Posts Tagged: Arizona

I grew up backpacking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but for most of my childhood, I hadn’t done much backpacking anywhere else. So the summer after my eighth grade year, I spent three weeks on trip through the American southwest on a trip with nine other students my age. We met at Oakland International Airport and flew to Las Vegas, where we met our trip leaders, Courtney and Porter.

We spent almost all of the first day driving to Zion National Park in southwestern Utah. Zion’s landscape is marked by countless incredible rock formations. We spent our first day there setting up camp and doing team building activities. The next day we hiked Zion’s Narrows, a maze of slot canyons that can be explored via a trail that intermittently disappears beneath the water in the canyons. On the day after hiking the Narrows, we got up early to hike Angels Landing, a 2.5 mile hike to the top of a sheer spire that offered spectacular views of the park. Though short, the hike was incredibly steep and grueling. After forty-two switchbacks, the trail continued on a narrow ledge that dropped 1800 feet to the valley floor on each side. The Park Service provided a chain to help tourists keep their balance. Once we reached Angels Landing, however, we were more than rewarded with the dazzling views of the park around us. We ate lunch and then returned to camp.