Day 288: Zion National Park
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Monday May 23rd
On our second morning in Zion, we awoke at the normal time so we could get an early start on the hike we had planned. After breakfast, 8 of us set out via shuttle to the national park. We alighted at the second last stop to start the Angels Landing hike. It was considered a strenuous hike but was only 5km long, although the last 600 metres was on a five foot wide path with sheer drops on either side!
The hike wasn’t as bad as expected for a ‘strenuous’ hike – we were all puffing, but the switchbacks made the incline relatively gentle. We stopped for photos at numerous times along the path, and then made it to the top of the first cliff, before the sheer terror of the five foot wide path began. Paula and I decided to sit it out – we’d already made it to the top of one cliff, how different could another one be?
The other six all safely made their way up and back in about an hour, showing us pictures of their planking and extreme push-ups (we really need to send them to the Herald Sun!) over lunch. As we made our way down, we found an extremely cool narrow switchback, so we all sat on a different wall and had our photo taken by a stranger (others were also taking photos of us, as it was a really cool look!) I then joined Mike and Lucy in running down the mountain – considering I had a backpack on, it was a decent effort!
It was about midday and we weren’t quite ready to head back into town, so we did decided to do a few of the easy hikes around the waterfalls that the others had done that morning. The waterfalls weren’t really that impressed, and about 2pm we caught the shuttle back to the visitor’s centre. After a quick look in the bookstore and souvenir store (where I bought the coolest ‘sand’ dome), we were too exhausted to hit up the town, only making it to the smoothie store within the park. I scored a chocolate milkshake which was divine (surprisingly, as Americans don’t really do milkshakes), whilst Lucy had a massive ice-cream sundae.
I was asleep on my feet on the way back to the campground, and as soon as I was back in the tent my head was on the pillow and asleep. I didn’t feel too crash hot either, which didn’t help. After a few hours’ sleep, I joined the rest of the gang for dinner, showered, did my laundry, and then returned to bed. (It’s so nice to have my own tent to return to!)
On our second morning in Zion, we awoke at the normal time so we could get an early start on the hike we had planned. After breakfast, 8 of us set out via shuttle to the national park. We alighted at the second last stop to start the Angels Landing hike. It was considered a strenuous hike but was only 5km long, although the last 600 metres was on a five foot wide path with sheer drops on either side!
The hike wasn’t as bad as expected for a ‘strenuous’ hike – we were all puffing, but the switchbacks made the incline relatively gentle. We stopped for photos at numerous times along the path, and then made it to the top of the first cliff, before the sheer terror of the five foot wide path began. Paula and I decided to sit it out – we’d already made it to the top of one cliff, how different could another one be?
The other six all safely made their way up and back in about an hour, showing us pictures of their planking and extreme push-ups (we really need to send them to the Herald Sun!) over lunch. As we made our way down, we found an extremely cool narrow switchback, so we all sat on a different wall and had our photo taken by a stranger (others were also taking photos of us, as it was a really cool look!) I then joined Mike and Lucy in running down the mountain – considering I had a backpack on, it was a decent effort!
It was about midday and we weren’t quite ready to head back into town, so we did decided to do a few of the easy hikes around the waterfalls that the others had done that morning. The waterfalls weren’t really that impressed, and about 2pm we caught the shuttle back to the visitor’s centre. After a quick look in the bookstore and souvenir store (where I bought the coolest ‘sand’ dome), we were too exhausted to hit up the town, only making it to the smoothie store within the park. I scored a chocolate milkshake which was divine (surprisingly, as Americans don’t really do milkshakes), whilst Lucy had a massive ice-cream sundae.
I was asleep on my feet on the way back to the campground, and as soon as I was back in the tent my head was on the pillow and asleep. I didn’t feel too crash hot either, which didn’t help. After a few hours’ sleep, I joined the rest of the gang for dinner, showered, did my laundry, and then returned to bed. (It’s so nice to have my own tent to return to!)
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