Zion National Park - Angel's Landing Hike

Our son today walked to the lip of Angel's Landing, a trail that often sends grown men scurrying back down the trail in fear and shame.  He laughed in the face of certain death, and looked down into the abyss.  This was his expression.

From the bottom looking up, it looks like this.

Looking down from the top, this is the view.  Can you spot the tandem shuttle bus below?

The trail starts from The Grotto shuttle bus stop, just like our earlier loop to the Emerald Pools, but this time you turn right.  After gently climbing for a bit, you take a series of serious switchbacks up the face of the cliff.  The meandering part of the trail looks like this.

Look closely and you can spot at least six switchbacks with little people on them. 

The higher you get on the switchbacks, the more spectacular the trail becomes.

Finally, the trail leaves the cliff wall and turns in before making a final dash up the back side of Angel's Landing.  This section is called "Refrigerator Canyon", and it is refreshingly cool and shady after the switchbacks.

The terminus of the canyon is stunning, as is the second row of switchbacks that you must take to the top of Angel's Landing.

Is that a smile or a grimace?

Almost there!  Our son scoffs at the warning sign...

...and navigates the heavy traffic on the chains after a sustaining snack among the aggressive chipmunks.

With a sheer, 1,500-foot shortcut back down into Refrigerator Canyon below us, we scramble up, sideways, and around the various obstacles - some of them calm and polite and others white-knuckled and pushy.  At the end of the chained section of trail, he is King of the World and I am Relieved.

We stopped on the Landing for a second sustaining snack.  The views in both directions are spectacular.

The scramble back and down is worse than coming up...

...and he is obviously glad to be back on the main trail!