Zion National Park and Las Vegas
23 Jun 2018Last weekend a I took a couple of days off to see some of the western United States, with a visit to Zion National Park and Las Vegas.
Zion National Park is absolutely stunning. We did a couple of hikes, the first was to the peak of Angels Landing, a 454 m high rock formation (total elevation 1,760 m). The trail was built in 1926 and is cut into solid rock most of the way. It’s only 3.9 km to the top, but it felt much longer given the elevation and the temperature (it was about 40 °C).
The photo below was taken from somewhere near the start of the trail, Angels Landing is the peak in the foreground of the photo on the left side.
The view from the top was worth it though!
Given how hot it was on the first day, we set out a little earlier for our second hike to Observation Point. The line for the buses into the Canyon was already quite long, so we took the opportunity to walk the Pa’rus Trail to the second bus stop.
I’m glad the buses were full, as the Pa’rus Trail provided some amazing views along a fairly flat and safe path. It was nice to have a casual stroll and look around without needing to worry about veering off the track!
The walk up to Observation Point runs through Echo Canyon Passage, which was a nice change of landscape and the canyon walls also offered some protection from the sun.
Observation Point itself made the hike worthwhile, it’s a great vantage point for almost all of Zion Canyon.
We were all flying out of Las Vegas, so on Sunday afternoon we drove back to Las Vegas and explored there a bit. It was roughly what I expected - lots of bright lights and tacky touristy things 🤣. The Fountains of Bellagio were pretty impressive though!
