In May 1995 we visited Phoenix, Sedona and Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks in Utah.  Zion was the highlight of the trip and remains one of our favorite parks.  It has a steep valley like Yosemite Valley but the rock is a reddish sandstone.  Two of our favorite and most memorable hikes are in Zion.

Angel's Landing - This is a quick 5 mile round trip hike that ends in great views down and up valley.  The last 1/4 to 1/2 mile is along a knife edge that narrows down to ~6 ft wide with vertical drop offs of 1,000 to 1,500 feet on both sides.

The Narrows - This is a wonderful hike through the river in the back of the valley.  The canyon walls narrow down to 10-20 feet apart while rising up vertically 1,000 to 1,500 feet.  For a one-way hike, take a shuttle out of the park, drop into the canyon, and walk 16 miles in the river back into the park.  For a shorter round trip, go to the back of valley in the park and wander into the Narrows as far as you would like to go and then turn back.

Hikers are only allowed into the Narrows about 3 months out of the year.  During the other nine months,  the water level is too high to hike or the chance of thunderstorms is too great to hike safely.  The high water level can be seen in the picture below - maybe 30-40 feet up on the rocks on the right side of the picture.  If a storm rolled in, a hiker would have little warning since they have no view of the horizon and no place to take refuge from the rising river.