Zion National Park Hiking

It wasn’t until two years ago, 2014, when I went to go check out the famous Zion National Park and the hype was completely intuitive. The landscape was just incredibly beautiful, and the trails varied so much that the park is pretty much perfect for any type of person. There are easier trails if you are looking for a mile or two, there are trails that go for heights if you want to feel a little adrenaline, there are trails immersed in water, trails underground and also longer distance trails designed for backpacking. This park has got it all!

When I went, I ended up camping for four days and took day trips on the trails, and all trails I went on were so different. I loved it. The park is extraordinary. And I can’t wait to go again. I have some unfinished business with the subway. A place where I didn’t get to see.

My favorite hike is the infamous Angels Landing. I only say infamous because it is one of the most dangerous hikes in the World! I didn’t think it was that bad. I thoroughly enjoyed it and so do thousands of other people each year, but if you are afraid of heights, you may want to skip this one. At this one part, you are literally walking on like a 1,000 foot ledge with shear straight down walls, on both sides of you! It’s awesome!!!

There are numerous fixed holes into the rocks with ropes to help you get to the top of this hike. It would be much tougher with out the support systems. These are two pictures showing you the shear wall. People have died from this hike. Since 2004, 6 people have fallen to their deaths on this trail. It is a beautiful hike, with gorgeous views, but if you are not careful, it could be one of the last views you see, (not to sound morbid or anything.) Once you get on top of this hike, this is your view.

The classic view of Zion National Park. This is the view if you turn around.

And this is Angels Landing when you are at the bottom, looking up at it.

It definitely is a unique hike. It’s 2.4 miles long, one-way,  with a 1,500 feet elevation gain. Hope you enjoy it!

Another trail I tried out was the well known hike, The Narrows. This hike is very different from Angels Landing. Instead of being afraid of heights, this time you are afraid of drowning. This hike goes on for 16 miles one-way, but you do not have to hike the whole 16 miles. In fact only few people do. You need a permit to do so and the park only allows a few amount of people to overnight it a day.

This “trail” is between 1,000 foot canyon walls and can flood fast! Because of this, when it rains, the trail is closed due to flash floods. Even if it rains north of Zion, the park still closes the trail. People have unfortunately died here too. Just in 2015, seven people died from a flash flood in September. Even though the park does their best to prevent deaths, mother nature can still be unpredictable at times.

The Narrows is another trail that Zion has to offer that is both unique and beautiful. There really is no trail. The majority of it is submerged under water. The trail varies to where the water level is sometimes a couple inches, then a couple feet, then a couple more feet, until  you are placing your first foot forward to feel if there is ground for your next step. If not, figure your way around it, or swim. You can obviously stop at anytime you feel uncomfortable, or if you feel like you seen enough of the narrows and then head back out. I went a few miles and then I turned around. It was getting a little too claustrophobic for me being between high canyon walls where it can rain anytime and then have no where to go. Even though the statistics show Angels Landing being one of the most dangerous hikes in the world, for some reason it didn’t phase me, one bit, but the Narrows did a number on me. I don’t know if I would have made the whole 16 mile journey if hypothetically I did have that permit. I’m glad I did it though. 

Another hike in Zion that was marvelous was Observation Point. This hike is the highest point in the park you can go that is on an actual hiking trail. It has a similar view of Angels Landing, looking right into the canyon, but you are higher and this hike is farther back into the canyon so you can look deeper into it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             This is the view when you reach the high-point and it’s fantastic. What’s also great about this hike is, for me at least, the whole trail was beautiful. This is part of the trail when you are at lower elevations.

So I pretty much just talked about the more advance and more difficult trails. The Emerald Pools trail is my favorite shorter hike. There is lower emerald pools and upper emerald pools. I took my mom on this hike because it is one of the easier hikes to do in the park.

Here you can see the bridge you take to get over the Virgin River. This trail begins at the Zion Lodge, or the Grotto.

You pretty much go uphill the entire time till you reach the Lower Emerald Pools. At that point you decide if you want to continue to do the Upper Emerald Pools. It is an extra .8 miles to hike the Upper Emerald  Pools round trip.

Overall, I just had a great experience hiking in Zion. There were so many things to see. One of my favorites were the sunrises. 
There was also a great bus system to tour the park which is also a plus. You get to learn a lot of geological information for FREE!

And the Virgin River that helped cave the park is very pretty! It gives the park some diversity with the lush green environment.

If you want they offer Horse Back Riding right along the river.

 And last but not least, another one of my favorite parts about the park, its plants and animal life.

Baby Fawn!!!!!!!

There are more trail in the park, some of them I hiked, but these were my favorites! The trails just offered so much diversity. But like I said…. The Subway and I have some unfinished business. If your looking for a topo on the area you can click here. Thanks for reading and I hope this helped 🙂

Thank you for reading!

Sincerely,

Shelly/Livingonthedirt