Angel's Landing!

Over Valentine's/President's Day weekend Riley and I had the opportunity to go down to St. George with my dad for a bit of warm weather and hiking. We had planned for several weeks to go down and Angel's Landing at Zion's and were keeping our fingers crossed for good weather. Pretty much anything about 50 degrees and no snow sounded GREAT! It's also a bit early in the season for the hike and we were really worried about there being patches of snow along the crest. It's already a WAY intense hike so to couple that with snow and ice may be a recipe for disaster. Well, long story short we ended up doing the hike! I had the chance to mentally prep for it which turned out to be a blessing. It's so much more challenging that I ever expected! I've never considered myself to have a fear of heights. In fact I typically find it pretty exhilarating (Ie: roller coasters, tall buildings, etc). But I'll be honest, that hike was pretty intense. I think it was less PHYSICALLY difficult and much more EMOTIONALLY challenging. It's a tough thing to wrap your head around when you have 1000+ cliffs on either side of you, and one misstep could be deadly. I'm not exaggerating! There have been 6 "confirmed deaths where suspicious activity was not involved". While I'm not 100% what that means it's still really scary! The hike itself is just over 5 miles roundtrip, so not too terrible distance wise. I definitely got a reality check on the way up though about how out of shape I am. Whooh! The temperature was perfect though. Much warmer and it would have been pretty miserable. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and dad's favorite part was Refrigerator Canyon. You start at the bottom by the river, hike up through the canyon, go on a series of switchbacks called "Walter's Wiggle" and make it to Scout's Lookout. This is typically where most people turn around, the rangers said. Looking to the trail ahead I think all three of us had a few doubts and whether or not we were prepared to do it. But in the end we figured it might be a once in a lifetime experience and I wasn't going to hike back down knowing I didn't make it to the end. Being a long weekend due to President's Day, there were lots of people on the trail. There are parts where it's only 2 feet wide and when you have to wiggle your way around people it gets pretty hairy. Anyway, enough of my ramblings! Time for some pictures!

The view from the bottom! This picture was actually taken AFTER our hike. I think had I taken it prior and really REALIZED how high up it was, I may have had second guesses.



Stopped for a rest/treat at Scout's Lookout prior to heading up the last .5 mile. This was as close as anyone wanted to get to the edge!



Always such a good and willing photography subject...not...



The view from Scout's Lookout



Walter's Wiggles!











The view from the top! One of the most incredibly picturesque things I've ever seen!







After our adventure we rewarded ourselves with a treat at Swig (which was good, but BOO on them for running out of ice cream for my avalanche snow cone...ggrr..) We went back to the house to relax for a bit and then ate dinner at Benja Thai. Yum!

We were both so exhausted from the hike that both Riley and I slept through our alarm on Sunday morning. We had the best intentions of waking up in time to make it back for 1 o'clock church, but it just didn't happen. It worked out well because Uncle Horsehead (Dave) and Aunt Juju (Julie) ended up driving down to St. George and we were able to have lunch with them before taking off.

Looking forward to more adventures in 2014!!