Gael Glen Farm On The Road: Day 92: Zion National Park, UT

Our big hike today was Angel’s Landing, the most iconic hike in Zion National Park. We won the advanced lottery for this hike, with a permit to start before 9am. We were up at 5am and got on the first park shuttle to the trailhead at 7am. We hiked up a bazillion very steep switchbacks - luckily in the shade since the sun hadn’t yet rose over the mountains to reach the canyon - including the famous zigzag trail called Walter’s Wiggles. This part was tough but doable.

A family safety briefing prior to our departure.

Heading up Walter’s Wiggles.

We arrived at Scouts Lookout at 8:30am and Liam showed our permit to the park ranger since it was in his name. The ranger advised us that the last part of the trail - called the “chains” section - would take us 1.5 hours to complete and wished us luck.

For context I have been nervous about attempting the chains section with the boys since winning this lottery. The internet is split about whether this section is appropriate for kids with some families documenting having done it with a smaller child and others vowing that they would never attempt it with anyone under 14. It was hard to know what to believe. So, we agreed as a family that it made sense to at least try it as long as everyone was on their best behaviour and followed all the rules.

First of all, it needs to be said that the boys were incredible. They behaved perfectly and as safely as possible. They said they were not scared and were excited to complete the chains section. The other side of the story is that the chains section was frankly terrifying. Full disclosure, I don’t love heights but I was prepared for the 1,500 ft drop offs on both sides of the chain. What I was not anticipating were the sections where there were no chains at all and we needed to walk completely unsupported until we reached the next set of chains. I was also totally creeped out that people had to come up and down the same trail on the same side of the chain by passing each other along the narrow path (the trail was often single footprints in the rock).

We had started the chains very early so no one was coming back yet when we headed out. This meant that we could climb forward unencumbered, but as the stream of people built up steadily behind us, I realized that to get back we would need to hike past a steady stream of people going in the opposite direction who were eager to get back to the end of the chains before it gets too hot out. I worried some of these hikers might be rushing and not as careful in passing the boys as they could be. We also saw several people Instagramming the hike holding their camera out on a selfie stick while walking without paying full attention to the hike. While most people were patient and careful, I did have a few people push past me to move along more quickly.

The chains section ran across two mountain ridges that are almost 1,500 ft to the ground. We completed the chains section along the first mountain ridge. Again, the boys did amazing - working their way along the trail slowly and carefully. However the chains are built at adult height and as I hiked behind Alistair I noticed that sometimes he had to reach up on his tiptoes to hold on to the chain.

At the first lookout I saw that the second mountain stretch was at least twice as high as the first and still very (if not more) narrow. Ian thought the boys could handle it and that we should continue to the second mountain. The boys argued that they were following all the rules (they were!) and said they also wanted to continue. I was scared and felt that we had done enough with the last section to have had the experience of hiking the chains and that the risk associated with continuing to the angel’s landing lookout was higher than I was willing to accept. It would have only taken one slip of a foot on the dusting of loose sand that covered the sandstone rocks, one slip of a sweaty hand off the chain, or one nudge from a rushing hiker to knock us off balance perhaps resulting in a fatal fall. If we’re being honest, all falls from this trail are probably fatal. While it probably would have been fine if we’d continued and perhaps it was unfair of me to make a decision for everyone, I pulled rank and made a judgment call that we had gone far enough along the chains section and should turn around; completing the hike wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.

Apparently this was my face when I saw the second chains section.

If you zoom in, you can see the people hiking up this ridge. It is impossible to gauge the size in the photo; it was very tall and very narrow.

This is less than one foot off the trail we walked on if you looked down. That is the Virgin River far below.

As you can imagine, this was a very unpopular decision and everyone was disappointed, sad, angry, or some combination thereof. Alistair’s face in our family photo pretty much sums up everyone’s reaction when I indicated that we wouldn’t be going further. It is difficult balance wanting to foster adventurous and brave boys while not allowing them to take risks that have minimal room for error and very big consequences if something goes wrong. After we had returned along the chains section and were back at the start, I knew in my heart it was the right decision - even if the rest of the family (adamantly) disagreed. When I pointed out that at least they were alive to disagree with me, it didn’t win me any points, lol.

Ian was disappointed, Alistair was devastated, Liam was angry, Seamus goes with the flow.

The hike down the many, many switchbacks was uneventful. We finished up back at the trailhead around 11am and headed to the park’s Human History Museum. The best part of this museum was the dinosaur head; yes, we saw the irony in this.

Dinosaur ancestor of the crocodile.

The temperature skyrocketed during the afternoon so we opted for a scenic drive along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and through the tunnel to the East Entrance to the park. The scenery was beautiful, including the bighorn sheep we saw right on the road.

In Mount Carmel we hiked into the Belly of the Dragon, an old drainage ditch that looked pretty creepy! The kids were all asleep in the car when we arrived at this trailhead and were not enthused about waking up and walking more. Ian and I thought this short hike was cool but it will not rank high on the boys’ list due to no fault of its own.