Angel's Landing and West Rim Trail

[Found a better signal. Writing this post from my laptop :) Also, I added a few photos to last night's post.]

Did I mention it's hot here? Guessing it was in the mid-80's in the shade when we ate dinner last night. Dropped to (maybe) the upper 60's overnight. Fortunately, we have a couple small fans that run off the auxiliary battery in the van. Despite the heat, we both slept pretty well.

Alarm went off at 5:55am MT. Oatmeal and coffee for breakfast as we packed up for the day. 

The only way you can get to the upper regions of the park is to take a shuttle or ride your bike (or walk). Due to Covid, the shuttle requires a $1 ticket/reservation for a 1-hour departure window (you can get off and back on as often as you want after initial departure). We had tickets for 7-8am and were on a bus at 7am. Several of the stops are closed (again, due to Covid). We got off at The Grotto, which is the launch point for hikes to Angels Landing - likely the most iconic hike in Zion. 

We were on the trail at 7:30 and hiked a fairly steep 2 miles to Scout's Lookout, at the base of Angel's Landing. The last stretch of Angel's Landing is a steep, narrow hike along the 'spine' of a ridge. There's a chain rail to hold onto, but to this height-fearing hiker, it looks terrifying (Scout's Landing is also known as 'Chicken-out Point'; there's a sign at the start of the hike that 10 people had died in falls since 2004). We knew going up that this section of the trail was closed (again, Covid). Karri was disappointed. I was relieved. :)

Fortunately, we had read that the trail continues up to the West Rim of the canyon and to some spectacular views down to Angel's Landing and other sections of the park. The trail was mostly empty and spectacular.

West Rim Trail

Early lunch stop in the shade

At the 4 mile (total) mark, we stopped for lunch, then decided to head back down before it got too hot. 

Angel's Landing from the Western Rim Trail. Zoom in (lower right) to see the switchbacks known as 'The Wiggles' that we hiked on the way up

Back at the Grotto, we decided to hike an additional half mile down to Zion Lodge, which looks like it would be a great spot to stay in non-pandemic times. It was open, but some of it's best features (e.g. a shaded patio restaurant) are closed. We hopped a shuttle and were back at the base before 1pm. Checked in at the visitor center to plan tomorrow's adventure, then headed back to camp. 

Post-hike ice bath (did I mention it's hot??!)

We relaxed in the shade at the campsite, then biked into the nearby (.5mi) town of Springdale for a (much-needed-and-very-much-enjoyed) shower, beers at the local brewery on their mist-cooled patio, a stronger-data-signal-enabled-wifi-hotspot, and some blog(!) and photo updates.

Yep - we're the laptop geeks at the brew pub

It's 3:45pm. After another beer (it's quite comfy here!) we'll pick up some more ice to take back to the campsite. Happy hour, fajitas for dinner, maybe a short bike ride, then early to bed!

We don't have shuttle tickets for tomorrow. We're planning to bike up to a trailhead near one of the closed shuttle stops - hoping we'll have the trail to ourselves.

Finally, a couple new data points I'm hoping to add to daily posts...

Hiking: ~8.5mi

Biking ~1mi

Song spot: The Promised Land