In October 2003 eight of us visited Zion National Park in Southwestern Utah.  The group included friends and collegues Kari, Amie, Michelle, Scott, Dorian, Simon, Ed and myself.  This was a fast long-weekend trip.  We met in Las Vegas on Friday afternoon and were back in Vegas Sunday night.  We camped in Zion at the Watchman campground and did four short- to medium-length day hikes.  On Saturday we hiked into the Narrows and then to Upper Emerald Pool from the Grotto trailhead.  On Sunday we hiked up Angel's Landing and then to Weeping Rock before heading back to Vegas.

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.  We did the former option hiking in and out from the back of valley.  All in all we probably hiked in about 4 miles for a total round trip of 8 miles.

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.  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.  We had great weather with no chance of rain.  The water was cold but after a little while your feet get a little numb and it gets comfortable.

The Narrows trailhead

Standing (left to right): Simon, Dorian, Michelle, Tom, Ed and Amie

Kneeling (left to right): Scott and Kari

10/25/03

Amie and Ed near the trailhead of the Narrows

Simon and Scott starting the hike.

This picture starts to give a sense of scale.  I think that is Ed and Amie hiking along the Virgin River at

the start of the Narrows (bottom left).  It looks like there is somebody on the other side of the river too

(to the right from Amie and Ed).  As we got further in the canyon narrows even more and the cliffs

rise a little higher.  We were typically spending about half of our time in the water at the beginning of

the hike.  By the time we were 4 miles in we were hiking predominately in the river.

Michelle along the Virgin River

A family of deer were hiking in the Narrows too.  That's Dorian in the red sweatshirt and Scott and Tom further ahead.

Kari dwarfed in the Narrows.  

The rounded out rock to the right of Kari gives an idea of how high the water gets when it rains.

Although the day was sunny with no clouds, the Narrows is so deep and narrow that you pretty much

don't get sunlight unless it is almost straight overhead.  That's part of the danger of hiking in there too.

It is impossible to see if a storm is brewing on the horizon.

Our whole group hiking less Michelle who is taking the picture.  We're deeper

in the Narrows and are almost exclusively hiking in water at this point.

After we finished the hike in the Narrows, we decided to hike to the Upper Emerald Pool.  We started at the

 Grotto Trailhead and finished at the Zion Lodge.  This was a short 2-3 mile hike.  The trail headed

upslope from the canyon floor right away and offered great views down canyon back towards our campsite.

Back at the Visitor's Center after the first day of hiking.  Our campsite was about a quarter

of a mile away towards the rock formation in the background.  Michelle is in the foreground

with the rest of the group in the background.

Angel's Landing - Sunday morning we hiked to Angel's Landing.  This is a relatively 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 ~3 ft wide in spots with vertical drop offs of 1,000 to 1,500 feet on both sides.

Kari, Ed and Tom hiking up Walter's Wiggle's.  These are built-up switchbacks

along the trail right before we reach the knife-edge section of the trail.

10/26/03

Dorian and Kari hiking up along the knife-edge portion of the trail.  Many (but not all) parts of the trail

have a chain.  Although the chain is not on both sides of the trail, it does offer a lot of comfort.

Dorian at the end of the trail at Angel's Landing.  We hung out on the rock up here for about 45 minutes.  The spot

has great 360 degree views up and down valley.  Over Dorian's shoulder at the floor valley is the trailhead for hiking

into the Narrows at the back of the canyon.  Since everybody stops here to rest, check out the views and eat a snack

there are plenty of very aggressive chipmunks around.

That is a 1500 foot vertical drop-off right behind Dorian.

Dorian (red sweatshirt), Tom (standing) and Ed, Amie and Scott (sitting - front to back)

hanging out at the end of the trail at Angel's Landing.

Tom and Michelle at Angel's Landing looking up canyon towards our campsite.

Simon and Dorian at the same spot but not quite as cozy.

Michelle and Ed on Angel's Landing.  The two dark lines on the right of each of these shots

on the canyon floor are the Virgin river and main road through the park.  

The hike down from Angel's Landing is actually more comfortable then the hike up.

Ed, Amie, Kari, Simon and Michelle (from background to foreground) hiking down.

Beyond Ed and Amie is a shear drop-off that goes a long way down.  We are hiking on a white sandstone.

To the right and top of Amie is a stretch of red sandstone.  Our trail descends to the red sandstone and then

goes across it towards the two outhouses (barely visible in the upper right part of the picture).

This whole section is the very exposed part of the trail with very long vertical drop-offs.

(Click Here for a couple of shots looking the other way (i.e. from the outhouses looking towards Angel's Landing))

Dorian heading down Angel's Landing

Nice view looking towards the mouth of the canyon as we headed down the trail

After hiking Angel's Landing on Sunday we did one last very short walk to check out

Weeping Rock.  The tour guides consistently gave inconsistent descriptions of the age of

the water seeping out of this rock ranging from 1200 years old to 4000 years old.

Most of the group is in the bottom right part of the photo.

After finishing the Weeping Rock walk we took the shuttle back to the Visitor's

Center, picked up our cars and headed back to Las Vegas.  None of us had too much luck in Vegas Sunday night.

A lot of the people on the trip had digital cameras.  If anyone sends out links to their shots when they post them on Ofoto or other websites I'll update this page with those links so we have a good central spot to have access to all of our pictures.  I'll send out updates when I update this page.