Zion National Park,
Utah,
United States
Friday, August 1, 2008
Southern Utah = Awesome! Five national parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands. I'll just say it up front: look at the pictures for these. Words are useless here. Zion and Bryce Canyon are in Southwestern Utah. I can best describe Zion as Yosemite in the desert. Zion Canyon is a giant desert canyon with thousand foot cliff walls towering above it. Rising smack dab out of the middle of the canyon is a fifteen hundred foot rock formation known as Angel's Landing, one of two premiere hikes in the park. To avoid the crowds, I headed out for Angel's Landing at daybreak on August 1. It only took about an hour and a half to get to the top, but the last forty five minutes really tested the nerves. As with Half Dome in Yosemite, the park service places cables on Angel's Landing to assist with the hike. Unlike Half Dome, however, there is only one set of cables (i.e., no parallel set of cables like on Half Dome), and the cliffs literally drop off on both sides over a thousand feet. The Leap of Faith is a small section of the hike that is only a few feet wide with sheer drops on both sides. Scary. This one really got the adrenaline going, and the summit provided unreal 360 degree views of Zion Canyon. I would have loved to have spent more time in Zion, but I had four more parks to hit.
Bryce Canyon may be the most unique park I saw all summer. It's not really a canyon, but rather a plateau that is eroding away. You can drive and/or hike along the rim for miles, and below you will find amazing rock spires and formations. Bryce is a fairly small park and can easily be done in a day.
