11/6-11/8

After visiting 4 National Parks and one National Monument in Utah we finally visited our fifth and final National Park in the beautiful state called Zion National Park this past weekend. At Zion we went on one of the parks most popular and famous hikes called Angels Landing in which you gain 1488 ft in elevation while climbing "sheer cliffs at high elevations (5785 ft at peak) while hiking on a narrow fin". When they say narrow then aren't kidding. For the last 1/2 mile they have chains along the trail for you to hold as you climb along rock passes that are less than  a foot wide with a 1,000 ft plus sheer drop on both sides. Its was insane and so much fun. The view at the top was amazing, you could the Virgin river meandering through the various rocks formations in Zion. This hike also involved Walter's Wiggles which is a series of 20 switchbacks that go straight up and that Will crazily ran up! He regretted that decision after. lol We also walked to Weeping rock which was a short trail that had signs indicating the various tree and plant species and lead to a spot in a rock overhang where water rains out of the rock. Apparently it is because it is the spot where sandstone meets shale rock and the water cannot pass through the shale. We also hiked the Hidden Canyon trial while at Zion which was a 2 mile trial where we got to explore a canyon and scramble over rocks.

After spending a day and a half at Zion we made the 10 hour drive to Sequoia National Park near Three Rivers California. To get here we drove through Arizona and Nevada including Las Vegas and discovered that the portions we drove through were nothing but desert.

Today we explored Sequoia National Park. We drove along Generals Highway to the Sequoia Grove which is home to the largest trees in the world. We walked along Sherman's Trail and saw General Sherman which is the largest tree by volume in Sequoia National Park. We also walked along Congress trial and saw other Giant Sequoia trees. These trees are HUGE! It is so beautiful here especially because there is snow on the ground and on the trees! It amazing! They also reopened the road which allows you to drive through Giant Sequoia National Monument and to Kings Canyon. It was a beautiful drive. Next stop Yosemite!