The main objective for today was to hike as far up the Angel's Landing trail as we felt comfortable with. We were going to do it yesterday, however it was late enough that we would be going up during the hottest part of the day, which we wanted to avoid.
We left the campground around 10:00 & got off the canyon shuttle at the Grotto. The first part of the hike along the river isn't too bad, but it soon starts to climb. You hit a series of switch backs that tend to tire & overheat you, but you soon reach Refrigerator Canyon, a section of the hike that is fairly flat & well shaded, at least in the morning. It actually cools you down for the next part - Walter's Wiggles. This is another series of switch backs, steeper than the first ones, and end at Scout Lookout, the part of the trail that switches over to rock scrambling holding onto chains anchored to the walls.
I was well ahead of Don & Anne, so I decided to try the first section of chains called the Neck. Actually, the climb along the neck isn't anywhere near as difficult as hauling my 66 year old body up the switch backs. You move slowly enough that you don't run out of breath, and, as long as you aren't nervous looking down hundreds of feet below your feet, it's easy. The big problem is it was so full of climbers that you had to wait 10 - 15 minutes to get a turn in the sections that required the chains. I suppose you could just bull your way up, but there were people coming down, which I found more difficult, and I just felt compelled to wait for them. There were some individuals that just couldn't wait and pushed their way up - scaring the hell out of those coming down.
In any case, I did make it up to the top of the Neck where you have a great view of Angel's Landing, but didn't climb the final .4 miles to Angel's Landing itself. I'll probably kick myself in the future for not finishing; it wasn't the difficulty, it was just too busy. After I took some photos I came back down the Neck & met Don & Anne arriving at Scout Lookout. We also took a short hike along the West Rim Trail to a section that overlooks both Angel's Landing & the Big Bend shuttle stop. That was the location from which we took photos of the Angel's landing Trail yesterday. It sure looks different from the other end!
More pictures of the climb at Today's Lakeshore Images Post.
After returning to the Grotto, we took the next stop down for a late lunch at the restaurant at the Zion Lodge. Don & I had the Taco Buffet while Anne had a Bison Burger. Although a bit more expensive than the snack bar downstairs, the food was much better!
We stopped at the Court of the Patriarchs for a couple of photos, and also caught a few of the wild turkeys that live there. After that it was back to the campground for a much needed break. So far we have done about 10 miles of the trails in the park. Since I read somewhere that there are 800 miles in the park I guess we have a few more to go. Since we are leaving tomorrow, we will have to miss most of them!
Till then -
It is a great hike, I remember we started around 7AM to climb to avoid the heat on the way up.
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