Angel's Landing - May 2017
Summary
Angel’s Landing is an out and back trail in Zion National Park. It is a strenuous trail, offering incredible views and challenge/risks like few other places can.
Where
Angel’s Landing is a trail in Zion National Park which is located in Utah. Depending on where you camp in the park, you will need to leverage some form of public transportation (buses) to get to the trailhead.
Logistics
This is a pretty short trail in mileage, but is very steep and challenging. There is a “point of no return”for this trail where Walter’s Wiggles ends and the true aspect of Angel’s Landing begins. What I mean by this, is a portion of this trail is single file, hold on for life to a steel rope. For many this portion is the end of the trail, but for those that press on, the challenge is worth the risk, at least in my opinion (only 1 person dies on this hike on average per year, while incredibly unfortunate, this risk can be very easily managed).
Hiking
Because of it’s short distance in nature, this is a day hike. In fact, in my experience thus far, I believe this to be the best day hike I have ever done. The views are absolutely breathtaking, the challenge is real and in your face, and the overall sense of accomplishment at the end is hard to beat. You ascend up to the point of Angel’s landing, and then need to descend down, so the going is tough early, and the return back to safe ground is rather straightforward. This is an incredibly popular trail, so starting early is definitely better or visiting off busy season would help with crowd control. This point is very important if you intend to go all the way to the end of the trail, as the single file nature of this hike causes congestion and heightens the risk associated with this trail as people seemed to present more of a danger to me than the trail conditions. The most challenging section of this part of the trail is shown in the video below.
Photos
All of these photos were taken with a DSLR (Canon).
