We originally wanted to hike to Angel’s Landing, but when we realized that the most treacherous part of the hike only had a rock that was about two feet wide with a chain in the middle, we both decided that it wouldn’t be the best idea for either of us. The park keeps track of the number of people who fall to their deaths. On the day before we were there, one man broke his ankle on the Angel’s Landing and had to be helicoptered down. We both had only regular sneakers, no hiking boots, and I also brought a backpack that was too heavy with our layers (sometimes, coming over prepared doesn’t really help in the long run. Chris suffered while carrying the heavy backpack going up the strenuous path up to Scout Lookout). We ended up hiking to the Scout Lookout just a half mile away from Angel’s Landing, but there was actually a long queue – about 40 minutes-wait – to climb up to the Angel’s Landing portion of the hike to get the priceless view of Zion!

We talked about people’s levels of fear regarding heights. We’re both probably in the middle when it comes to extreme fear and total lack of care of heights. Maybe mine is slightly less than Chris’s because I’ve done more hiking and rock scrambling than he has. Either way, he suggested that since we’re probably not coming back for a long time that if i want to go to the very end, he’d wait for me at Scout’s Lookout while I joined the line to hike to Angel’s Landing. I thought about it for a minute and decided against it.

I don’t want to just hike these trails just to do them and check them off my list. I want them to be shared experiences, so if he can’t go with me, then a big part of me doesn’t want to go at all. I want to look back on all these experiences and know we did them together. And even if I did do it, what… I’d have a photo of myself on Angel’s Landing, and he wouldn’t even be in it and would have had to wait an hour for me to get through and back. I’d always look back on this trip and remember I did it without him, which would always make me feel sad. That’s not a memory I want; that’s no fun to me. We’re in this together until the end.