Today was just an amazing day. We woke up at 8 am to hike the Angel’s Landing, hands down the toughest hike I personally have ever been on. A little nervous (there have been confirmed cases of deaths occurring during the Angel’s Landing hike), I slipped on my Chaco sandals, and I was off with the team. The climb in the beginning wasn’t too bad, but a good break from biking. About a mile and a half in, we faced these 21 switchbacks, steep like crazy—and this was just the beginning. Once we reached the first summit, we took a quick break (I had packed a PB&J and a few Powerbars), and continued onward. At this point, there were no longer hikeable paths, so we had to cling to chains which hung on the side of the mountain. This was definitely and enthralling hike. After nearly 2.5 hours of hiking, our team reached the summit and an amazing view of the park in all of its glory. This was one of the most rewarding hikes I have been on to date.

In the afternoon, after our intense Angel’s Landing hike, we hit another hotspot at the ZNP, The Narrows. This is actually the Virgin River at it’s most northward point of the park, where the trail is literally the river, and we wade through that as it swivels between two cliffs. Definitely more fun and relaxing than Angel’s Landing, our team had a good time getting our feet wet, and taking a break from the scorching sun.

On a more random note, when we returned to camp, we realized many of our bags had been raided by squirrels. Teammates McMillin (or Mike) and Kathryn had their bags chewed open for the Twix and cookies which were inside. I returned to my tent and found that they had ate all of my Pringles--I’m still a little bitter about that. Sarah claimed that as she came back, she saw three squirrels running out of our tent, one with a whole bag of Skittles from its mouth. These Zion squirrels sure know which stuff is the good stuff! Until next time…