Since 2004, six people have died falling from the cliffs on this route.
“Your safety is in your hands,” the voice recording warns ominously as Zion National Park’s bus pulls into the trailhead parking lot. A disjointed image – tumbling flesh, clattering rocks, spirals of vision broken by pain – haunts me. I’m not confident on my toes and have never tested my fear of falling off objects by hiking along a ledge 1,488 feet (454 metres) high with a questionably-secured metal chain in one hand and a camera in the other.
But, octogenarians and mothers with babes at the breast were crawling up, all smiles. Thus fueled by one of the weaker Traveler’s excuses – Everybody else is doing it – I bite my lip and start walking.
From Scout Lookout, the trail juts vertically over uneven surfaces and between sharp drop-offs. This is the last .5 mile of the 2.4 mile trail; it is the stopping point for more than a few wary hikers.
Straight ahead, boyfriend Hadyn focuses on his footwork and not the distant, looming summit.
Beginning our trek in the early a.m., we miss the heavy afternoon crowds that make climbs like this even more terrifying. Photo by Hadyn Fitzpatrick.
Wind and hungry California Condors add to my tentative progress.
Heaven must be there… Cut in the rock in 1926, Angel’s Landing was named for the ethereal view we lucky mortals witness at the top.
Next stop on our Southwest American road trip: Las Vegas, Nevada and the Hoover Dam
Previous stops: Zion National Park. Top photo credit: Hadyn Fitzpatrick.
- Lake Powell, Arizona, the Navajo Reservation and Bryce Canyon, National Park
- South Rim of the Grand Canyon
- Route 66, Holbrook and the Painted Desert, Arizona
- Sedona, Arizona
Kelli Mutchler left a small, Midwest American town to prove that Yanks can, and do, chose alternative lifestyles. On the road for five years now, Kelli has tried news reporting and waitressing, bungy jumping and English teaching. Currently working with Burmese women refugees in Thailand, she hopes to pursue a MA in Global Development. Opportunities and scenes for international travel are encouraged on her blog, www.toomutchforwords.com.
