The Road to Zion

Day 24 – Zion National Park, UT

"Man can draw closer to God within these canyon walls than in any manmade temple."

- Isac Behunin, early Mormon settler, namer of Zion Canyon

“These walls have a song in them.  It is the murmur of the wind, the birds, and the water.”

- Paiute Elder, describing Zion Canyon

Not a promising start.

The way I have gone about writing these things is to compose them in my head as the day goes along, thinking about what I want to say and how to say it, and then sitting down at night and trying to remember everything I’ve wanted to say.  I forget some stuff, some things change, but for the most part I get it all down.  As I began to compose today’s, it didn’t look like it was gonna be a very happy post.  My basic premise was going to be “Today sucked.”  Blunt, yes, but also seemingly accurate and succinct. 

As mentioned earlier, our day began at the local Ford/Lincoln/Mercury dealership so we could have our car’s power steering checked out.  Good news was they found the problem.  The motor that controls the power steering was on its last legs and starting to act up.  Bad news was they didn’t have the part.  And can’t get one until tomorrow.  And it is really, really expensive to fix.  But, we need it fixed, so there is no sense in waiting.  Crap.

Since they couldn’t fix it today, we made plans to bring it back tomorrow morning, which may mean we don’t make it to the Grand Canyon.  Not a huge deal, but still disappointing.  But for today, we had the option of not risking the motor blowing and sitting in the hotel room all day or chancing it and trying to enjoy some of Zion.  We decided to head to Zion and if the power steering went, well, it would just be a long ride back to St. George.

Clearing up?  Or moving in for more?

Prior to the car fiasco, our plans for Zion were very ambitious.  We wanted to hike up to Angel’s Landing, explore The Narrows, hike to the emerald pools, and take a bike ride on the Pa’Rus trail.  As we left St. George for Zion, it started to rain.  Hard.  And it rained the whole way there.  Now hiking in the rain is not fun, but hiking to Angel’s Landing (heights) and The Narrows (flash flooding) during rain is impossible.  So it looked like our day at Zion would be ruined as well.

We got to the park and tried to decide what we would do there on a rainy day.  There was a 22 minute video.  There were two small museums.  And there was an 80 minute round trip shuttle ride on the park’s scenic drive (driving in most of the park is not allowed).  Not really enough to fill a day and definitely not enough to let us explore Zion sufficiently.

In "The Narrows".  Starting to smile, things looking up.

A view of the Virgin River, looking down the canyon.

We decided to do the shuttle ride first, taking it all the way to the end of the line to the Temple of Sinawava stop.  I guess some description of Zion is probably needed before we go further.  Zion National Park is comprised of a few distinct areas, one of which is Zion Canyon, the park’s main attraction.  Zion Canyon is a somewhat narrow canyon with steep, sheer Navajo Sandstone walls, with the Virgin River running through it.  The word Zion is a Hebrew word meaning “Place of refuge” and can also be used in reference to Jerusalem or The Promised Land.  It was given this name by its Mormon settlers, as were many of the landmarks such as The Patriarchs (three peaks, named Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), Angel’s Landing, The West Temple, The Great White Throne, and The Altar of Sacrifice.  So the place is laden with religious imagery.  Considering the sparse landscape around the park, it is easy to see why such a lush, fertile area would have been seen as a refuge or promised land.  There is a crystal clear river, groves of cottonwood and fir trees, flowers, grasses, birds, deer, and an abundance of other life.  Perhaps the most beautiful feature (aside from the canyon itself) are the hanging gardens.  Since the rocks are so porous, they are able to hold and seep water.  This allows plants to grow from every nook and cranny of these sheer canyon walls.  To continue the movie comparisons from yesterday, the place looks like Jurassic Park.

Amy making her way across the River as we work our way down The Narrows.

So anyways, we get to the Temple of Sinawava stop where The Narrows hike begins and all of a sudden, the sky starts to clear.  Soon, it’s sunny!  So we decide to go for it.  Wow, did we luck out.  The Narrows is at the north end of Zion Canyon and it encompasses an area where the river straightens, cutting a very narrow path through the steep Navajo Sandstone on either side.  To call it a hike is misleading.  You hike the first mile along a nice, paved riverwalk.  Then you enter the canyon and the remaining 8 miles are a combination of a hike, walk through the river, wade, and swim.  We had never planned to do the whole thing, we just wanted a taste of it.  So we did the mile down the river walk before reaching the banks of the river.  We crossed the river to a small bank a ways up, with water coming above our ankles.  The next stage brought water to our knees.  All the while, the canyon closed in more and more around us.  At its most narrow point, it was probably 50 feet across.  However, if we had continued the whole way, there would have been times where the canyon walls would have been 10 feet across, but stretching for hundreds of feet above.  We got to the point where the water would have been up to our chest and decided that was far enough.  We didn’t want to stop, but we just weren’t prepared for the whole trip.  It was so cool just to the short distance we went in.  I can’t imagine how amazing the whole trip is.  So it’s on our bucket list.

