Goldstrike Hot Springs, Angel’s Landing, and East Rim Hike

Spent New Year’s at Zion National Park!

We started the trip by flying into Vegas. While we waited for the rest of our group to meet in Vegas we did the Goldstrike Hot Springs trail.

Here we are at the trailhead!

The trail seemed to follow what used to be a river. It would have been a really cool ride to kayak or raft if there was still water. There were a bunch of these ropes that you could use to climb down from the rocks.

After ~2 hours we got to the first hot springs! We were too nervous to get in because we heard there are ameobas in there D: . Apparently, it is safe if you don’t put your head under or get water in cuts or what not, but we didn’t want to take the chance.

The next day, we drove to Zion and went on the Angel’s Landing hike. It was about 30 degrees out so we wore lots of layers! We were almost sweating at times, but when we stopped walking- quickly froze.

I liked the wavy texture of the rocks. It was something I haven’t seen before in California. It was pretty weird to think that all of this was once under water. We hoped to find some fossils, but we didn’t find any.

There was light falling snow the whole hike. It felt like being in a snow globe! Really cool.

The end of the hike is on the top of a ridge. There are chains to help you climb and at 30 degrees F, they were freezing!

Here we are at the tip!

There was some ice at the top so we had to be careful not to slip off the edge. It was a long way down but looking over the edge didn’t give me vertigo like looking over the edge of half dome.

Here’s the sunset on the way down.

We woke up with a light dusting of snow on our campsite!

The next day we did the East Rim hike. I wanted to do the Narrows but we would need wetsuits. I hope to come back to Zion when it’s warmer to do the Narrows and Subway.

There were purple cacti on the hike!

East rim was much less interesting than Angel’s Landing.. Not too much to report on this hike.

We woke up on New Years to Winter Wonderland!