1-year Anniv Utah - Day 2

We slept hard and woke up with the daybreak around 6am.  We knew that the parking lot would fill up quickly, so we quickly through the tent and everything into the car and drove over to the Visitor Center to quickly grab a spot.  The lot was already 3/4ths full on this Sunday of Memorial Day.  We got dressed, packed our bags, and headed to the shuttle line before 7am.

Holy cow, the line for the shuttle bus was long.  We ended up waiting 1+ hour to get on...imagine what the line looked like at 9am!  We hopped on and rode until the stop for Angel's Landing Hike.  We hopped off at Grotto Trailhead before 9am and started the trek up.  The trail was still shaded through Refrigerator Canyon , which made the hiking much more manageable for the pregnant Mom carrying twins!

Up and up we went, first through Walters Wiggles, a series of 21 switchbacks.  Then to the start of the Angel's Landing summit, passing people as we climbed.  When we arrived to Scout's Point, there was already a long line to go up, which was also due to the trail being only 1 person wide at certain spots.  After waiting 10-15 minutes, we started the climb to the summit.  There was tough footing, chains to hang on, and at one point the trail was only 5 feet wide!  We eventually rose to the 5800 foot summit and the view made us speechless.  Zion Canyon to the west, and The Narrows back to the East.  We ate lunch, cooled off, but then it was time to climb back down.  We arrived back at Grotto Trailhead ~5 hours later.  We hopped the shuttle back to our car, grabbed a quick shot of the beautiful Watchman's Peak, and headed onto Bryce National Park!

We drove for ~2 hours and before entering Bryce NP, we set up camp and bought some supplies for a campfire & s'mores!  We entered the park and headed for Sunset Point with a view of Shipwreck Rock.  We ate a picnic dinner and watched the sun set on the hoodoos!  We got back to the campsite and started the fire, it was cold!  The forecast said the nighttime temps would dip into the low 30s since we were at much higher altitude than Zion (almost 8000 ft!).  We celebrated our 1st anniversary exploring the sights and laughing side-by-side.

Zion NP - Line at Shuttle Stop was long at 7am!

Zion NP - Walter's Wiggles, 21 switchbacks to start Angels Landing hike

Zion NP - Scout's Point view of Angels Landing summit

Zion NP - Line at the beginning of Angels Landing summit

Zion NP - Angels Landing hike "The Spine" - Look how narrow the trail gets!

Zion NP - Amazing view of Zion Canyon from top of Angels Landing

Zion NP - Watchman's Peak from canyon floor

Onto Bryce National Park!



Bryce NP - Shipwreck Rock at sunset

Bryce NP - Marshmallows before camping (got down to 30 degrees!)