Angel's Landing is now a permitted trail. I am not surprised because there have been some deaths from people falling, 17 to be exact. I think having the permits helps control the crowds. Angel's Landing is also on Rhett's bucket list. I tried getting us passes through the seasonal lottery but no luck. My last chance was to try for the daily passes. We got them but the hard part with that is that you do not know you got them until 4pm the day before. We had our plans organized to leave in the morning if it was a go. We drove straight there and got on the hike at noon. Neither of us have been to Zions National Park. It was just as beautiful as I thought it would be. Luckily we were able to find parking in the lot in the park. We jumped on the bus and it dropped us off at the trailhead.
Now Angle's Landing is Rhett's bucket list not mine. I am very afraid of heights I told him I would go are far as I felt comfortable. The first part of the trail was just switchbacks. It was a beautiful day and pretty warm. My cute husband saw a lady on the trail that did not have water. Once again (like at the Grand Canyon) he gave her one of his water bottles. She was very grateful and instantly became our friend. It was fun talking to her at first but we quickly realized she was a bit of a know it all but in a bad way. We kept giving each other the eye, knowing the other was just as amused by her "knowledge". We all made it to the top where starts the part where you have to hold onto the chains. Of course my heart starts pounding as I read the warning sign about how people have lost their lives. (Not the best motivator to continue on the trail) I did go up the first three chains, before the drop off came. One of my height fear symptoms is that my palms get sweaty. Well they were very sweaty to the point I could barely hold on to the chain. Then as I'm looking up I see a row of people coming down and the people going up had to let go of the chain. That did it for me, I was done. Another symptom I have when I get nervous from the heights is my eyes start to feel like they are blacking out. I just see myself barley hanging on from the sweaty palms and black out. I found me a nice spot in the shade while I waited for Rhett. He was reluctant to go at first begging me to go with him. I told him this was his dream and he would have a lot more enjoyment not coaxing me the whole time.
After awhile he was back, he said he loved it and that I would have hated it. So I was really glad I bowed out. If you look down a few pictures you can see where he took some of the trail. The one of him jumping was at the end. He had someone take it, they thought he was crazy. Let's just say Rhett is not afraid of heights at all. We took in the views for a bit then headed back down the trail. We lost track of the water lady until we came across this small group looking at a rattle snake. We were all taking pictures and she walks up spatting off a bunch of information using the scientific name of the snake. The group looked at her like she was crazy. I seemed interested again and wished her a good trip.
We decided to take the bus to the top of the road. We got off at the last stop and walked up to river path to the narrows trailhead. By this time is was starting to get dark. We really only had time for the one hike. We walked back out and caught the bus back to the car. We did take a breathtaking drive through a part of the park where we went through two tunnels. We turned around and went back through the park to leave because we didn't know where that road went. I definitely want to go to Zions again when we have more time to explore.
We booked a last minute hotel in St George. We only had the one day because we were headed to Las Vegas the next day to see Pink in concert, and U2 the day after that. It's going to be a fun weekend for sure.
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