Vacation Update - Vegas and Zion

Tyler and I have been gone from our home in Arkadelphia for 2 full weeks!  If you follow Kolby and Emily's blog, you understand part of the reason for this long trip from home.  Yes...I know it has taken me so long to actually update about our vacation, but here it is finally.  I'm not exactly sure how I'll do this either...so much happened and has happened since then that I'll try to get it in as few posts possible, but not making any promises:

So, day 1 - Las Vegas...actually night 1.  We stayed in the MGM Grand (awesome) which was on the strip, and after settling into our room, we headed out to walk up and down the strip and see the lights!  It was pretty crazy, but not as impressive as I was expecting.  We did stop by the Bellagio to see the fountain show, and it was pretty cool...it was a lot of water.  Once we made it back to our hotel we had dinner and Tyler and I each gambled $5 (yeah, we're high rollers).  Tyler came out a little better than I did, but keep in mind that wasn't the only time we gambled...I'll get to that later.

The next day we drove to our first stop on the trip...Zion National Park.  It was beautiful!  We ended up getting there a little after lunch and spent the afternoon doing a couple of hikes.  We meant to hike a trail called the "Narrows," but they were closed because of high water.  Plan B: We hiked the emerald pools instead.  The hike we did was about 3.5 miles.  We got to see some pretty cool waterfalls, and even though a couple of the pools weren't very impressive, we did stop at one pool that was very pretty and very helpful in cooling us down.  The last hike we did for the day was to the Weeping Rock...womp womp...nothing too exciting, but still interesting.

Our second day at Zion National Park was pretty intense.  We started our day with a hike called "Angels Landing."  DO NOT let the name fool you...this place was HELL!  Okay, I'm exaggerating, but I will say that I was the most scared I've ever been in my life.  The begining of the hike was great, a bit on the physically intense side, but the views were pretty incredible.  Then, we met Walter...there was a part of the hike called "Walter's Wiggles": 21 switchbacks (back and forth straight up the mountain) where all I could do was take as big of steps as possible so I could make it to the top faster.  Once we got to the top of Walter's Wiggles, we were only 1/4 of a mile from the peak of Angels Landing.  

 Walter's Wiggles

We decided to take a break and have some granola bars.  Our first clue should have been the fact that we were the only ones sitting on the ground to eat...as soon as the wrappers came off the granola bars, we were surrounded by chipmunks!  They knew no boundries, because they crawled everywhere around us...I was just waiting for them to start climbing up my shirt, and since I was so freaked out, I shoved the last part of my granola bar into my mouth before the chipmunk could get to it.  Then, I was afraid that the chipmunk would try to pry open my mouth...like I said, no boundries...speaking of, Emily was actually sitting with her legs crossed and all of the sudden a chipmunk had crawled under her legs and was sitting in her cris-cross applesauce!  Once all evidence of food was gone, we started the last part of the hike...the "if you want to have a near death experience, this is the part for you" part.  We were told that this part of the hike was on the ridge of the cliff, with areas as small as three feet wide.  Oh and there are sheer cliffs on either side of you that range from 800ft. - 1200ft. drops.  The only thing keeping us on at times was a chain that was bolted into the rock.  

 

 View from Angels Landing hike

After a group meeting, and establishing rules ("four points of contact at all times," "Erin, don't say oh my gosh unless you absolutely mean it") we started on the last quarter mile of the hike.  Needless to say, I became an expert at crawling down a mountain on my rear...oh and I cried three times, so we didn't exactly make it to the end, but we all decided that we were very proud of how far we got...and that we were all still alive!  

 The only couple of pictures we have from this view...we wouldn't risk moving around any more than we needed.

Our hike back down was great!  We became good friends with Walter and even learned how to walk down the wiggles without hurting our knees!  When we made it to the bottom, we took our lunch break, and then started on our second hike of the day.  

 Yay! We made it back alive.

Here is a video to demonstrate how you should walk down Walter's Wiggles.  This will prevent any physical pain to the knees.  Thanks Emily for this technique!

We stopped for lunch, and then hiked to Echo Canyon...also physically intense.  If it had not been for the sweet lady that encouraged us to keep going because we were so close, we would not have made it.  It was well worth the work!  We were able to explore a small slot canyon...in the shade...and it was awesome!  We got some great pictures and took a lovely break...lovely, lovely!  

Our new friend we met at lunch

 Our last hike of the day was more of a walk than a hike.  We walked the trail along the Virgin River in the park, and it was very pretty.  There were hanging gardens all around and lots of shade!  We even got to get in the river at the end of the hike...it was FREEZING!!!  We got in long enough to take a picture and then quickly made our way back to dry land.

All in all...Zion National Park = 2 thumbs up!  Total # of hikes = 5  Total # of miles = 12.5

Next: Bryce Canyon National Park and the Vermilion National Monument