
So as not to have a repeat of the day prior we got up and out at an early hour, leaving camp just at the point where headlamps were no longer necessary. It was a cold night, but as has been the case when the sun made an appearance it grew warmer. Given the hiking trail and its winding nature we would catch some sun until the trail lead us back away from it, only to once again deliver us to the warming rays.
While the scenery in the valley was spectacular, once we climbed out onto a plateau, it became more so. It seems as if we were walking alongside an endless painting. The predominant color was rust from the changing leaves of the various trees in the distance, periodically interspersed with gray trunks that lost their cover. There was green from the stands of pine trees, some even blackened from a fire that had come through in 2007. Also in the center wa

s beige and white from striated rock. There was a liberal use of blue in the sky with only enough white to break the solid color on the uppermost portion of the paining. The wind was still, leaving only the periodic chipmunk or bird to give movement.
Given the sun, the fact that we were on a well worn trail, spirits were much higher than 24 hours earlier. And despite having taken nearly 100 photos by the time we stopped for lunch, our pace was brisk.

We arrived at what was to be our campsite at 2 PM and the site was marvelous. It offered a fantastic view of that same painting that we were looking at the entire day. As it was still quite early and we had only six miles to hike out, we opted to do so. Our plan would be to drive the two hours to Bryce Canyon this evening and catch sunrise at the park there.
The final five miles of the trail was the highway of the park. It seems that the people that do get out and walk in the park take the vey route we would be exiting. The worst part of the situation was the last five miles of trail was concrete. I can only guess that the trail gets such heavy use that the Park Commission had to pour concrete on the trail to keep it from eroding. Much like not getting down into the Grand Canyon, it would be disappointing if that was the only five miles of Zion that people would see, as it is quite a diverse park with respect to composition.

Shortly before reaching the trailhead there was a turnoff for Angels Landing. While I hadn’t heard of the trail, some folks passing by mentioned that it was ranked one of the top ten hiking trails in the United States, despite being only a half mile long. The trail is fairly steep, to the point that chains have been installed for people to clutch on their way up or down. While we had plans to make it to Bryce Canyon in the evening, we didn’t want it to be at the expense of Zion.
We started up the trail and after a few minutes Laura decided that the climb wasn’t for her. Fair enough, she would defend our pack from a raiding party of chipmunks. Climbing up to Angels Landing was a fun little scamper, but as far as ranking it anywhere near the top ten hikes in Utah would be a stretch, much less the whole United States. The view offe

red at the top was that of Zion Canyon. Nice, but no better than the view we had the rest of the day. On the way down from Angels Landing I decided to run. It was a bit like Parkour and I did get many a strange or frightened look, but something pressed me to go for it.
Once reunited with our car we stopped in the town of Springdale, UT just outside the park. We figured we earned ourselves a sit-down dinner. We didn’t linger though as it was getting dark. We had to drive through the park again to take the east exit and we hoped to catch a bit of the sunset in doing so.

On the drive to Bryce Canyon National Park I concentrated on the road and Laura did some research as to what our game plan should be for the morning. There were numerous hotels just outside the park, much like in Zion, but we opted to pitch our tent in the park, leaving us closer to the action in the morning.