This was our last day of hiking. We got up early to ensure we could find a parking spot, but we didn’t leave quite as early as we planned and ended up getting there around 9. We found one of the last few spots. Zion fills up quickly, so plan to get there early if you want a parking spot and to avoid lines. We didn’t have to wait to enter the park because we came in from the east entrance, but we saw some horrific waits to enter from the west. We did have a wait in line for a while to get on the shuttle that took us into the canyon. We figured it would be easiest to get the longest ride out of the way and hit all our desired stops on the way back out of the canyon.  We didn’t have any issues finding spots on the shuttles for our return, but maybe it wouldn’t have been a wait once we had entered the park anyway.  Since we needed six spots on any shuttle we were to attempt, we didn’t want to risk it. The first hike that we went on that day was the Narrows Riverside walk.

It was an easy, short hike that followed along the river (imagine that!) to the point where others were beginning their hike of the Narrows.  The water was freezing!  We will just go back another day to do our hike in the water. We headed back to the bus stop and headed over to the Angel’s Landing trailhead after that. As we didn’t have a permit, so we couldn’t go all the way up, but we got to Scout’s Lookout. It’s a demanding hike with lots of switchbacks. Walter’s Wiggles is a particularly difficult section with 21 very steep switchbacks back to back.

This was the hardest hike we did during the trip, but the view is definitely worth it. You get a great view of Zion’s breathtaking cliffs and twisting river valley.

We headed back down and went to a short presentation put on by one of the rangers in order to fulfill the requirements to get another Junior Ranger badge. Try as I might, the family was ready to return to the car at that point and not interested in another hike. We already know we didn’t do Zion justice and will plan a return.