Zion National Park

Checked in to the campground about .8 miles from the entrance. Hope and I set up our hammocks and packed up our day hiking packs and headed to the park. We didn't have a permit for Angel's Landing, but there was a hike up to it, so we started out on that. Had heard that sometimes no one is there to check for a permit. Hike was straight uphill about 2 miles or so quite a climb. When we reached the top, no one was there for Angel's Landing, and a few people would just climb - it was later in the afternoon. I knew I couldn't go to the top but Hope made it, I went halfway to a ledge there, just couldn't do last part as you are just holding onto a chain looking at drop-off all around you. Hope actually had top to herself for a while. After that, we headed to the lower, upper, and middle Emerald Pools. Not a lot of water in them at the time, but top and lower had beautiful views. From there, we headed down the path. When we got to where the next shuttle stop was, the bridge was closed. At this point, we had about 8 miles of hiking in. Ended up walling down the horse trail for over two miles for the next stop. However, along the way, we saw 3 mule deer right on our path. One wasn't going to move and was pretty big, so we waited patiently for it to move on. We finally made it back to the visitors center and started our walk back to the campground. At this point, we had hiked over 12 miles. It was after 8 and were starving, so we stopped at a Mexican place called Whippingtail. We both got Carne Asada tacos, and they were amazing, two tacos loaded with steak, could barely finish them. By the time we got back to the campground, it was after 9. Then, I had to pack up gear for our 2 day narrows hike in the dark. Finally hit the hammock at 10:30 for a 5 wake up to pack up and head back to the park to meet the shuttle for a hike.Read more