141. Final Full Day Zion 2025... Angel's Landing

After a night of poor sleep, including Jordan waking up at 3:30am and not getting back to sleep until 4:15am, Anjuli set out to Angel's Landing for a sunrise hike. She had to ride her e-bike since the shuttles don't run that early. After the later than expected start and the longer than expected bike ride up with strong headwinds, she made it to the trailhead by 5am and took off up the trail. It was a neat experience being alone on that normally very busy trail. She could hear the birds and owls, and even saw a couple bats flap around spastically. Her headlamp died about a mile in, but luckily she had brought a spare. By the time the trail wove back into the canyon, it was getting light enough to see around. She made her way up the wiggles and took a bunch of pictures at Scout Lookout, but quickly proceeded to the narrow chain section since it was nearing sunrise.

At first everything seemed as she remembered, with nothing too concerning. She made it about halfway when she hit a very narrow, exposed segment (first picture here). The next portion had no chain and despite being wider (picture with tree in middle), she did not feel safe given that her legs were getting visibly shaky and the remaining portion was the steepest climb. The shakiness was probably a combination of muscle fatigue from crouching her way along and the preceding bike ride and climb, poor breakfast, sleep-deprivation, nerves, thoughts of a baby back in the RV, and the lack of support since there were no other people in sight the entire hike up. She had read of people panicking and didn't want that to happen to her being completely alone. She didn't want to get stuck out there.

It had been a fun experience to that point so she did the sensible thing and turned back and sat at a nice viewpoint at the halfway wider area between chain segments which she dubbed mini Angel's Landing and watched the sunrise there instead. It was still a great hike and would recommend going to Scout Lookout to anyone for sunrise, with no danger to that point (we took Jordan to that point in the kid carrier backpack last time). Anjuli and Bruce did the entire Angel's Landing hike back in 2017 without concern, so something about being older and having a baby must have changed how it looked, plus the heavier backpack she carried this time, which made her more tired and top-heavy. This hike changed how she will evaluate risks in the future... just not worth it sometimes.

On the way back, Anjuli stopped at the Court of the Patriarchs again and walked to the same river viewpoint as the day before. She learned her lesson to always bring the good camera since she could have gotten this shot the day before had she had the Nikon. A stranger pointed out a nice reflection view in a more still portion of the water as well. Another nice view along the road presented itself on the way back as well.

Jordan and Bruce went to the Nature Center to participate in the various kid activities. Jordan loved it!