Zion National Park - Part II

Day 55 (Off day, Zion National Park) - This morning Jon, Anish, Nick, Alex, Zach, Sehee and I all awoke at 5:30 am in order to hit the trails early for a day of hiking. Our designation, the top of the Angels Landing trail. We took the shuttle to the start of the trail to begin our hike. Jon and Zach hiked ahead while the rest of us took our time exploring the caves in the rocks on our way up. When we reached the final part of the climb we were basically using the metal chains to pull ourselves up the rocks. When we got to the top the view was amazing looking down on the canyon below, and well worth the climb.

After taking a break at the top we headed back down the trail. About halfway down we got a scare when we heard two children screaming at the top of their lungs. Not knowing exactly what was going on Nick started running back up the trail until a woman around the corner pointed down trail and shouted that she thought a man was having a heart attack. Nick took off down the trail while Anish dialed 911 and the rest of our hiking group followed them. We were at the top of a switch back trail when we heard the screams and the man and his family were about halfway up the same switch back so we were unable to see anything until we reached them. When we arrived the man was conscious and appeared a bit dehydrated but insisted that he would be ok. We let the park officials who had answered the 911 call know where the man and his family were in the trail and made sure they had water before leaving them to continue our hike downward. When we got to the bottom of the trail we were met by a park ranger who was on his way to check out the situation. He asked us a few questions before beginning his trek up the trail. (I don't know if the family finished hiking the Angels Landing trail or not but I did see them later in the day while hiking the Riverside Walk trail so I know the man made it back down ok.)


We took the shuttle back to camp and then Anish, Sehee and I headed to the grocery store to buy food for lunch where I got a bagel and ice cream (no I didn't eat the ice cream on the bagel but maybe I'll try that sometime!). By this point it was mid-afternoon and the majority of our group was scattered, either off hiking, sleeping or escaping the warm temperatures someplace in town. I hung around the campsite for a little while writing some postcards before setting off to explore more of Zion.


After stopping at the Zion Welcome Center to mail my postcards I took the shuttle up the canyon getting on and off to take pictures along the way. When I reached the top of the canyon I headed to do the Riverside Walk and found Jon there as well. The Riverside Walk leads to a number of trails in the upper part of the canyon, some of which were closed due to the wildfires currently burning in the park.

When we returned to camp we found dinner ready and ugali waiting for us. All in all an adventurous day in Zion!