To Reach Where Angels Land, Master Fear

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In 1912, Frederick Fisher named Angel’s Landing thinking that only angles could ever set foot there.

He should have realized otherwise.

People have declared many places unreachable by humans over the years (including Half Dome in Yosemite) and people have found a way to all of them.

In Angel’s Landing’s case, park workers blasted a crude trail to the summit a mere fifteen years later.

It’s the most intense hike in the National Park System accessible without a permit, which means that every Zion visitor with the needed skills just has to try it.

Today is my turn.

Angel's Landing Trail

Angel’s Landing combines two things that most experienced hikers can handle, rock scrambling and heights.

The trail goes over hundreds of little sandstone ledges along a knife edge ridge, aided by steps.

The worst parts have chains attached to the walls for balance aid.

Every last step is located close to a very steep cliff, sometimes on both sides (!), over a thousand feet in the air.

The view drops a long way down, very close.

Angels Landing will bring out any fear of heights or vertigo, and then amplify them to levels that are almost unbearable.

Proper acknowledgement and management of this danger, more than anything else, separates who makes it from those who turn around early.

For those who do turn around, this trail still holds plenty of rewards.

Take the process seriously; on average one hiker per year falls off this trail and dies.





The trail starts by crossing the river and turning upstream.

It quickly enters an area of desert scrub and small trees.

The view shows a fantastic vista of the river and Zion Canyon.

A thin red promontory appears in the center, Angel’s Landing.

A wall of reddish sandstone appears to its left, leading to white cliffs above the trail.

A big sandy hill appears below them, debris that has eroded from the cliffs.





Slowly but surely, the trail climbs the hill, heading for the base of the cliffs.

This part is hot and exposed thanks to a lack of trees.

A thin crack appears next to Angel’s Landing on the left, a hanging canyon.

Getting closer, oddly arranged rocks appear on the cliff below the canyon.

The rocks are small, but the arrangement really sticks out.

I finally realized these rocks were arranged by humans, switchbacks.

The trail is heading right for them!

The cliff and switchbacks grow larger and closer.

Angel's Lookout

Finally, the trail reaches the cliff.

It’s filled with cracks.

Pine trees grow in some of them.

The stone switchbacks connect some of the cracks to ascend the rock.

The trail now gets very steep as it climbs.

The outer side is now protected by low stone walls.

Many of the switchbacks feature impressive stone work.

In this stretch the trail features a fantastic view down Zion Canyon, with steep cliffs above the narrow river.

The climb is worth it just for this.





This climb is the appetizer for Angel’s Landing proper.

Although the trail is smooth, it’s also steep.

It runs right next to vertical cliffs, both up and down.

Just before the mouth of the hanging canyon, it reaches an area where the trail was blasted into the side of the cliff, just like the shelf road in Yankee Boy Basin (see San Juan Backcountry ).

The unavoidable view stretches a long way.

Anyone for whom this did not feel like a regular hike should think a while about continuing, because it gets worse.





At the mouth of the canyon, the trail makes a sharp turn to the left, a spot unofficially called Angel’s Lookout.

It has an impressive view of the lower section of Zion Canyon, plus the sandstone wall the trail just climbed.

It’s roughly a third of the height of Angel’s Landing proper.

Anyone thinking of hiking the entire trail needs to do something here: brace hands on the safety wall and look over the edge, five hundred feet straight down.

It reveals a nearly vertical red wall plus a pile of rocks that dropped out of the canyon.

Try to become as calm as hiking on the valley floor.

If it takes more than a few minutes, plan on stopping early.

Refrigerator Canyon

Now in the canyon, the environment changes completely.

The steep trail of switchbacks has become completely flat.

The huge views from earlier are replaced by a narrow crack between vertical red walls.

The open scrub from earlier is now all cottonwood trees.

Most importantly, the hot hike from earlier is now cool shade.

Early explorers noticed the temperature drop, and called this place Refrigerator Canyon.

Drink it in, because this is the only shaded part of the hike.





The trail quickly crosses the dry wash and follows the base of one of the canyon walls.

Parts are smooth and others have pockmarks from erosion.

This part of the trail is paved.

Looking up shows the walls stretching far overhead.

Remember the view for later, because the trail eventually runs on the thin rock fin above.





Slowly but surely, the trail climbs the wall of the canyon.

