angel's landing, zion national park

May 2004 / After running the spring desert 25 miler in fruita, colorado on saturday, my father buzz and i drove to zion national park for some desert canyoneering, climbing and hiking. as things turned out, the climbing was not to be, as a controlled burn would close the trails needed to access our climb, but we got in some 4th and lower 5th class scrambling in instead. the big walls of zion will have to wait for another time.

angel's landing

on sunday i decided to take a rest day after my marathon and spent the day hiking around to some of the highlights of zion valley. i started the day off with a climb up the infamous angel's landing; a spectacular trail that leads visitors up switchbacks blasted out of the rock and up a ridge with several hundred feet of exposure on either side.

the next day i was ready for some adventure so i joined buzz, and friend bill wright on a desert dome linkup. their plan was to climb/scramble up 5 classic sandstone domes in the zion back country in one day: north and south guardian angel, followed by east and west northgate peaks, and finally pine valley peak (the most difficult). still recovering from the race, i decided to join them for the first two: north and south guardian angela (NGA, SGA), which happened to be the two most coveted peaks in the zion back country.

south guardian angel

these two peaks offer beautiful and relaxed scrambling with the hardest moves being 5.5 or 5.6 but much of it 4th or low 5th class. the crux of the entire day, however, was the approach to SGA, which required us to navigate down into the Subway - one of zion's most well-known canyons - and back up the other side. all in all it was a great back country adventure with spectacular views, relaxed climbing, remote scenery and a little running. i finished the two domes car-to-car in just under 5 hours while buzz and bill completed all five in under 7 hours.

the next day (tuesday) buzz, bill and i teamed up with fellow boulderite john prater for some classic zion canyoneering. first up was the long and remote behunin canyon. this canyon required 9 rappels over the course of roughly 6 miles. this was my first introduction to canyoneering and i was thoroughly impressed with the remote and committing feeling of dropping into the "deep bowels" of the earth. later that day, buzz, bill and i made a quick trip down keyhole canyon. the keyhole is a classic "slot" canyon. with its narrow walls (only a few feet wide and over 50 feet tall) the sun never reaches the bottom of the canyon where you are forced to swim or wade through freezing cold pools of water. some of the pools were knee deep, and some of them you couldn't touch the bottom. all of this added to the sense of excitement and urgency of moving through the canyon.

echo canyon

the final day i went on another "recovery" hike, while buzz, bill and john scrambled up west temple peak.

this was my first visit to zion and certainly not my last. it's been called the sandstone yosemite due to it's dramatic sandstone cliffs rising out of the valley and the remote back country spotted with monolithic domes and peaks. but for me, the similarities certainly go beyond geological formations. both places behold an inherent magic that is apparent even as one approaches the park. it's a power that's difficult to describe but easy to feel; and it's sure to draw me back again soon.