You might have seen that we made it to the top, but what you didn’t see was how we got there…

The first section of this hike takes you on a well maintained path that winds up the side. From the moment you start the ascent, the view is breathtaking.   It’s a 2 mile climb to an area call Scout’s Landing – it’s there where you decide if you’re going to go the remaining 0.5 of a mile to the top. Why wouldn’t you go up the remaining .5? Welllll, from Scout’s Landing, it looks daunting when you see what is remaining to reach the top.. Most of the remaining part is 5-10 feet wide but at certain points, it’s no more than 2 feet wide and straight down on the sides. There are chain’s to grasp to secure yourself. Laura left her pack here to reduce weight.

When we made it Scout’s Landing, I looked over at Laura and could tell she was overwhelmed a little at seeing what was ahead. (I actually could tell the day before when I was reading the hike reviews aloud in the car.) But when the moment came, I saw it on her face. Regardless, I ask the rhetorical question anyways. Soooo, what do you think? “Let’s do it. We came this far, right?” Not the answer I expected but she knew I wanted to finish it and didn’t want to be the reason we turn back. (Little did she know I was having conversations with myself, convincing myself that we got this and everything would be fine.) It didn’t help that at the first section of scaling and going up, my water bottle fell out of the side pocket and we watched it plummet down the cliff. OOPS. While there were some shaky moments of doubt, Laura rocked it. She went up first as I followed. There were sections where she scampered up so quickly that left me standing there in amazement. And these were tough sections where your body is pressed against the rock and you need to find a crevice for your hand and then foot to make it up. This happened on more then one occasion. + 1 million for Laura. It sounds challenging…it was challenging…and worth every scratch. The name Angel’s Landing is fitting. Your going to want to make this full screen: http://youtu.be/SLe7omzuX9o It was an amazing experience for both of us. We talked afterwards how we would have been bummed if we had turned back. Looking at some of these pictures, we still can’t believe we did it but wouldn’t hesitate to do Angel’s Landing again…or go back to explore all that Zion has to offer. Any takers?

Elevation: 5,790 feet
Height: 1,488 ft.