Saturday, March 10, 2012

Observation Point Hike

This morning Kent, Karen Mason and I hiked up to Observation Point in Zion Canyon. We covered 8 miles roundtrip with a 2200 ft. gain in elevation. It was a beautiful 70 degree day and a lot of other people had the same idea. The parking lot was overflowing with cars when we returned. Spring has come to Zion!

This map shows the trail we took to Observation Point

It took us about 4½ hours to hike the 8 miles roundtrip with a lunch break 

Starting out at 10:00 am

Who forgot to shovel the path?  It was slick!

Looking towards Castle Dome

Heading into Echo Canyon

Karen and Kent move along the trail

Cool Slot Canyon 

Fall leaves turns into winter

A unique opportunity to have our picture taken.....thanks Karen!

Yes, that is quite a dropoff

We are ascending higher as we go

At this point you have a few options, we went straight

Spring is starting to appear along the canyon walls

We have arrived at Observation Point.  Looking south towards Springdale and looking down on Angels Landing

We gained 2200 ft. in elevation

The trail we followed part of the way up

Lunch break.....yum!

Heading back down into Echo Canyon

The snow and ice are melting in this 70 degree weather

Looking back to where we were.....wow what a fun hike!