ZION

Zion National Park is far and away one of the most awe inspiring places to visit. It is hard to describe the majestic scenery found here. If you've never visited, it's an absolute must. No where in the world can you see perfectly flat red sandstone walls shoot out of the ground for thousands of feet above the valley floor. Typically when we head to Zion it's because of the phenomenal canyoneering. We opted to leave canyon gear at home this time as we purely didn't have enough space to carry it in the van. Feeling slightly bummed that we'd have to miss out on this crazy exciting activity we soon we rather thankful that we made the choice not to lug the gear as most of our time here it was rainy and overcast. When it rains in the desert the last place you want to be is in a slot canyon. They are instantly turned into a funnel where all the water rapidly rushes through, creating an instant death trap for anyone unfortunate enough to be there.

 

With canyons out of the question, we spent a handful of days doing some beautiful hiking throughout the park. Angles Landing is undoubtably the most famous and popular hike/scramble of the park at 5.4 miles round trip. A winding pathway has been laminated up the side of a huge sandstone face that pops you out at a gorgeous viewopoint way above the canyon walls.

 

We felt a little more ambitious our second day and started looking for a little bit longer hike. Found one going up to cable mountain with mileage unknown but heck, we had all day so we went after it. The weather was being finicky with us so it was a game of tank top, raincoat, tank top, rain coat all day. It ended up being quite a fantastic hike by starting out low in the sandy desert and then working us up to a flat plateau in mountainous country. It was pretty impressive to see the landscape change as we chugged our way through 16 miles and 5,000 feet of elevation gain. The views at the top were well worth every step.

 

 

We spent the next 2 days doing a handfull of short hikes around the park accompanied with what I would classify as the WORST bushwacking to have ever been endured. Desert jungle bushwaking with hundreds of spiders and big lizards with blue bellies that made me shriek. We will leave you with one last parting shot from Zion. Thanks to Sam for such a beautiful picture.

 

 

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