Angel’s Landing, Zion National Park [US]

Angel’s landing

Duration: 4 hours

Distance: 5.4 miles

Difficulty: Difficult / High heights (But it’s doable if I did it!)

Well, well. The Angel’s Landing hike is the most famous hike in Zion National Park and I could see why. On the shuttle bus, they told us the story about this track. It was called the Angel’s landing because it was said that only angels could land on the top… AND I COULD SEE WHY.

This hike is crazy beautiful and crazy at all!

I was kind of scared to do it because a lot of people say it is a hard hike. I read online several times that people do not go until the end and that is common because at the end of the hike, there is a very narrow piece of land with emptiness on both sides. But anyways, I was happy to go early in the morning to avoid the crowds and take my time to hike up.

We walked up and up and up, going at some point through some stairs that made me think about the Maia civilisation in South America (even though I never went yet).

We kept going until we reached a part with a metal rope attached to the rock. The side was very sloppy so you had to hold on to the rope on some parts.

Then we arrived on kind of a flat spot with a beautiful view over the valley on both sides. We could also see a rock in the middle of the valley in front of us.

This is where I realized that the hike was not over at all. We could actually go up the rock… And that was the hard part. The part where people don’t go sometimes because they are afraid of heights.

Before the hike and on the book they give you at the entrance, they say six people died on this hike since 2006. It kind of scared me a lot, as if I was not scared enough. It got me a lot scared actually. I didn’t want anybody to slip by mistake and I know how Alexis like to do dangerous things (huh!).

It actually was quite a problem in many hikes we made and I apologize again for that. I was so scared I kept screaming each time either one of my trip mates went anywhere near the void.

That is why I decided to stop here. I was too afraid one of them would fall and I knew I was going to scream because the narrow part of the hike was ahead of us. I though the 0.3 miles they had to do to go up the end of the hike would take like less than half an hour one way and less than half an hour back. It took more like forty-five minutes each way! It gets pretty steep after the really narrow part where there is only space to put your two feet.

I waited for them on the flat spot, looking at everybody that came and thought the hike was over before realizing it was not. I had the chance to see two falcons fly in rounds going up the canyon. It was a pretty nice place to stop and just observe. I could have stayed there for hours (and I did a bit ahah).

Even if it is a hard hike because of its steepness, it is not very long (compared to the ones we did in Norway) and it is totally worth it, even if you don’t go at the very end. Angel’s landing was definitely my favorite hike in Zion so far. If  you have only one day, I would advise you to do this one. (Well my opinion might change when I will do the Narrows!)

Once again, I was very glad we did start early because during the day it was quite hot and the hike up is quite intensive. It is pretty steep. We could see the sunrise over the valley and the red colours start showing up. What amazing settings it was for our eyes and our camera. I could not get tired of this view and the colours.