During the Spring, Summer, and Fall, you cannot drive your own vehicle up Zion Canyon.  The only way to go up into the canyon is walking or on shuttle busses.  This is really a good news bad news thing.  The good news is that many more people can enjoy the canyon in any given day.  Wait, isn’t that the bad news?  It is when they’re mostly Californians.  Can’t we just pass a law that says they have to stay in California?

Seriously, the shuttles aren’t that bad.  They run continuously and you can get on and off at the seven different stops at your own pace. The stops are well situated to the hiking areas.

The very last stop is called Temple of Sinawava.  I love that name.  There’s a trail that goes up to the entrance to the Narrows, a very famous hiking spot.  You have to have the right gear (and a permit) because once inside the narrows, you are hiking in the water.

 

 

This is as far up as I could get and still keep my feet dry.  I may be back with the gear before I leave this area or I may save it for the very certain next time.

 

This is the North Fork of the Virgin River right near the entry to the Narrows.

Weeping Rock.  It isn’t a very good photo ’cause I tried to lighten it up so the weeping would show.  That’s why there’s no sky.  Early in the morning would likely be better light but I can’t be everywhere early in the morning much as I’d like to be.  The “weeping” marks are water running out of the rock face.  They say that the water coming out today fell as rain or snow up to 1500 years ago.  That’s how long it can take to work it’s way down through the layers of rock and sandstone.  Now how do they figure that out?? This has one of the great severe hiking trails but I was saving myself for Angels Landing.

This photo is taken in an area called The Grotto.  It’s also at the trailhead of the Angels Landing Ascent.

 

 

Wait, let’s back up one stop.  If you look right at the bottom of the saddle you can see some specs.  No?  Well take my word for it, they are there.  Hold that thought.

I zoomed this photo so you really can’t get a sense for how far away from it I was when I took it down near the trailhead.  Do you see on that rock face right in the center a cut that runs up from left to right?  That’s where I’m heading and up through that sky above it.

Here’s the view from the cut.  And no, there are no railings.  This is a well made trail but it is not for the faint of heart or body.

Ok, remember the specs?  I was standing on that sand bar down below when I took that picture.  The specs, if you haven’t figured it out, were people.

 

Here’s another shot of the view to the floor of the canyon.  This is looking down from an area called Scout Lookout.  It is at the bottom of the last pitch up to the top of Angels Landing.  The trail has chains affixed to the rock for hanging on.  I looked at that and decided it was not for me.  It was full of people all trying to move past each other going up and down.  I was tired and the trail itself had tested my vertigo enough.  It has two pitches of very steep switchbacks, one below the cut I showed you and one going up to Scout Lookout.  It’s 2 and a half miles and 1400 feet of ascent.  It’s so steep that going down is a workout as well.  Angels Landing was a test of my physical and mental will.  Oh, did I mention that, on average, a person dies on Angels Landing every other year?

Taken on the descent.  The cut is right around the corner of that rock face on the right.

 

 

 

 

Remember the first shot from the morning in Chapter 1?  I returned to the spot as promised.  It was hard getting back down to this spot because I was spent from the Angels Landing ascent.  But I loved this spot and was determined.  It was worth the trip.

 

          

 

Last shot of the day.  This is called Checkerboard Rock because it has  horizontal cuts in it from rock layers and vertical cuts in it from years of water rivulets.  This isn’t the best angle to see it but it’s the shot I liked the best.