Zion National Park - Day #2

A few months ago, I registered for the Angel's Landing hike permit lottery and won! So today was our day to hike it. We left our hotel around 7:30am, took the Springdale town shuttle to the entrance of Zion NP, walked across the bridge into the park, and then hopped on the park bus to the Grotto shuttle stop. We were so glad that our permits to hike were for today since the weather was much improved from yesterday. The hike started off flat, but quickly began to ascend. As we gained elevation, there was more and more snow on the ground as well. We made it to the section of the trail known as Walter's Wiggles before the trail became icy. Luckily, we had brought our crampon spikes, so before we entered the restricted "permit only" part of the hike, we put them on. The hike was not that difficult; however, it was slow going at times due to the single file nature of the trail. We saw lots of people hiking in just hiking boots without crampons and even some in sneakers. I don't think we would have attempted it without spikes - too dangerous!!

We're starting to gain some elevation

There was more snow on the ground the higher we hiked

The beginning of the "permit required" section of the hike

We're heading for the top of this cliff!

Almost there!

Looking back at the trail we had just hiked

When we got to the top, we had the whole place to ourselves for a few minutes and the views were simply spectacular! 

Coming back down was less scary, as much of the snow and ice had melted. It was lunchtime by the time that we made it back down to the canyon floor, so we rode the shuttle back to the lodge where we enjoyed our lunch at an outside table. 

Descending Walter's Wiggles

After lunch, we rode the shuttle to the bus stop near the Court of Patriarchs. The Court of Patriarchs are three peaks that tower over the Zion Canyon. We took the short but steep trail that afforded a great view.

The Court of Patriarchs

On the Court of Patriarchs Trail

We decided that we wanted to explore more of the eastern side of Zion NP, so we went back to our hotel, got our car, drove back into the park, and headed through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel to the Canyon Overlook Trail. We did the 1-mile trail that took us to an amazing viewpoint overlooking Zion Canyon. 

From the east side of Zion Canyon

It was a tad windy at the Canyon Overlook Viewpoint

We then drove back into town and had a yummy dinner at the Bit & Spur. Tomorrow, we drive back to Las Vegas to fly home to Fresno.

Zion National Park - park #27 is in the books!