Day 11: Zion National Park - Angel's Landing

We woke up next to the reservoir at sunrise. It was a beautiful morning, and no one got mauled by bears during the night, so not a bad night. Unfortunately, everything was soaking wet from the dew, so it took us a while to pack things up. We then headed on our way back to Zion to try to grab a vacancy at the campground.

Nos levantamos al amanecer, por suerte, nadie había sido atacado por osos durante la noche... Tardamos un poco más de lo normal en recoger las cosas porque las tiendas de campaña estaban empapadas por el rocío de la mañana, pero nos dio tiempo a llegar al parque Zion para buscar una parcela en el camping.  

Pescador en el pantano / fisherman in the reservoir

There were thankfully some spots still open at the South Campground at Zion, so we hurriedly grabbed the first one we could find as some people were still packing their gear up. As soon as they left, we started to unpack our stuff, only to realize that the site was FULL of anthills. This didn't seem to faze John (he already set up his tent), and Idoia seemed indifferent. I wasn't too thrilled, and even though we already paid for the site, I went in search of something less anty. We ended up finding a huge site, with nice shade, and no ants, and we were able to switch the two sites without having to pay again, so it worked out. By the time we had everything set up, it was around lunchtime so we wanted to get started on a hike for the day. We finally decided that we would do the Emerald Pool trails, and save The Narrows for tomorrow since it was an all-day affair.  We took the shuttle to the Zion Lodge stop, and started on the the emerald pool trail which offered some great views.

Había varias parcelas libres en el camping Sur, así que nos pusimos en la primera que vimos. Cuando ya habíamos pagado nuestro sitio, Martín (cómo no! ;) ) se dió cuenta de que estaba lleno de hormigueros y sus consiguientes hormigas. Así que ya nervioso se puso como loco a buscar otra parcela, mientras tanto John ya estaba poniendo su tienda de campaña, qué diferentes...jajaja... Total... al final nos cambiamos de parcela sin necesidad de volver a pagar. Ya al mediodía terminamos de montar todo y decidimos hacer el llamado sendero de las Piscinas esmeralda. 

We then jumped on the kayenta trail, which led us to The Grotto shuttle stop. It was about 4 PM, and we had to make a decision: either go home, or try to do Angel's Landing. For those to lazy to click on the link, Angel's Landing is 2.4 miles one way, but you have to climb up 1500 feet. They recommend 4-6 hours round trip, and we didn't want to come back too late, so we figured we would climb out for a while and then head back down. The climb was tough, but offered great views. Once we made it to the top of Scout's Landing, we only had about a half of a mile to go of chains and tough climbing to get to Angel's Landing.

Cuando terminamos el camino ya eran las 16 y teníamos que tomar una decisión, o bien irnos al camping o hacer el camino Angel's Landing. Para aquellos vagos que les de pereza entrar en el enlace, os comento: se trata de un sendero de casi 4 km en el que subes 457 m. El trayecto entero se hace en unas 4-6 horas, pero no queríamos llegar de noche a las tiendas, así que hicimos solo una parte del trayecto. Fue una subida bastante dura, parecía la calle Lombard de San Francisco, pero más larga (o eso nos pareció...). Luego hay una parte en la que vas sujetándote a una cadena, bastante canguelo. 

Deer drinking from the Virgin River / Ciervo bebiendo del rio Virgin

Near the end of the Angel's Landing trail, we ran into a... TARANTULA!!!

Al final del camino, nos encontramos con una TARÁNTULA!!!

After the trip, we were pretty exhausted. We went to grab our rental gear for our next day's trip through the narrows, and also bought some food for dinner: brats and veggies for the grill. We went to bed early, as we needed some rest after a long day of hiking!

Acabamos reventados, pero contentos de haber podido aprovechar la tarde. Luego fuimos a una tienda para alquilar zapatillas, calcetines y una mochila impermeables para poder hacer la excursión de mañana, The Narrows, una de los caminos que más teníamos ganas de hacer desde que preparamos el viaje.