The Path Narrows.... 
Sittin' on Top of the World
Angel's Rest SummitAngels Rest
On our last day at Zion I left the hotel at 5:30am (easily the earliest I’ve been up in the last month) in order to do the Angel’s Rest climb in the Zion Gorge before we hit the road for the Grand Canyon. The climb begins next to a river and quickly ascends over dusty trails to a place called “Walter’s Wiggles” – 21 steep switchbacks – which take you to somewhat level lookout area called “Scout’s Rest”. At this point anyone scared of heights typically turns around. The trail narrows quite a bit (to about 3 to 5 feet in some areas) and in a few spots you are climbing over rock with sheer drop offs about 1,000 ft down on both sides. Most of the rest of the route has chains for safety (see picture #2) (Dre, I know, chains are for wimps, but it was pretty adventurous for a kid from Indiana). The view from the top was fabulous. You could see the entire gorge and the sun was shining down (see photo of my feet over the edge). A couple notes from our journey to a few of great American Parks. First, when we were initially planning sabbatical we thought Europe would be a great destination, but after some research I decided I wanted to do this roadtrip instead. Little did I know that, at the same time, all of Western Europe was planning a trip to the US. Everywhere we have been (especially the parks) I have heard more French, Spanish, Italian, and German (a lot) than I have English. Everyone I’ve spoken with has said the same thing – “good exchange rate”. Two, when you hike in the 90 degree you REALLY need to take precautions about wearing comfortable pants and underwear or you will end up with what I believe is clinically referred to as “saddle rash” – I’ll need Mark or Meneghini to comfirm. I’ve been battling this problem off and on all trip. At least Kim gets a kick out of the fact that after a few of my long hikes I’ve been walking around “cowboy style” for a few hours trying not to further irritate anything.
On our last day at Zion I left the hotel at 5:30am (easily the earliest I’ve been up in the last month) in order to do the Angel’s Rest climb in the Zion Gorge before we hit the road for the Grand Canyon. The climb begins next to a river and quickly ascends over dusty trails to a place called “Walter’s Wiggles” – 21 steep switchbacks – which take you to somewhat level lookout area called “Scout’s Rest”. At this point anyone scared of heights typically turns around. The trail narrows quite a bit (to about 3 to 5 feet in some areas) and in a few spots you are climbing over rock with sheer drop offs about 1,000 ft down on both sides. Most of the rest of the route has chains for safety (see picture #2) (Dre, I know, chains are for wimps, but it was pretty adventurous for a kid from Indiana). The view from the top was fabulous. You could see the entire gorge and the sun was shining down (see photo of my feet over the edge). A couple notes from our journey to a few of great American Parks. First, when we were initially planning sabbatical we thought Europe would be a great destination, but after some research I decided I wanted to do this roadtrip instead. Little did I know that, at the same time, all of Western Europe was planning a trip to the US. Everywhere we have been (especially the parks) I have heard more French, Spanish, Italian, and German (a lot) than I have English. Everyone I’ve spoken with has said the same thing – “good exchange rate”. Two, when you hike in the 90 degree you REALLY need to take precautions about wearing comfortable pants and underwear or you will end up with what I believe is clinically referred to as “saddle rash” – I’ll need Mark or Meneghini to comfirm. I’ve been battling this problem off and on all trip. At least Kim gets a kick out of the fact that after a few of my long hikes I’ve been walking around “cowboy style” for a few hours trying not to further irritate anything.
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