Angel's Landing

While exploring Zion in 1916, LDS pioneer Frederick Fisher looked up at the great monolith and exclaimed, "Only an Angel could land on it."


Last week was National Park week which meant free admission to any NP in the country. I took advantage of the freebie and drove to Zion Canyon on Saturday to hike Angel's Landing. It was a perfect 80 degrees and blue skies the whole day.

The First 2 miles are deceivingly easy and safe. The hike is very fast in this first section.

The Great White Throne is the looming White Sandstone Mountain directly to the East of Angel's.

This is where the hike gets exciting. The narrow fin of sandstone leading out to the top of Angels.

Hiking up the Sandstone fin. A woman stumbled and fell to her death just last month on this part of the hike. The shadows of the canyon appear as black voids of space in this picture. In person, this was an Awesome view looking deep into the canyons below. I wish I had Angie Harding's camera to really do it justice.

The views of Zion Canyon are breathtaking from high up on the cliffs. I noticed most hikers just kept their head down and trudged along staring at their feet the whole time...I kept thinking, "My gosh, stop for a second and LOOK UP to enjoy the amazing views along the way!"

This is the famous "Step of Faith" on Angel's. My camera did not capture the horror of this particular rock. Many hikers have stopped and turned around at this very spot; refusing to go any further. The East (left) side of the rock is a 1200 ft drop to the canyon bottom below.

I voted this as my favorite spot for a chain. The shadows of the canyon messed up this photo but take my word for it, you definitely would not want to have a misstep on this section!

Finally made it to the top. As I stood for this picture, one woman passing by told me I was crazy.....all I could think was "Ah... my dad would be so proud right now!...and my mom would be freaking out." I can't count how many times I have hiked in Zion and heard my dad utter the phrase, "Whatever you do, don't tell mom!"

Looking way down at the main road from the top.

A couple other "crazy" hikers inching their way out to the edge. Fortunately it was not windy on Saturday. A gust of wind on the edge could really ruin your day

The view as I started my descent from off the top.

The virgin river from 900 feet up.

Can't wait to hike it again!

The Forbidden Fruit

I'm convinced that Eve's forbidden fruit was actually little DQ blizzards dangling from the limbs of the tree. Those tasty little treats are devilishly delicious! They also happen to be BOGO $.25 cents this week to celebrate their anniversary at your local Dairy Queen. Happy Birthday Blizzard! We're happy you were born 25 delicious years ago. For FHE tonight we decided we better join in on the festivities and wish this cold dessert a big Happy B-day.


I wanted to line up the girls with their Blizzards for a fun picture. However, after I snapped the photo I realized that Kaitlyn was experiencing a blizzard brain freeze the very moment I pushed the button. I got a little frustrated and told her to smile through the pain. I really needed this shot because my blizzard was quickly melting in the other room. The following picture shows Kaitlyn attempting to smile through her tears!

Finally Mom came to the rescue and told the girls a silly joke to get their cute smiles below. Colie and Jessy's eyes close into little crecent moon shapes when they smile big just like their moms'. I think its darling!

So...one 'Hawaiian', one 'Banana Cream Pie' and one 'Oooey Gooey Carmel Brownie' Blizzard later and they were all cold, happy, campers.