Zion

Location: Zion National Park, Utah

It is hard to capture the enormity of the Grand Canyon -- it is too wide, too deep, and too immense. Likewise, Zion is difficult to capture, but its immensity goes in the other direction --up, and around, and up some more. It is one huge hunk of rock in front of other huge hunks of rocks, surrounded by more hunks of rock -- and they all take turns being in the foreground or fading to the back as the landscape changes and evolves with each turn in the road or trail.

One spectacular hike is to Angels Landing, approximately at the top of the mountain in the photo to the right. The trail begins at the river, ascends to, and through, a canyon and then follows switchbacks to the top. Once at the top, the trail narrows and continues over steep rocks where chains have been bolted into the rockface to assist hikers. We made it half way through this final section, and then returned to the trailhead. We hiked almost 5 miles, gained 1488 feet, and had amazing views of the canyon.

Here are additional photos of Zion: