Zions National Park

In case you were wondering if I haven't done enough hiking, you're right; I haven't. I am really falling in love with hiking and am grateful that I am living in a place that has so much wonderful hiking all around and the weather that makes it all possible to hike a lot more during than year.

I have been thinking I need to do more single stuff in the church and this was the week I started to act. I went to an institute class on Wed night and then Saturday was an all day hike in Zion's NP. So just to give you a small tasting of how tired I am right now I'll briefly describe my weekend to you. Friday after school I went out with some work friends for dinner, left them to join another friend at the temple for the 8 pm session. Arrived home around 10:30 and got everything ready for the hike. Woke up at 4:30 am and rendezvouxed at the speedway to carpool up to Zions at 6 am. Hiked all day and drove home, arriving at 9 pm. And it just happened to be welfare meeting at 7:30 am on Sunday with presidency meeting after that, then choir, church and then visits. It's now 6 pm and I'm wiped out, so much that I don't even want to cook dinner, I just want to go to bed and sleep.

Anyways. . . My hike was amazing. The whole time going up I was so excited to be doing this hike. I'be been wanting to do this hike for a long time. Jackie told me that I would be able to do this hike after doing so well in Sedona the previous week. I was hesitant, but decided I would try. The people I went with were very nice and there was no pressure to get up quickly. I hung out with a sister who it was her first time also, and we hiked up together. She did very well. The picture on the right is from the top and you can see how far away down really is.

Angel's Landing is a very steep hike with drop offs on both sides. There are 21 short but very steep switchbacks that are called Walter's Wiggles. At the end, chains are provided to help you climb the dificult inclines and help you to stay clear of drop offs. The view from the top is well worth the possible fear of falling to your death and the feeling of accomplishment is amazing. As I was hiking I had to sometimes put up my hands to act as blinders so my peripheral vision wouldn't scare me so much. But once I stopped moving I could look around and see how far up we actually were. On the way down it is much easier to run because it is so steep. You can see on the picture to the left that we had to walk out and across to reach the top.

Afterwards, we went to see Weeping Rock which was amazing and literally very cool. I'm sure once the summer comes and the plants are grown, it is an amazing sight. Apparantly water travels from the top of the mountain, through to the sandstone which is very pourous, moves horizontally until it seeps out and drips down. They said it takes 4000 years for the water to run its course. All in all it was a wonderful trip and hopefully the first of many more to come.

This guy Chris arranged monthly hikes and I think I'll start going to them. He has been doing these hikes for over a year, but I haven't gone because they have coincided with my Bruin Trailblazer group. But I haven't really done that since the Christmas break, so I'll start going with the SA group instead. He organizes everything, so that's one less thing for me to organize. :)