Weekend at Zion's

What a treat to see Zion National Park last weekend with the young men from our ward! We left Thursday morning and made the nearly 7 hr drive to Springdale, UT, the little town at the entrance of the park. Luckily, my Dad's joint advisor to the priests has a great connection and his in-laws own a hotel and restaurant right in Springdale, so this high adventure trip was also high living, as we stayed in the hotel and ate in the restaurant for the weekend. We came out with 14 boys and 8 adults, including my Mom and I.


Friday we got up and got breakfast at the Switchback restaurant, the perfect start to a day of activity. Then we drove into the park and hopped on the shuttle that took us to the temple of sinawava stop, and we took the trail to the narrows.I found it the ideal hiking situation, mingling hiking with swimming, and constant refreshment from the nice cool water. I was super glad I had the hiking pole too, those rocks in the water are difficult to navigate!
Saturday we set out for the hike everyone was nervous about, even in the shuttle the recording deems Angel's Landing "perilous". So not exactly knowing what to expect, we set out to scale to the top of this red rock mountain. Here you can see the snakelike pattern of the first part of the trail.

And then you progress onto these other switchbacks...

before you reach the last leg, which is indeed the perilous part, with dropoffs on one or both sides, cables to prevent you from falling to your death, and no real "trail".