you want to hear, kind of freaked all of out.

 The hike was difficult for me, let's just throw it out there…. I'm out of shape. The hike was full of steep switch backs at the beginning. The last 0.5 miles of the hike was were the "fun" began, there were chains for the rest of the way up since it was so narrow. We met a lot of very friendly interesting people along the trail, including a 77 ….. Yes 77 Year old man, hiking with his son. What an inspiration to all of who hiked that day and crossed their path, I hope that when I get to the age I'm still ambitious as he is.

 We were all burnt out by the end of the hike, we all decided to go down by the river to go and try to cool off a little bit. There was another group down there already and they all jumped into the river to cool down. We all didn't exactly want to get all sopping wet but we decided to just dip our feet into the water.

 Gradually throughout the hike the sky got clearer and clearer, it turned out to be such a gorgeous day. I have to say this was probably one of the more difficult hikes that I have done, but I'm sure glad that I pushed my self to be able to complete it. It makes me want to get more in shape for next summer and do a lot more difficult and challenging hikes. I personally have never been to Zion's I was amazed how gorgeous it was! I have learned to appreciate what a gorgeous state Utah is, going on all of these hikes I have been lately. Utah has such gorgeous secrets that you have to go out and search for, so why not go appreciate what we have been given?!




















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