Weekend in Zions (long post)

photo by my friend Adam

This is a very long post filled with pictures and is more like a journal entry for myself. I posted more pics on fb if interested.

the group. nice guy offered to take this shot.

Our friends invited us to camp/hike in Zions National Park over the weekend. Luckily, we were able to meet with my in-laws and our girls got to play on the grandparents farm for 3 days!  The adventure started with trying to find a campsite, who knew it would be over the UEA holiday when this trip was planned? Zions was packed, cars lined the streets, RV's were everywhere. Speaking of RV's, is it really considered camping if you have a little mobile home decked out with a generator, kitchen, satellite tv, and a soft cozy bed? i think not. Anyway, to make a long story short, we pulled up to the ranger station and ONE walk-in spot was available. Seriously lucky. We did not care what it looked like, how far we would have to walk in our stuff, we just needed somewhere to camp.

part of walters wiggle

After finding our friends and setting up camp, we headed to Angel's Landing.   The trail is 2.5 miles to the top, it starts following the Virgin River and then once it starts ascending the mountain the trail becomes paved.  My favorite part of the trail up? (being sarcastic) is called Walters Wiggles, which is a series of 21 steep switchbacks. After the switchbacks from hell, and your legs are on fire, you reach the Lookout Point which is the last spot before the last .5 mile summit.  This last .5 mile is scary if you're not prepared. Very sharp dropoffs, narrow paths, and they have a chain grip to hold on the entire way.  Great hike. beautiful views.

warning sign before going on Angels Landing

The next morning, after deciding to finally get up and get going, we headed to a day hike at The Subway. You need a permit for this hike, and most need canyoneering equipment so you can go down into the Subway and then hike out.  Since we don't know how to canyoneer, we started at the end of the trail and worked our way up to the subway. The first .5 mile is easy through the trees and then you descend down what I like to call the cliffs of insanity. It's another .5 mile down a very steep loose rock trail before you reach the bottom near the creek. All I could think was...we have to climb back up this to get out!

one of many beautiful scenes on the Subway

At the bottom of the cliffs of insanity we follow the creek, cross it back and forth countless times to follow the trail 4 miles up to the subway.  The trail going back and forth on the creek is gorgeous.  Obviously I'm sharing a lot of pictures since my words cannot begin to describe how breathtaking the hike really is.  Once we made it to the top, we turned around and hiked our way back with looming dark clouds waiting to pour down on us. Once we made it to the cliffs of insanity it started to drizzle (not what you want on a loose rock very steep climb).  When we were driving back to town it started to pour, so we decided to take a quick stop for nachos and margaritas. 

going into the subway

Our last night we became a tiger team and had to create a shelter so we could make our dinner and have somewhere to keep our heads dry.  We worked together and with some brainstorming we made a shelter out of a tarp, twine and a couple walking sticks. It was awesome. Once it was setup, we had somewhere to make our dinner in the rain.  The next morning we made breakfast, packed up, and started our looong drive to pick up the girls at the grandparents. My girls had such a great time on the farm! 15 hours later we were home. Fantastic trip. Great friends. too long of a car ride. :)

morning after the rain picture. (pic by husband who needs credit to feel loved..all other pics are MINE!)