Zion Utah Trip – Hot and Beautiful

Sara, Jim, Kara, Marni, Ben and I spent the last four days in Zion National Park in Utah, climbing and hiking in the mountains in the Park.

We started our trip in Las Vegas, NV where we picked up Marni and Ben from the airport and headed North on the 15 freeway to Utah. It was hot when we got there, little did we know that the real heat was yet to come. We drove straight up to the Cable Mountain Lodge where we dumped out stuff and literally walked about a quarter of a mile to the buses which take you into the park.

We were able to do three hikes the first night:

Hidden Canyon

This was a quick hike but there was some steep parts and some exposed sections like the one seen below where Sara is following the chain up around an exposed corner.

Weeping Rock

Weeping rock was a quick literally 5 minute hike to a beautiful overhanging set of gardens which were being fueled by the water flowing out of the sandstone. It was hot so we took turns bending back over a ledge leaning into the water, it was really fun take a look at the video….

Emerald Pools

There are three hikes in one with Emerald pools – Lower, Middle and Upper Emerald Pools. In the Pictures below you can see the Upper Emerald Pool which was in a canyon with a thin waterfall flowing down into this pool seen below. The sun was just hitting it right and it glowed…

The first full day we really went for it and boy did the heat kick in. We did two hikes which ended up being about 20 miles and about 5ooo feet. When we started our first hike it was already in the mid 80’s and went up from there. We started climbing Angels Landing and you can guess why it is called that, because it is steep and high. This climb goes straight up from the valley floor and takes you between two mountain peaks and then into an area called the “cooler” where the shade in  the canyon cools things down

It  then goes up “walters wiggles” which are switchbacks carved into the side of the mountain to take you up to a clearing high up on the mountain.

Next comes the really exposed climb to the top of Angels Landing with chains attached to the side of the rock to guide your path and provide something to hold onto. I took this video while I was climbing up and it was awesome.

You can see how wide it is on top with two steep decents on each side of the landing

Our second hike was Observation Point which is a huge plateau above Angels Landing however we had to go all the way down to go up again. This hike I thought was really tough both because of the elevation and the heat. The view of the canyon was breathtaking however. When we got near the top it leveled off so Sara and I started jogging with our packs because we wanted to do something new with our legs besides climb and soon after Marni and Ben caught up to us, soon we were all sprinting to the top laughing that one or the other was following us. Check out this view

Our second day was we took a canyoneering class with Zion Mountain Adventure. After a brief introduction to the anchors used in rock and a brush up on climbing knots in the ride over to the canyon we were hiking to our first rock.

Our guides were first rate and started by teaching us about our gear – harnesses, ropes, webbing, carabeners and paranna device. After discussing and practicing how to setup a good anchor point, we hiked and climbed to our first rappeling point.

Everyone did great and worked together. In all we did four pitches:

Pitch one was sloping at the top and then had a vertical overhang

Pitch two was a extreme drop off with vertical sloping sides and a narrow landing. In his video Marni makes it look easy

Pitch three was a crack opening to a sloping down crawl with a steep crack at the bottom. At the top our guide setup a belay, but since there was nothing to attach the rope to he used a “meat anchor” which was Sara to start and then me – Ha!

Ben the first to down-climb rope aided

Sara “hanging” out coaching us all through the down-climb

Pitch Four was a rappel down a short rock which narrowed at the bottom because of the pitch and then a hike out of a real narrow slot – so narrow we had to take off our packs and throw them ahead up high so they would clear the next area.

In the afternoon we were looking for something new so we drove to a trail on the north side of the park and hiked on a long 4 wheeler trail into a wide canyon and a stream. It was really great to be by water and get out feet out of our hiking shoes.

Our last day we got up had some food and drove to a trail that was near where we did our canyoneering class however much higher in elevation. The terrain was completely different and the temp was only in the 80’s because of the elevation. We hiked into what seemed like a meadow and the trail dead ended on a huge pile of Lava rocks which formed a lookout into the valley below – it was amazing.

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