Ryan's Chang: Angel's Landing

Thursday night to Friday morning we all slept a lot better. The temperatures were 20 degrees warmer than the night before.

Friday we planned to do Angel's landing. The peak stands alone and is a great look out point that stand almost 1,500 ft above the canyon floor.

We started on the trail at 8:30 and slowly made our ascent up. The crowd in the morning was pretty mellow but it some what reminded me of Koko Crater back home. As we get higher the trail switchbacks and is well maintained; most of it is paved! After an hour of huffing and puffing we reached the point where most people turn around if they are too scared to go on. Some of us had a fear of heights but we all continued on. We put strong hikers in between the afraid ones that didn't think were going to make it, making it safer for them. We coerced our friends up the exposed parts and encouraged them, they were doing well. From here on the trail is more exposed and you have to maneuver around bottlenecks of people. Sheer drops to the canyon floor are present, a chain aids your ascent up and sure footing along the ridge is the only thing from you falling to the canyon floor. Angels Landing is hard to compare to Hawaii hikes because it's so well maintained and not bushy. In my books it's a bit easier than the Ko'olau Summit Trail because it's well maintained.

When we reached the top we sat around with maybe 5 other people but, after twenty minutes there we were surrounded by dozens people. We all took pictures and enjoyed the view for half an hour. Before leaving, the group took a picture and we headed back the way we came.

Now that it was later in the morning there were tons of people on the trail. More bottle necks and more people with just a small water bottle. Paige and I rushed ahead on the way back to get some head on shots of the group crossing a section of the ridge that looked like a saddle. Unfortunately we couldn't get any only our group shots because of the hordes of people.

If you ever decide to do this hike while in Zion I highly suggesting starting early to avoid the crowds. It's well worth the effort to enjoy the summit by yourself or just with a few other people.

We made it back to camp around two and some of the group decided to fit in another hike, Shelf Canyon. I opted to relax and take it easy. My body was sore and needed to rest to do the hike I've been planning to do tomorrow. I also had to pick up the backcountry permit to do the hike tomorrow.

While everyone left I got to enjoy some warm afternoon sun and play some trumps with Grant, Shasta, and Christine. Shelley went to nap, lucky her! Around five the group returned. We did some last minute preparation for the hike tomorrow. Chris was really excited for the hike tomorrow but had to get some neoprene socks before then. The rest of the group rented again from Zion Adventure Company again.

We cooked some chili and rice and sat around the camp fire for the rest of the night. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.