Zion - Observation Point

[brdgt]

On our way down to Vegas we stopped at Zion. Our friend may have just started to get into hiking, but he is still used to eating every meal of the day out and having constant internet access, so he wanted to stay at a motel instead of camping. The next morning we had a healthy breakfast at a local cafe that also made us sandwiches for hiking (I had an amazing veggie/fruit/nut wrap). Due to the need to airlift out the toilets at Angel's Landing, we couldn't do that iconic hike, so we did a longer, more strenuous, higher elevation one - Observation Point. I'm glad we did, as it had more varied terrain.

The trail started with a steep ascent, but with well maintained switchbacks.



And was directly across from Angel's Landing.



After that ascent you enter Echo Canyon, my favorite spot on the hike.



Then you start ascending again, with sharper and sharper switchbacks until you reach the mesa.



Lunch at the top (6508ft). Again, not very high by Utah standards, but southern Utah is a lower elevation than northern Utah, so the ascent was still over 2000 ft. gain.



On the return the light in Echo Canyon was even nicer than on the way up.

Comments

[sarahmarvelous.livejournal.com]

Beautiful! I just was listening to David Rackoff's essay about Utah this morning, and thought of you. It just looks spectacular.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

Do you have a link to that?

[sarahmarvelous.livejournal.com]

It's in his book, Half-Empty, it's in the essay "Expedition 3: God's Country" and he talks about SLC, and a little of the history of the LDS church and about the Spiral Jetty. The whole book is hilarious though, I think you'd like it!


http://www.amazon.com/Half-Empty/dp/B0043UTJCI

http://www.audible.com/pd/Bios-Memoirs/Half-Empty-Audiobook/B0042ZKVFI/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1393267905&sr=1-1

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

Huh, that isn't listed as one of the chapters (I checked on Amazon just to make sure the library didn't censor it for some reason). I'll request it anyway.

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

Thank you for these beautiful pictures. I WANT TO BE THERE.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

We bought our yearly National Park Pass, so look forward to many more!

[squiggle.livejournal.com]

wow, beautiful!

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

I cannot get over how gorgeous these photos are -- the scale is just out of this world.