Views
Upon driving into the park, I saw huge, red mountains that towered thousands of feet over us. Each one was isolated from the rest, unlike a mountain range. In the shuttle on the way to the trailhead, I realized that this national park has hundreds of different trails to take. With that being said, we did two. The first one —the river trail— is exactly what it seems: a trail in a river. For most of the 10 miles, we were in cold water up to our knees. Sometimes we’d be treading in ankle-deep shallows, and other times, we’d have to go into our tiptoes to avoid getting our pants wet. The river is situated in a valley between two tall mountains. Its official term is a slot valley, mainly because it’s narrowness resembles that of a coin slot. The trail was a huge difference from what I’ve been recently hiking: the main component wasn’t endurance but rather technical balance. One wrong footing and you’d end up soaked or with a skull fracture. I can confidently say that it was one of the most fun yet challenging trails I’ve ever done. Each step was absolutely stunning, but due to poor lighting, I couldn’t get many photos. Also, aside from horseshoe bend, it was probably one of the most crowded paths. College girls seemed to swarm the river, along with families with too many kids. Overall, I would definitely come back, just maybe with some friends instead. Also, there were no signs of wildlife or fish, aside from a few mossy patches and trees here and there. The second trail we did— Angel’s Landing— was a less technical trail and more of a traditional one. We hopped on the shuttle again, and from the moment we arrived, I knew it would be tough. The summit we had to climb looked to be a few thousand feet in elevation, and I was already tired from the previous trail. However, as we started walking, the view proved to be incredible. You could see a row of identical summits illuminated orange by the sun. The farther you walked, the steeper and more twisted the trail got. By midway, I was contemplating turning around and calling it a day. However, many people coming down preached about how spectacular the view was, so I pushed forward. We soon entered a shaded slot valley, but since it was home to a species of threatened owl, we had to stay quiet. The view was spectacular, and the walls were filled with interesting designs, but I was in so much pain from climbing up. The very last stretch was a steep switchback to the top. Several times, I contemplated jumping off so I could stop hiking, but I internally could never get myself to do that. At the top, the view proved to be quite impressive but not worth the hike. Since the chain section of Angels Landing was closed off, we couldn’t reach the true summit (even though most hikers were climbing it nonetheless) and had to stop at Scout’s Lookout. After resting for a while, we decided to head back down before the sun came up over the mountain again. The way down was so much more enjoyable than going up, but my feet were utterly battered from all the hiking we’d been doing.