Zion National Park - Day 1

September 15, 2018

Two of my sisters and I decided to get together one weekend and check out Zion National Park. On Friday September 15th Jessica drove to Orem, UT from her home in Twin Falls, ID, picked me up and we continued on south to Cedar City, UT where our sister, Shannon, was living at the time. We arrived at her apartment later in the evening, and crashed there for the night.

September 16, 2018

We were up a ready go by around 8:30 or so and took off once more for Zion National Park, about an hour away. We hit a small traffic jam at the entrance to the park, but it was only about a 30 minute slow down, not so bad. We did luck out in snagging one of the last few parking spots close to the Visitor's Center and the first shuttle stop.
After a quick pitstop at the restrooms and the Visitor's Center (where we learned Angels landing was closed do to mudslides... booo) we hopped on the next available shuttle and made our way to the Observation Point drop off, stop 7 I believe.
Observation point is a 8 mile out and back trail that takes you to, you guessed it, an observation point overlooking all of Zion National Park including Angel's Landing. It was pretty steep right of the bat and didn't really let up the whole way up. The park notes that this trail is rated "strenuous" and they aren't wrong. We were definitely huffing and puffing the whole way up.
It does take you through some very pretty landscape though.
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And as we got closer to the top we realized all the hard work would definitely be worth it.
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we were in for quite a treat.
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We patiently waited out turn to take some pics at "the spot"
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And then found a nice quite place out of the way of everyone's cameras to enjoy our  packed lunches and rest our legs. We probably ended up spending 45 min to an hour at the top. A much appreciated and needed break.
They way back went a lot quicker than the way up, it being all down hill. We were able to enjoy ourselves a bit more haha
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All in all a great hike with some excellent views.
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After observation landing we were all pretty pooped. We did manage to get ourselves to walk the 100 feet over to see the Weeping Rock wall haha, but after that it was back on to the shuttle bus to head over to the park lodge.
There's a nice big grassy area in front of the lodge and we claimed a spot, popped a squat, and rested our legs some more in the shade of a gigantic tree.
Before heading to our hotel for the night we decide to go on one more smaller hike to the Emerald Pools. Unfortunately the same storm that had closed Angel's Landing had also required the park rangers to close off most of the Emerald Pools trail, so we didn't get to see much. Ah well, maybe another trip. I can't say any of us were very sad to not have to hike any longer haha.

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