Zion - Friends Trip

Ok, so about a week and a half ago I punched vacation time for the first time in my life. Why? Because I was going to Zion National Park for the week!!! I drove down on Tuesday morning with a group of friends from my apartment complex. Once we got there we set up camp and then headed up to hike "Angel's Landing". It was so fun!! I've always heard about this hike but I've never done it. It is pretty steep but totally worth it. For the last half mile of the hike you have to hold on to chains because it is such a narrow steep trail (hardly a trail) and there is an 800 ft cliff on one side and a 1200 ft cliff on the other side. Oh ya, and the ridge you are hiking on is only 3-4 ft wide at points. I don't really know why I liked this hike so much, but I did.

Bryce and Jake coming down.

Notice the ridge they are on.

Climbing up one of the crevices

Some of the switchbacks coming up

A view of looking down the cliff wall.

Notice the river at the bottom.

After the hike we went back to camp and made dinner. Roasted hot dogs and dutch oven cobbler of course. Yum. After eating, we waited til about 11pm for it to be dark and then went and laid in a field to watch the meteor shower!! That's one of my favorite parts of camping, looking at the stars.

The next day, we woke up, made breakfast and headed back up the canyon and hiked The Narrows!! Easily one of my favorite hikes EVER. Basically you walk a mile on a paved trail and it takes you to the point of the virgin river where it just winds through the canyon and there is no land between the canyon walls. You hike upstream and then once you turn around you, obviously, you go down stream. It is actually a really long hike if you do the whole thing, but most people just go upstream til they feel like turning around. I would say we probably went about two-three miles upstream before turning around, but man I could have gone all day, it gets prettier and prettier at every turn, I love it. On the way back down we floated, which I love. A lot of people won't float, but it was deep enough and had a good current that I was happy to do it. It's hard to float without flotation devices, but totally doable, just keep your butt up. Anyways, it was tons of fun and I loved it. After that, we were done and everybody else went home and I went to St. George.

Bryce and Austin

Waiting for a turn to jump. This is a spot where

you can jump of the rock and it's deep enough you won't hit.

Fact. When it gets this deep...it gets cold.

Pretty slot canyon we found

Floating