SO...clearly a bit of lag time on this, but better late than never. Here goes:
Dave and I got into Vegas on Tuesday night. When my plane landed, Dave had been there for an hour or so, circling the McCarren airport grounds in our rental chariot and getting antsy. We checked in at the Hard Rock, which was surprisingly nice, and went for a slice and bought some beers. Dave and I tried our hands at busting open the bottles using our fists and the curb. Eventually we settled on using the magazine stands on the side of the road. Great success. What follows is hazy, which, frankly, is not the point of this post.
The next day we got slightly lost looking for In-n-Out and managed to find the least accessible fast food restaurant location in existence. It was worth it. We ran some errands – got a few last minute supplies – and picked up Josh from the airport.
Our three days in Zion were amazing. The first day we hiked Angel’s Landing, which is probably the most popular and well-known of the hikes in Zion.
The first few miles were pretty mundane, but closer to the top it becomes a scramble over boulders and sheer drop-offs. I didn’t really know how far down it was from there – maybe 1000 ft? I’d heard stories from a co-worker the previous week about the number of people that fall off Angel’s Landing every year. I have to admit, it definitely gave me pause. But once you get up there, it was more fun than anything. We all really enjoyed climbing up the rocks and scrambling to the top – except Josh. He hates everything.
The next day we hiked the Observation Point trail, which was quite a bit longer, distance-wise, than the hike on the previous day. While it didn’t have any of the exciting scrambling of the Angel’s Landing hike, it was quite a bit more scenic and actually brought us to the top of Zion Canyon.
After that hike, we walked down to the Virgin River (that carved out the canyon) to see how cold it was. It was bad. If we had been allowed to hike the Narrows, we would have needed wet suits. Even then it would have been uncomfortable.
That night, we had our first and only rattlesnake sighting on the Watchman Trail. That called for an impromptu reggae sunset party – Dave busted out the iPod speakers, three cold Tecates and a flask of Dewars.
On our last day, our intention was to hike to the Emerald Pools, but called a last minute audible and checked out Hidden Canyon. It ended up being a great call. This was the most interesting and challenging hike of the 4 days.
Once you make it to the riverbed a couple of miles in you face a series of more challenging boulders and rocks to continue on the trail. We had been told to keep going even when we thought that the trail ended. We took that to heart. We made our way up the trail and it was an absolute blast. Probably the best hike of my life.
There was also an arch about 2/3rds of the way in, so we were able to cross that off the list.
I'll leave you with our credo for the trip: Safety Third
