Desert Southwest - The Checklist Edition - Angel's Landing - Zion National Park - September 2014

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After a crowded but fun little ascent of the ridgecrest, we arrived at the summit of Angel's Landing. The summit terrain is not flat; instead it is right-hand slope with a vertical dropoff on the left - in effect, it is a continuation of the ridgeline. The highest point is some distance further along.

courtesy RHanel

Summit ridge

Hoodoo View

Canyon from summit

The rough weather that had been forecast still had not yet arrived as we topped out on Angel's Landing - although the breeze had picked up and there were more clouds in the sky than we'd seen for the past six days. We had a fairly short break to enjoy the magnificent view, and then turned around and headed back. Sandra had been watching the kids for well over an hour by now!

courtesy JInnes

courtesy PChen

Hatkos Enjoy the View

View to Lady Mountain

The East Rim

The way back down was uneventful (and again, slow due to the human traffic), and we arrived back at Scout Lookout more than an hour and a half after we had left.

courtesy PChen

courtesy RHanel

courtesy JInnes

North Ridge

Starting Descent

Back at Scout Lookout

It was then time for a return back down the many back-and-forths of Walter's Wiggles, then along the straight, narrow, and shady Refrigerator Canyon. We emerged from the mouth of the canyon and began a final steep descent down the winding lower switchbacks of the West Rim trail. The skies were starting to cloud over more significantly now - we had timed our hike well!

courtesy JInnes

courtesy PChen

Down the Wiggles

Soution Pockets

courtesy JInnes

courtesy PChen

courtesy JInnes

Refrigerator Canyon Lizard

Down the final switchbacks

courtesy PChen

Clouds Rolling In

Nearing Valley Floor

Hike completion

We arrived back at the Grotto shuttle bus stop shortly before 3:30pm. Just minutes later, a light rain started to fall. Perfect timing indeed!

Interactive trackmap with photo points - Angel's Landing - click map to view

Interactive trackmap with photo points - Angel's Landing - click to view

Chris treated us to some gourmet camp cooking after returning to our camp site: for dessert, he brought out a cast-iron frying pot and made us a large batch of homemade donuts - complete with raspberry-flavored icing sugar. Quite excellent!