A Survival Guide for the Most Dangerous Hike in the U.S.

Me, after watching a million GoPro videos of the hike on Youtube: Angels Landing looks like the most amazing hike in Zion and really doesn’t seem that scary. Should be lots of fun!

Narrator: It was, in fact, not.

The infamous Angels Landing hike in Zion National Park is one of those hikes that you see a lot of cool photos and videos of online and think, “This looks doable.” And then you find yourself hanging off a precipice 1,500 feet above the canyon floor with no tether to keep you from slipping off into the canyon if you take a step an inch in the wrong direction. This is the story of how I survived one of the most strenuous and deadliest hikes in the world (I mean, it’s on the same list as Half Dome and the trail to Machu Picchu).

Ratings by Roshelle:

Dogs spotted: 0
Hike difficulty: don’t bring your dogs, or even your kids, unless you really want to get rid of them

After entering the main entrance to Zion and parking at the visitor center (pro tip: visit during a government shutdown to avoid paying the park entrance fee), board one of the numerous free shuttles that transport you to various attractions and hike trailheads. The park shuttles make 9 stops for popular park destinations, but the number 6 stop is for the Grotto, including the trailhead for Angels Landing. If you plan to hike to Angels Landing, arrive earlier in order to avoid significant crowding, especially along the last bit of narrow ledge rock scrambling. Seriously, the number of hikers can lead to traffic jams at the upper point. I hiked this bad boy at the end of December and even then there were some jams, so I can only imagine what prime tourist season in the summer would look like.

Once you get off at The Grotto shuttle stop, cross the footbridge over the Virgin River to get to the trailhead. The first two miles of the hike are known as the West Rim trail. Now, the first portion of the hike starts out relatively easy, on a wide, paved trail, but begins to steepen within several minutes. As you follow the paved path, you emerge from the outskirts of the river and and begin the hike up the monolith of the canyon towering over you. (I later came to find out this was called Refrigerator Canyon? Very disappointed because I never found any snacks).

After making it past your disappointment and the steep canyon incline, you emerge into a pleasantly shaded and forested area of the canyon where you can give your quads a little break.

And after a shorter than hoped for relief, the path then turns into a set of short, steep inclines called Walter’s Wiggles. After you get past the name and all of the turns, you’ll find yourself at Scout’s Lookout. This is where you can really take in the monolithic view of Angels Landing in front of you: the almost fin-like ridge jutting out from the canyon floor.

Now, from Scout’s Lookout, it is apparently only 500 feet of climbing. I know this sounds simple enough (my naive self though that could be accomplished in twenty minutes, who was I kidding?), but consider for a minute the fact that from here on out, the trail is essentially a single-file path (if you can really call it a path) precariously close to the canyon precipice, so the foot traffic is what really gets you. At first, the trail doesn’t seem too narrow or perilous. The views off either side of the trail may terrify those scared of heights, but if you have hiking shoes with good traction, and you find yourself holding on to the chain rope provided at all times, the next fifteen to twenty minutes aren’t terrifying. (A small note on shoe attire: I saw a bunch of hikers wearing detachable spikes for the bottoms of their shoes to improve traction on the ice/snowy portions so I would definitely recommend buying those off of Amazon if you go during the winter months.)

Once you finish climbing up the sandstone and boulders, the path narrows to only nearly a foot or two in width. Now, this is where things get dicey – and icy. There are portions cut out of the rock here to make small “steps” (boy, would I have killed for those Walter’s Wiggles steps I complained about before). I like to think these steps were specifically made for those who were as terrified as I was at this point. I would compare this section of the trail to a very narrow footbridge. Raised 1,200 feet off the canyon floor, where falling off means almost certain death. Or, if you’re an adrenaline junkie who didn’t discover a terrifying fear of heights on this hike, like I did, you thrived during this section and it was loads of fun. If you dare to glance down at any point, you can see the minuscule outline of the Virgin River below. You can even see the shuttle buses running along the drive to the Grotto, if you look long enough.

After surviving that, you essentially only have one final climb left until you make it to the top. For me, it was more a test of my mental endurance at this point than physical. (Although, admittedly, my legs were definitely starting to quake a little). Once you make it past the rest of the ice and rocky scrambles and lift yourself over that last ledge to the top of the ridge, you will feel a sense of accomplishment like no other. Do a Breakfast Club style first pump, if you’re feeling it.

The vista in front of you is completely incomparable to anything else in the world. From the top of Angels Landing, you get a completely panoramic view of the entire canyon. Appreciate the fact that you made it up here: you are standing on a ledge in the very middle of Zion canyon. Take some time to soak in the views of the Virgin River winding around the forest, and the red, yellow, and vermillion colored sandstone looming over the canyon floor. Also, definitely take a snack break here. You deserve it. But I take that all back if it’s the summer season because in that case you definitely want to high-tail it back to some shade ASAP.

My legs still shaky during the descent, but my heart a little lighter, I almost forgot that we had an entire hour-long hike back to Scout’s Lookout. Since it was late afternoon, the crowds were already starting to thin out and I was busy discussing how many beers I needed when we got down.

Now, when you get back to Scout’s Lookout, and you’re the type of ambitious person who doesn’t change their font size in Microsoft Word to make an essay assignment fill up the required page length, you can choose to hike up the West Rim trail a little more and really killing your leg day. However, if you’re like me and chose size 12.5 Times New Roman in college to avoid writing an extra paragraph of your paper, you have the option of hiking straight back down to the Grotto and getting that beer – or three.

Bottom line: if you’re scared of heights and don’t want to feel like you might slide off the trail at any given moment, don’t do it. But if you want to say that you’ve hiked one of the most dangerous trails in the world, with steep 1,000-foot dropoffs on either side of the trail, and take in some incomparable views of Zion canyon while you’re at it, then go for it.