Other continuing on up the canyon.  Some day we will come back to do this.

The goal of our hike: Angel's Landing.  It's 30 feet taller than
the Empire State Building.

We hiked backed out, squishing all the way, and smiles were on our faces for the first time all morning.  We had a snack while we let our socks, boots, and feet dry a little before hopping back on the shuttle.  We took the shuttle back down the road, getting off at The Grotto.  Here is where we picked up the trailhead for the Angle’s Landing hike.  While it is only 5.4 miles round trip, the guide said to plan on at least 4 hours to get it done.  This is mainly due to the fact that it is a 1,500 foot climb, including the last .5 miles which involves the use of chains to get to the peak.  

A look down at a section of "Walter's Wiggles" on the way up to the Landing.

We started out on a lat path following the river before beginning a steep, paved ascent to a saddle between Angle’s Landing and Big Bend.  We made our way down the saddle between the two peaks, before turning up again towards Angle’s Landing for another steep ascent.  This portion is called “Walter’s Wiggles” due to the tightly wound switchbacks.  While this portion was tough due to the steepness of the climb, the fact that it was mostly paved or packed gravel made it easier than, say, the steps at Grand Canyon or the rocks on Long’s Peak.  We eventually made it to Scout’s Overlook, which is the last big open space before the final ascent to the peak.  The peak is only .5 miles away, it looks even closer, but the sense of security you get is false.  With a name like Angel’s Landing, you get a peaceful feeling.  Instead, it is poop-your-pants scary.

Looks fun, right?

"Wait, you want me to go where?" - Amy going ahead as I cling to the chain for dear life.

We left Scout’s Overlook and began the ascent to the peak.  I immediately began to understand the strong warnings given by the National Park system about this climb.  Almost the entire time you are pulling yourself up by chains and “handholds” on the rocks.  That’s not the bad part.  The bad part is the view.  The path to the peak is a narrow strip of rock going out from the overlook to the peak.  On each side are sheer cliffs dropping some 1400+ feet.  At one point, the rock strip seemed to be no more than 5 feet across with sheer cliffs on both sides so that no matter where you looked, it was down.  I generally don’t get too nervous by heights.  I did at one point in my life throw myself of the Victoria Falls Bridge with only think rubber bands (bungee cord) attached to my ankle.  But this made me nervous – ok beyond nervous. 

Amy having a snack at the top.  Safety a mere 1500 feet below.

Of the four German guys that hiked up at the same time we did, two didn’t even try.  One quit halfway up and went back to the overlook.  A girl in a group in front of us cried the whole way.  I didn’t cry, but the thought crossed my mind.  Amy, on the other hand, was all ninja about it and loving every second.  Which frightened me even more because I wanted her clinging to the chains for dear life like I was.  Well, we made it to the peak without incident and I have to say, it was worth it.  The views were absolutely stunning.  Here is the 360° view:

The view heading back down.  Ridiculous.

Climbing down was almost worse than going up as “the quick way down” was always in view.  I just kept on focusing on the next step and a conversation we had started with a woman from Utah who was also on her way down.  Again, we made it to solid ground without incident and were ready for the final descent down the paved path.  At this point the euphoria and adrenaline kicked in and we ran most of the way down, spin moves included.  The hike, which took us two hours on the way up, took us just under an hour on the way down.

The Lower Emerald Pools, water streaming down from above us. 

We got back on the shuttle and took it one stop down to Zion Lodge where we got on the Emerald Pools trail.  There are three sets of pools and we hiked to the lower pools.  Normally a path connects the lower, middle, and upper pools, but trail maintenance had this path closed.  So we only made it to the lower pools.  While the waterfalls, which we could walk under, were awesome, the pools did not impress.  We decided to skip the biking and instead made our way to one of the museums to watch the film.

The West Temple, Sundial, Altar of Sacrifice, and Beehive (from left to right)
at sunset

Overall, it was an absolutely incredible day at Zion.  The park is stunning and I feel like we barely got our feet wet.  We only passed through the eastern part of the park and we didn’t even see the Kolob Canyon area in the north.  And there is still so much we want to do in the Zion Canyon area; this will definitely be place we come back to.  Before today, I had my favorite destinations on the trip as 1) Tetons, 2) Arches, and 3) Black Hills.  But now, I would put Zion at #1.  Amy still has Tetons at #1, but is equally excited about coming back here someday.

The car worked fine on the way home and we settled in for a quiet night of leftover pizza, salad, and Law & Order reruns.  Hopefully tomorrow they can get the car finished quickly and we can get on our way.