THE GRAND CIRCLE
Part One: Zion National Park
Angel’s Landing
Our journey began when we all landed in the infamous, Las Vegas. From exploring the strip to dancing through the night it all ended with my wallet being $60 lighter from the Blackjack tables. With pockets a little lighter and a mild headache we finally hired the car, it was the start to a month of awesomeness!
First stop, Zion National Park. It was dark by the time we were on the road but as soon as we got there we set up camp then hit the sleeping bags for an early start. Little did we know that awaiting our arrival would be beautifully carved earthy mountains, like those of a painting. The air was dry, dusty and cold...so cold! We were definitely on the tail end of autumn and slowly transitioning to winter.
Our plan for the day was to hike the famous Angel’s Landing but first we needed to stop by the visitor center to get our permits for The Subway and a map for our hike. These permits were booked in advance and thanks to Ryan (who booked this 3 months in advance) we picked it up and the ranger to briefed us on that hike. Will talk more about that hike later in the blog.
Angel’s Landing is a 5 mile (8km) return trip with some scary climbing and ball tingling drops. I mean, I’m scared of heights and this hike surely tested that.
Just look at that! You are literally 2 step away from painting this picturistic place with a splash of red. It's scary but nonetheless amazing. From the next step to the next hold you feel yourself holding yourself tensing everything. Then you look up... Bam! That view hit me right in the soul! So deep, beautiful…. Nah jokes aside. It was beautiful! We had finally made it to the top.
We stopped at the top to have some lunch. Best thing about hiking is sitting down and having lunch with a view like this but the worst is how your legs feels the next two days.
Heading down wasn’t as scary as going up, so I thought.
We all got down safely, got to camp, cooked dinner (Will be doing a blog about this soon. “Easy camp food”), and hit the hay for another early day. THE SUBWAY!
The Subway
We were really excited about this hike! We did the “bottom-up” trail with a warning from the ranger saying it was a strenuous 9-mile round-trip hike through the Left Fork of North Creek that requires route finding, creek crossing, and scrambling over boulders (she even recommend we carry our sleeping bags). As I said before, it was cold, so we hired a pair neoprene socks just to protect our feet from the freezing creek water. Hiring a pair was only $9+ at Zion Outfitters and boy were we happy we did that! There’s is no way of avoiding the water so if you are doing this hike, I recommend jumping in the water to get it over with.
Throughout the 3 hours we felt the freezing water (thank god for the socks), found beautiful photo opportunities and we had finally arrived at the mouth of The Subway! The pools were created from the running water and I was told that’s how the subway was formed. With millions of years of water flowing thus creating this beautiful natural structure.
As you can see both hikes were unique and both with spectacular views. From the cliff dwelling scramble to narrow canyons filled with pools, Zion is definitely worth checking out. Our memories of Zion National Park are forever ingrained in our lost souls.