Location: Zion National Park
Start Elevation: 4,276 ft.
Angels Landing Elevation: 5,787 ft.
Elevation Gain: 1,511 ft.
Round-trip Mileage: 4.00 mi.
TRIP REPORT
We drove this morning from Las Vegas into Zion. We headed through the Visitor Center, asked some questions about the trails and shuttles, and headed onto the Zion shuttles. We rode up to the Grotto stop and there we hopped out onto the Angels Landing trail. We enjoyed a beautiful hike along the Virgin River for the first half mile and started getting great views of the canyon walls around us. Sarah had to do a time out on the hike about a mile in as the switchbacks started and the trail got steeper heading up into Refrigerator Canyon. I headed on ahead and cruised along the trail. With a half mile to go on the trail you reach Scout Lookout and the remaining trail heads up a narrow ridge to Angels Landing. At this point there are steep dropoffs around the trail and chain ropes to hang onto (for safety and piece of mind). It was a beautiful trail to the top. It took 1:20 to get to the top, only 40 minutes on the way down. Atop Angels Landing one gets some of the best views of Zion Canyon. Angels Landing sorta sits right in the middle of the canyon and gives you great views down three different parts of the canyon.After I cruised down from atop Angels Landing I met up with Sarah again just above where I had left her earlier. We hiked down the remainder of the Angels Landing trail together and then hopped on the shuttle again. We rode it to the north end of the canyon at the Temple of Sinawava. The canyon was narrow at this point and we got out and walked to the river's edge.
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| Zion Canyon from Angel's Landing |
VIDEOS:
Below are two videos hosted on Youtube. The first video is from above Scout Lookout giving an idea of what the upper portion of the hike looks like. The view of Angels Landing is daunting in what the perceived difficulty of the hike will be. The second video is from atop Angels Landing giving great views of Zion Canyon.TRACK:
I took a GPX track from the hike of Angels Landing. There are a few short segments of the track missing as the GPS had bad reception and missplaced several points. I used a GPX editor to remove the bad segments and put it into KML for download.My Track
PHOTOS:
Here are photos from the hike. They are hosted on Picasa and clicking any photo will take you to the full-size version. |
| Angel's Landing as seen from the trailhead |
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| Nearing the top of the first major set of switchbacks which then leads into Refrigerator Canyon |
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| Above the switchback from the last picture now looking into Refrigerator Canyon |
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| This is looking up from the famous "Walter's Wiggles" |
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| From Scout Lookout looking south |
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| Getting ready to head into the more dangerous section. A sign warns of the exposure ahead |
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| The ridge leading out to Angels Landing is indeed narrow and the "trail" keeps you righto n the crest of it |
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| A narrow section with a sheer drop-off on the side. You can see in the pic some of the chains put in place for safety and piece of mind |
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| On another section of the ridge crest |
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| Another example of the chains and the narrow trail they keep you on |
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| Nearing the top finally |
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| My "money shot" from Angels Landing catching the grandeur of Zion Canyon |
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| Looking north along the path taken |
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| An example of the sheer dropoffs on all sides |
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| On the descent I could see Sarah on the trail down below waiting for me |
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| A look at the amazing switchbacks which pick up a lot of elevation in a short amount of space. This is below Refrigerator Canyon heading down towards the trailhead |
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