National Park Bum: Day 10: Up, up and more up.

Last night ended with some drinks and the night photography that I posted earlier this morning. After the post we made our way to the free shuttle bus. It’s a bus that also carries a trailer the same size as a regular bus but without the need of the driver. It makes stops throughout the park and has helped reduce traffic jams a lot. I wish they had one, (maybe 100), in Yellowstone. It seemed like the bus drivers knew what they were doing. They had a recording that would play and was very well timed with their stops and starts at drop off/pick up spots.

As we rode the bus, the recording was very informative on all the great history that Zion has to offer. While listening to it, I slowly phased it out due to having my mind be blown away by the views. Any movie, tv show or picture you've seen of Zion/Utah and thought it was beautiful, leaves you with so much to learn. There really is nothing better than seeing it first hand and I understand that travel and what not is expensive and other’s may not even care but I do have to say that this place is so real that it’s unreal.

After getting off the bus and letting John and Sam fill their water bottles, the three of us started our journey to Angel’s Landing (AL). We crossed the road and over a bridge where tropical water seemed to be flowing. The color of the water in Zion is very clear with a good chance of being almost green or light blue. The hike started off with a paved path with a lot of sand which followed the river for some time before some switch backs came into play. Red and orange mountains covered with sage brush were in view from start to finish. The sand that we walked on was like ocean sand but even more fine. There were some patches of red sand stone which was almost like dust.

The switch backs got old fast. It was one of the most intense inclines that I have encountered. After the switchbacks, the trail went into a massive canyon. While walking on this paved path in the red canyon, I felt like I was in a bio dome or some type of amusement park. It was so real but the path took away from the nature of everything.

After we got through the canyon there was about dozen switch backs of 20 feet in length with a 30% grade. I thought the first switch backs were bad but I found that those were just a test. I was huffing and puffing and by the time I got to the top I thought of Rocky, started singing Eye of the Tiger and just ran the last two switch backs. It felt great to be finished with that part of the trail and see flat ground with more sand.

The journey from the sand to the cliffs was crazy. There was a 40-60 degree slope to the right and the trail went straight. There are chains to help with that but it didn’t make me feel any easier about not falling to my death. Before we got off the shuttle, there was a sign that 6 people have died climbing to the top. My goal was not to be 7. In fact, I heard several others saying that as well. For about a thousand feet, I was clenching chain after chain with only a “little” fear of falling. John and Sam were ahead of me and did it without the fear…Sam did the whole hike without touching a single chain and barefoot, might I add.

I thought the trail was done and I made it to the top. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The trail of chains was just about to start and I followed the trail with my eyes and it was something I couldn’t handle. Sam tried to get me to go and offered to carry my stuff so I could just focus on the trail. Brad said the same thing so I went for it. I made it about another thousand feet and froze. To my left and to my right were about 5-6 feet of sandstone and then a fall of over 1500 feet I think. So I let them continue on and slowly crawled and took my sweet, sweet time getting back to a place that felt stable and could have me run around it I wanted to.

There were two stalls for emergency bathroom use. I opened one up and it was the most disgusting bathroom I have ever seen. It almost looked like there was puke and possibly shit on the walls. The toilet lid was missing and I felt sick just looking at it. The old saying goes, “When you gotta go, you gotta go”, but that wasn't the case. I held it in for two hours and used the ones that were at the bottom of the mountain. I felt like I was in heaven. I hiked down a quarter of the way by myself and waited in a cave for the others to pass through.

I met up with Brad, Craig, Spencer and Sarah and we took some photos of just fooling around at the entrance of the canyon. The whole bum crew made it to the bottom and we decided to do a mile hike in to emerald pools. We sat down and took a rest to the point of no return. Spencer, Sam, John and I opted out of the hike and go back to our camp spot. The other four went on and met up with us later. I guess the pools weren't just a mile and it wasn't all that easy. They saw three tarantulas and I was okay with not seeing them. I’m sure I’ll see some later in this vacation of mine, but if I don’t see them, I be perfectly okay with it…

All photos are unedited once again. Running low on time. Later today I will be writing about the foot killing Narrows adventure that we did in the last 48 hours. Today is a day of relaxation with maybe a small hike. Hoping that we get the subway but I don't think my feet will be able to handle it. It's a lotto drawing for it so once again, if we get it, yeah, if not, yeah.

Until the next time,

MacKeag

Angel's Landing from the Grotto drop off.

John trying to pet a chipmunk.

The first, and almost last, set of chains for me.

This was where everyone got to after the first chains and asked if it was the top. The top of Angel's Landing is that big mountain behind everyone but not in the far back.