19.97 mi / 1:41:22 time / 11.8 mph avg. / 24.0 mph max / 787 ft. climbing / 7 miles hiking

Today was a little easier since I didn’t have to move camp, and I was at the Angel’s Landing trailhead at 9am. Angel’s Landing is a 1500 ft. tower of rock, and I’d been excited about the death-defying trail to the top ever since reading about Zion. However, after doing the great Observation Point hike yesterday, which took me 700 ft. higher, I was a bit concerned that Angel’s Landing would be a letdown.

Boy was I wrong. If the hike we did in Bryce was the best 3 mile hike in the world, a good argument could be made that Angel’s Landing is the best 5 mile hike in the world. It starts simply enough, with a series of long switchbacks taking you from the river into a narrow canyon. Then you hit Walter’s Wiggles, a series of 18 tight, San Francisco-like switchbacks that take you out of the canyon in a hurry. And then suddenly you’re in the open, with a 1000 ft. drop two feet to your right, and a 1000 ft. drop two feet to your left, with only a chain to hold onto to keep you centered. For all intents and purposes, you’re walking along a knife edge, and if the mountain was scaled down to the size of a knife, I bet it would be an extremely sharp one. Your view of the valley below is literally divided in two.

And then you notice, ahead, that the knife drives 500 ft. more, nearly straight up. Here, there are chains everywhere, not as protective fences, but to give you something to grab as you scramble up and down the rock, or to frantically claw at as you’re about to tumble over the edge (I actually grabbed a guy’s arm to steady him as he was about to go!) Finally, the view at the end isn’t as spectacular as Observation Point, but it’s a great place to sit and have some lunch and wonder how you’re going to get back down. Zion is an exceedingly friendly park, at least on the longer trails, with a “hello” on the trail getting a 100% response rate.

After that, the Riverside Walk was a bit of a letdown. Flat and paved, it was predictably packed with huffing fatties and kids mostly excited by begging squirrels. Unfortunately, the “Narrows” section of the trail, which takes you wading through and across the river, was officially closed due to the high water flow, so I couldn’t test out that section to make up for it. Especially when I found out later that there is a $100 fine. So no, there’s no way that I sloshed across the thigh-high, freezing-cold river to find a secluded little spot on the other side hidden from the teeming masses. That simply was not possible, not at all!

Then it was time to relax back at the lodge and do Internet after a relatively short day of hiking. But their Internet, delivered by satellite, wasn’t doing so well, so I rode back into town to the Pioneer Lodge’s “Internet Cafe” (which made me realize that the “Internet Cafe” is soon to become a historical artifact, if it isn’t already, since Internet is now almost as expected at a cafe as food and drink).

Then on the way back to camp, I stopped once more at the amazing mini-mart (which actually had some Indian spices/groceries, which is the closest I’ve seen to an Indian restaurant, Suchi. Also, after leaving Bryce, where we suddenly saw mobs of Indians, I’ve only seen one other group. I guess Swati must attract them!)

Then, just as I was about to ride into my campsite, I saw a couple walking the other way. “Dennis?” I called (no, not that Dennis; I wish!) And yes, amazingly, it was Dennis & Pat, met for the third time in the third park! If our timing had been different by only seconds, we would have had no idea we were camped only a short walk from each other. No site sharing necessary this time, but after they walked to see the hokey Zion movie on a giant screen, they came back to my site and chatted until bedtime. This time, I made sure to mention my campground reservations at the Grand Canyon, and it sounds like we’re not done seeing each other yet!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 8:08 pm and is filed under 2009 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.