Zion is the 3rd most visited national park in the country and the one we took the least photos of and hiked the most (only 189 pics but 16.97 miles)... However it's one of the few places I feel the need to visit again. While I don't regret not "hiking" Angels Landing and joining in the chaos, next time we will hike The Narrows trail through the Virgin River.
The first thing we did when we got there was hike the Canyon Overlook trail just before you enter the Zion-Mt Carmel tunnel. We just missed the sunrise, (which would have been incredible) and I'm glad we did it but in hindsight we should have gone straight to their only big parking lot by the visitors' center so we wouldn't have had to pay to park 2 miles away in town take the city shuttle to the entrance, wait in line to get in and then wait to get on the park shuttle. :/
the tunnel is 1.1 miles long and only open 1 way to traffic
Then we joined the line of traffic making our way through to park and catch the shuttle...
one of the "windows" in the tunnel
After getting the parking situation dealt with, we joined the throngs of people on the West Rim trail to Scout Lookout... (I can't imagine doing this in the summer!)
The trail leads up to the top of the low spot between the two big rocks... 😦
We could just make out the other hikers making their way to the top...
But we enjoyed the level trail while we had it... :)
Because the we were at Walter's Wiggles... 😩
But at the very top was Zion's iconic Angels Landing. I wasn't sure I could do it before we left home and when we got there I was absolutely sure I couldn't! 😲
We opted to skip the chaos and chains and continue hiking up the West Rim trail...
This is our happy we're not climbing up that thing behind us shot... 😜
This was taken by a couple of overnight backpackers we met on the trail
I'm sure the view from Angels Landing is incredible, but our view from the top of the hill looking down on it was pretty amazing, too! 😍
After our hot and sweaty, but thankfully downhill, hike back we got back on the shuttle to The Temple of Sinawava, named after the coyote god of the Paiute Indians. This is also where the Riverside Walk to the start of The Narrows is...
You know when people randomly stop in the middle of the trail and look up, it must be something...
It was rock climbers!
The Riverside Walk was a nice easy trail after the last one...
Don't know what it is but we saw a couple of them on this trail. 😖
Our last hike of the day was to Lower Emerald Pool...
And at the end of the day we were able to enjoy a very nice view, some great beers, a live band and a good dinner at Zion Brewery AND catch the shuttle back to our car!
