Zion: Scariest Hike

Wanna be scared out of your mind, while getting a great workout!? Sweet, let’s get started!

Angel’s Landing is a 2.5 mile hike located in Zion National Park. The first 2 miles of the hike are strenuous, but pretty normal as far as a hike is concerned. It is very, very steep, but from step #1 the views are amazing. The hike begins with a set of 21 switchbacks straight up, known as Walter’s Wiggles (pictured below.) It continues to take you out on skinner and skinner pieces of sandstone, until you realize you are walking on the ridge of some giant sandstone fins.

Once you get to the 2 mile mark, you start to see what everyone was talking about. You see the fin that lies ahead, and your knees start to shake. As you try to overcome your terror, there is a posted sign that literally says “The next 1/2 mile is extremely dangerous, 8 people have fallen to their death since 2004.” The path takes you straight up a giant sandstone fin that juts out into a bowl of redrock. It is so steep and so precarious there are chains built into the rock to aid you along your way.

I know we are smiling, but between photos my hands were sweating and my friend Tyson here helped me continue to whisper to myself “it’s just a walk, one step at a time.”

As you continue, the path gets narrower and narrower, until the path is just two feet wide and the drop on both sides is 1500 feet! No clumsy people allowed!

I wasn’t kidding when I said 1500 foot drops!

Look at that pathway! I mean, it still gives me goosebumps when I look at the photos.

Thank goodness my husband wasn’t too scared to take photos! I couldn’t hold the camera, I had to hand it off!

At the end of the scariest 30 minutes of your life, you get to the most rewarding (and still terrifying) ledge. You are literally sitting on a perch inside a 360 degree view of taller redrock walls. If you are up for the challenge- go check out Angel’s Landing! It’s certainly a bucket list hike!