It does so gradually at first, then twists through a few switchbacks blasted into the red sandstone.

The temperature rises as it climbs.

The trail reaches about halfway up the wall when the end of the canyon comes into view.

The crack runs to a tall white cliff and just stops.

Clearly, the trail isn’t going there.

Instead, it makes a U turn revealing a steep wall of red rock.

The trail has to climb it.

Walter's Wiggles

Anywhere else in the country, the trail builders would have blasted steps into the rock for people to climb.

Sandstone erodes quickly, so that wouldn’t have worked here.

Instead, the builders created Walter’s Wiggles, named for early park superintendent Walter Reusch.

Imagine Lombard Street in San Francisco (see The World’s Craziest Streets), except much narrower, steeper, made of sandstone blocks, and many more switchbacks.

After Walter’s Wiggles, hikers don’t need to imagine it because they have just climbed it in real life.

The Wiggles contains twenty (!) short switchbacks to get up that rock wall, with beautiful stonework.

The climb is short but intense.

These switchbacks were considered the most impressive engineering feat in the National Park System when they were built in 1924.





The Wiggles deposit hikers on a rock shelf on the rim of Refrigerator Canyon.

It’s about three feet wide, with a sandstone ridge towering above.

The view of the canyon is long, and nearly straight down.

Compared to what comes next, this had better be easy.

The shelf quickly leads to an open area.

The floor is sandstone slabs.

A view of Zion Canyon appears on one side, and a view of the white sandstone above Refrigerator Canyon appears on the other.

A narrow rock fin appears between them leading to a tall red spire, Angel’s Landing from the back.

Welcome to Scout Lookout.

Scout Lookout

A set of white sandstone slabs sits on the left, with a safety fence.

They have an unbeatable view of the river looping around Angel’s Landing in Zion Canyon.

Tall red vertical walls frame the narrow canyon around the river.

The Great White Throne, now looking like a throne, looms beyond.

The unbeatable view for the effort makes Scout Lookout is one of the most popular hiking destinations in Zion.

The downside of that popularity sits near the rock fin, two outhouses.

Decay happens very slowly in this environment, and the odorous result drifts over the area like a black cloud.





Anyone planning to continue faces a long series of tests.

Every hiker encounters them in their own way, and must find their own solutions to the challenges.

The way through is as individual as those who undertake the passage.

Angel’s Landing is one popular trail, so many people take these tests daily.

Most succeed, some realize their limits and turn back, a few go beyond their limits and die.

A big sign at Scout Lookout lists the hazards.

If any of them are not blindingly obvious, it’s a sign to turn around now.





The very first test should happen at Scout Lookout.

Find the part just to the left of the safety fence, sit down, and look DOWN.

The view shows a bend in the river at the base of a steep red cliff, plus a bus stop, from twelve hundred feet directly above.

This is what the view from the Angel’s Landing trail looks like.

Try to become calm, like all of this is normal.

If it takes more than a few minutes, think carefully about what comes next.





Past scout lookout, the trail runs to a steep wide rock fin.

It’s made of slanted red sandstone slabs.

Pine trees grow in cracks where they can.

The fin forms Initiation.

The actual trail is roughly four inches wide, a well worn groove up the slabs.

The famous Angels Landing chains start here, long strands between poles cemented deep in the rock.

The chains wobble while hiking, which is initially disconcerting but easy to get used to (if it doesn’t, turn around).





Anyone used to rock scrambling knows the technique to climb this stretch, carefully moving from step to step using the rocks and chain for balance.

The part that plays tricks is the view, all slanted sandstone slabs.

Those slabs slant downward to the lip of Refrigerator canyon, after which it’s a rather fatal drop.

The first thoughts appear about whether being here is really such a good idea.





After a few switchbacks, the trail reaches a stretch of worse mental agony, the Chain Gap.

It features a foot wide ribbon of flat sandstone with the fin on one side and a huge view of Refrigerator Canyon on the other, with lower Zion Canyon beyond.

It’s called the Chain Gap because it has no chain!

On the ground, most hikers would barely notice; above the lip of a steep canyon is another matter!

If it looks scary, turn around, because things get so much worse.





Past the Chain Gap, the climb and the chains resume.

Parts of this next stretch have no chains, but always in areas that have enough rocks to offer support.

It has a long view of lower Zion Canyon throughout.

The grade, thankfully, is pretty gentle.

