We’ve posted a lot on here about outdoor activities in Prescott but what about surrounding Prescott?  I can think of seven National Parks off the top of my head that are all within ~7 hours or less from good ol’ PRC.  This weekend, we planned a last minute trip to Zion.  It seems like Zion Canyon is always overshadowed by The Grand Canyon, but there is no reason for it to be.

“Zion is located along the edge of a region called the Colorado Plateau. Uplift, tilting, and
erosion of rock layers formed a feature called the Grand Staircase, a series of colorful
cliffs stretching between Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. The bottom layer of rock
at Bryce Canyon is the top layer at Zion, and the bottom layer at Zion is the top layer at
the Grand Canyon.”

My friends and I made the trip up to Utah (only took about 5 hours!) to see the underrated National Park.  I loved every part of it.

The first day, we hiked Angels Landing which is apart of the West Rim of the Canyon.  For those of you who aren’t familiar, Angels Landing is an extremely narrow ridge that comes out in the middle of the Zion Canyon sitting at about 5,790 ft.  There are chains securely placed in the rock so that you can pull your self across some of the larger gaps.  This hike was not to be taken lightly, there have been six deaths.  It was pretty exhilarating to say the least.  Here is a quick time lapse of our journey taken with a GoPro.

And then all of a sudden, we had reached the end of the ridge.  Winds were fairly strong and the temperature dropped a couple degrees but we still spent some time to take it all in.

Of course, we had to do some yoga and handstands at the top just to test our luck..

The following day, we tackled the East Rim of the Canyon and trekked to Observation Point.  The East Rim was much more difficult but Observation Point sits at about 7,000 ft, almost 1,200 ft higher than we were the previous day.  It was also a lot less crowded.  We stopped in Hidden Canyon and Echo Canyon on the way to the summit.

We spent quite sometime on the edge of the ridge.  Partially because it was unbelievably beautiful and partially because we were pooped.

But hey, see that extremely narrow ridge in the middle that look crazy scary to hike? That would be Angels Landing!