Thursday, August 30, 2012

First full day in Zion

Thursday, 8/29

Hard for me to wake up this morning!  But, we were on the shuttle at the visitor's center by 7:45am to ride to the Grotto for our hike up to Angel's Landing.  This is one of the most popular hikes in the whole park, and one is warned constantly that the end of the hike is treacherous, sometimes deadly, and not for those with fear of heights.   Since Nils is not a big fan of unprotected high places, we decided to get ourselves up to Scout's Landing and then just do as much of the final crazy ascent as we could stomach.  And that's what we did.   There was switchback after switchback going up, up, up--and then there was Walter's Wiggle, a series of 21 very sharp and short switchbacks built by one of the first directors of the Park.   Really incredible!  PHOTO 32
Lisa (and another hiker) on the switchbacks---there are lots more that you can't see
We braved the beginning of the Angel's Landing climb (aided by the heavy chain "railings" cemented into the sandstone)
Here's Nils, holding on tight to the chain
PHOTOS 24/25
Lisa holding onto the chain and striking a pose
Coming down was actually much worse than going up, as you had to look down behind you to find the next foot-hold, and that ended up being a little dizzy-making.  There were a lot of intrepid climbers who made it to the top, but just as many who opted, as we did, to only do a short section of the crazy part (or none of it at all).  The pictures don't really do justice to how narrow and dangerous it is (in other words, Death with a capital "D").

Anyway, it was a great climb on a beautiful clear and cool morning.  Coming down all the switchbacks with gravity helping you for a change is really lovely.
Now you can see that "Walter's Wiggle" goes on and on and on....
 PHOTOS 41/48/51

Majestic view of Angel's Landing
This is Walter's Wiggle from a distance...we climbed up (and down) the whole thing
We did the whole trail except for the knife-edge after the orange line is broken in this photo (from the web).  Note:   At least 6 people have died  in the last 10 years while attempting this climb.
Tomorrow we're planning to do The Narrows....there's only a low chance of flash flood and we have our wooden walking sticks (for $9.99 each)  already (our fancy metal ones would probably just get bent and ruined along the way).    On to Springdale and some wi-fi time at the Springdale library just south of Zion.

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