It lasts until the top of the rock fin, where the ground flattens out.





Compared to the previous section, this part looks easy.

It’s entirely flat.

It has vegetation growing on the sides of the trail.

It could be almost anywhere in Zion.

This is a possibly deadly illusion.

In reality, this stretch is the Shadow of Death.

The rock fin is only eight feet wide, with twelve hundred foot drop-offs on BOTH sides.

The long views are unavoidable here too; the steep walls of upper Zion Canyon on the left and Refrigerator Canyon and lower Zion Canyon on the right.

This long stretch of trail has no chains either, so anyone overcome by fear will have only one place to go.

Several of the people who fell did so here.





The walk lasts until a pine tree in the distance, where things get even more intense.

Chains reappear and the path drops down the left side of the rock fin, the Tightrope Walk.

This part was clearly blasted into the side.

It’s no more than two feet wide, with a very visible sharp drop beyond.

The view shows upper Zion Canyon in all its glory, a long way down.

All that practice becoming calm at Scout Lookout suddenly becomes incredibly useful, because this section gives the distinct impression that the chain is the only thing keeping people on the trail.

Steps of Faith

The descent ends at the trail’s most notorious feature, the Steps of Faith.

This part of trail is frightening enough to make everything to this point seem minor.

Most people who turn around do so here.

The path reaches a four foot wide rock slab, with steep drop-offs on both sides.

Unusually, it has two chains.

At the far end sits a sandstone rock shaped like a balance beam.

It’s two feet wide, four feet high, ten feet long, and twelve hundred feet in the air.

To reach Angel’s Landing, hikers must cross this rock.

The trail builders blasted some steps to make it easier, plus the chain across it.

It is, truly, a test of faith.





On the ground, all experienced hikers would handle this climb easily.

Where it is, the rock gives the distinct impression that any mistake will be fatal.

The views stretch a long way down and to the sides.

Steep red cliffs appear across the canyons on both sides, from high in the air.

Every hiker needs to find their own way across this challenge, knowing and facing their own fears.

I spent minutes preparing for it, grabbed the chain tight, and hauled myself up and over.

I then spent long minutes on the wider rock slab on the far side, letting what I had just done sink in.





Unfortunately, the rock fin has much more to cross after the Steps of Faith.

It widens to all of four feet wide, filled with hundreds of tilted sandstone slabs.

Hikers need to scramble over all of them, with the chain for balance.

The glorious and terrifying views continue.

This part has more vegetation, although it’s still hot and exposed.

Finally, the rock fin widens out and the crossing is over.





Looking at Angels Landing from Scout Lookout shows that the spire is significantly higher than the rock fin that attaches it to the canyon wall.

As the fin gets close, it forms a steep pyramid, rising rapidly as the base widens out.

The trail now climbs this pyramid to the spire, the Stairway to Heaven.

It does so on a long series of steep switchbacks, climbing one side of the steep ridge, crossing over, and then climbing the other, repeatedly.





The switchbacks replace one form of long views and mental distress with a different form of challenge.

The climb is on steps blasted into steep sandstone.

They are less than a foot wide and quite slippery.

These alternate with long series of sandstone ledges that must be scrambled like steep stairs.

Chains sit on the rocks for balance.

The climb is also completely exposed, very hot, and has incredible views.





On the way up, the hike is exhausting but the views are manageable.

Unless I looked around while taking a break, all I see are the next set of rock stairs.

I could almost ignore the fact that those stairs were right next to a vertical cliff with over a thousand foot drop-off.

The way down is another story.

The views over all of Zion Canyon are unavoidable in this stretch, along with a trail so steep it looks impossible.

Be sure to look down the trail while climbing up, because it’s scarier in the other direction and the only way back.





During this stretch, I got quite tired.

I’m wearing out from hard climbing in direct sunlight and high heat.

If anything, my fear level is going up, because I know I tend to make more mistakes when I’m tired.

As the view makes clear, the cost of those mistakes can be quite high.





On these sandstone steps, slipping is probably inevitable.

Thousands of hikers have worn them smooth.

I picked my way with secure scramble holds, one hand on the rocks and the other on the chain.

Sure enough, I finally slipped.

It happened on a particularly steep set of steps with a lovely view of the mouth of Refrigerator Canyon directly below.

Thanks to my tight hand grips, I moved less than an inch and kept my feet on the rock.

I still needed quite a bit of time to calm down afterward, explicitly feeling my secure connection to the rock.





The climb feels like it goes on forever.

Many times I stopped to rest at the end of some steep switchback and saw the chains rising inexorably further, up and up the sandstone.

The view of Zion Canyon grows larger and larger throughout, which is both awe inspiring and quite frightening.

Gradually, the trail reaches the rounded top of the rising rock fin, where long series of sandstone ledges replace the carved steps.

These are still brutally steep, requiring skillful scrambling.

In the other direction (remember to look!) the trail appears to drop vertically down.





Finally, the trail reaches the top of the spire and flattens out.

At this point, some hikers expect it to be over.

Instead, we get the last test.

The top of Angel’s Landing is a short thin ridge.

It’s composed of slabs of slanted sandstone.

The higher side gives a perfect view of upper Zion Canyon plus a fourteen hundred foot vertical drop.

The lower side has a more distant view of lower Zion Canyon.

The slanted slabs give the impression that anything (or anyONE) who starts sliding will continue straight over the edge.

The renowned viewpoint sits at the far end, and this ridge has no chains for help.

It is the Moment of Truth.





I picked my way along roughly a foot from the upper edge, moving carefully from slab to slab.

That worked until the big pine tree roughly a third of the way along.

Whatever soil it germinated on has blown away by this point, so many roots crawl across the sandstone.

I wonder how it stays alive.

Tripping here looks to be fatal, so I carefully stepped over each root.

That gives a view of the slabs descending to a small mound.

After reaching the mound, the ridge rises slightly to a flat spot, Angel’s Landing itself.

Hallelujah!

Angel's Landing

Anyone with the skills to hike this trail gets a heavenly reward.

Angel’s Landing is narrow and completely exposed in the middle of Zion Canyon, so it has a view that ranks with Glacier Point in Yosemite (see The Lazy Hikers’ Scenic Viewfest) as the best in the National Park System.

Huge cliffs of red and white sandstone appear on three sides, very close.

Downstream the canyon forms a glorious gash in the earth, while upstream is tall and narrow.

A big trapezoid shaped cliff appears directly opposite, the Great White Throne.

The drop from the viewpoint to the canyon floor is long and obvious from here, but anyone who makes it this far can handle that 😊





The viewpoint has a large chipmunk population.

They feed off crumbs dropped by hikers eating lunch.

They beg visitors for food, looking incredibly cute while doing so.

Remember to ignore them, since they may very well bite back.





On many trails up peaks, hiking back seems easier than hiking up.

Everything looks familiar so it seems to go by faster.

This effect doesn’t happen on Angel’s Landing.

Here, the long vertigo inducing views can be somewhat avoided going up, but hit people in the face climbing down.

The initial ledge looks the same, but after that the trail becomes one incredibly steep series of rock steps.

The chains drop at a nearly unimaginable angle, and hikers have no choice but to follow them.

The worst part may be that the rock fin appears from above in many stretches, and it looks way too narrow and fragile to get across safely.





I slipped going down as well as up.

Once again, my secure hand holds meant I moved about an inch.

It was scarier the second time, with that long unavoidable drop-off seen just beyond the trail.

I calmed myself down and kept going.





Once at the rock fin, the scary crossing must be done again.

It’s nearly as bad in this direction as earlier.

The Steps of Faith are done downward, but that just provides more opportunities to slip.

Once on that rock, I forced myself to do something that may be insane.

I stopped, grabbed the chains with a death grip, and looked into the void.

I saw, and then photographed, what twelve hundred feet of open air look like three inches from my boots.

After that, the rest of the crossing is easy 😊





Past Scout Lookout, the trail becomes much easier.

It’s now just a hot downhill walk.

Walter’s Wiggles is easy in this direction.

Refrigerator Canyon is cooler, thanks to more shade late in the day.

With fewer hikers, I heard some strange echoes of footsteps.

Turns out, the smooth walls of the canyon amplify noise.

The effect is quiet enough that with many people in the canyon it’s not noticeable.

Pine Creek Canyon

I drove out of Zion the same route I took in, Pine Creek.

The canyon looks very different in daylight.

For starters, its brighter and all in color.

More fine detail appears in daylight, and the views stretch further.

The edges are less sharp, though.





The road first heads into a deep U shaped red gorge with cliffs in the distance.

The gorge ends at a tall wall with a huge recess in it.

A thin ribbon of stone appears at top, a “blind arch”.

Called the Great Arch, it’s the largest in the park.

Many people think it doesn’t qualify as a real arch since it is attached to the wall.





The road climbs the canyon wall through a series of long switchbacks.

These have great views of the cliffs all around.

Close observation also shows two obvious holes in the cliff above.

The road finally reaches the first of those holes and enters the mile long Pine Creek Tunnel.

The tunnel is Zion’s other engineering landmark, and was the longest in the world at the time it was built in 1930.

It has holes blasted in the side wall for ventilation, the other hole seen from the drive up.





Unlike at night two days ago, in daylight this tunnel has two obvious differences to most modern tunnels.

For starters, it has no lights!

Tunnels at the time did not use them, and it has never been electrified since.

The reason for the headlight signs is very obvious now.

The other difference is that this tunnel is much lower than most.

Vehicles at the time were much smaller, and the designers did not anticipate busses, trucks, and RVs.

They can get through, but only by driving down the center of the road where the arched ceiling is highest.

The Park Service closes the tunnel to normal traffic twice a day for this.





The road exits the tunnel into a world of sandstone.

Seeing it in daylight, the rock has red streaks mixed in with the white.

Tall cliffs line the road as it twists through canyons, many looking like miniature versions of Zion Canyon.

Small mesas appear in places.

All of these cliffs have smooth walls covered in webs of cracks.

Pine trees grow where they can.

Checkerboard Mesa

Near the park exit, the road passes right next to the base of a large white cliff with overlapping vertical and horizontal cracks.

Early settlers thought the cracks looked like a checkerboard, and named the mesa accordingly.

It’s now one of Zion’s most famous sights.

Too bad most drivers can’t actually view it from the roadway!

In my case, of course, I slowed down and looked straight up.

The Park Service did build a parking lot a few yards away for people to get a view (and a safe photograph) although a pine tree gets in the way.





Past the park exit, the road enters the high mountain valley I saw on the way in.

Much of it is open grassland.

It’s noticeably colder than the park proper, thanks to the higher elevation.

The highway finally reaches Mount Caramel Junction, about six buildings around an intersection, and I turned north.

The road climbed through a valley and entered a sea of pine trees.

I finally stopped when it got dark; services close early in this part of Utah.

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Photos

Zion Canyon
Zion Canyon from the trail to Angels Landing. Angels Landing is the red spire on the left

Angels Lookout
Special view of Zion Canyon from Angels Lookout

Lookout vertigo
The view nearly straight down from Angels Lookout. The swithcbacks are the trail

Refrigerator Canyon
The welcome shade of Refrigerator Canyon

Walter's Wiggles
The upper half of Walter's Wiggles, Lombard Street turned into a hiking trail

Scout Lookout view
The Virgin River curves around the Organ, seen from Scout Lookout

Scout Vertigo
This is the view nearly straight down from Scout Lookout. Note two of the park shuttles next to the road turn.

Chain Gap
The infamous Chain Gap section of the Angels Landing Trail. The gash behind the pine tree is the rim of Refrigerator Canyon

Shadow of Death
Level, scenic, seemingly easy, and occasionally deadly.

Tightrope Walk
A two foot wide trail next to a twelve hundred foot cliff.

Steps of Faith
Two feet wide, four feet high, twelve hundred feet down on BOTH sides. Anyone who wishes to walk were angels land must cross this first.

Stairway to Heaven
A small portion of the final steep climb to Angels Landing

The Moment of Truth
The final ridge crossing to Angels Landing. Note the slanted sandstone and lack of chains.

Hallelujah!
Lower Zion Canyon from Angels Landing

Hallelujah!
The Great White Throne from across the canyon on Angels Landing

Hallelujah!
Upper Zion Canyon from Angels Landing. Also note the thin red rock fin on the left, what I had to cross to get here.

Steep descent
The Stairway to Heaven is scarier to descend than to climb, thanks to views like this.

Death Defying View
Very few people look down on the Steps of Faith, because this is what they would see.

Great Arch
The Great Arch in Pine Creek Canyon, which is actually a huge alcove

Pine Creek
The amazing sandstone world of Pine Creek

Checkerboard Mesa
One of Zion's most famous features, from the official pullout.