It's funny, Zion N.P. gets over 3 million visitors a year making it one of the most visited parks in the national park system, but for some reason you never seem to hear about it or see the iconic images of it like you do for other famous parks. The Zion canyon area is stunning; a beautiful river valley lined on both sides by HUGE red, orange, pink, and white walls of sandstone. We took the shuttle bus up to the end of the line and did a small jaunt up "the Narrows" which is a trail that actually goes up the river; not along the river, mind you, but rather right up it's guts. Get your water-shoes on, kids. The "trail" goes for 16 miles, but we only went a little ways to check it out. After our final camping meal of the roadie (black bean burritos, of course) we crashed out in our tent to a subtle desert breeze, then up and at 'em dark and early (it stays dark late at the bottom of a canyon this big) for our big hike this morning. Angel's Landing is a "strenuous" 5.4 mile roundtrip affair during which you will gain then shed almost 1500 ft of elevation. The last half mile to the summit is less "hiking" and more climbing... Literally one step at a time using the installed chains to pull yourself up and avoid slipping which in some sections would see you landing on top of the shuttle bus as it winds up the road through the canyon a thousand plus feet below...splat!! Not that we dwelled too much on this possibility...I mean hundreds of people climb this thing everyday, many not as agile or fit as us, right?!? In any case, the top of Angel's Landing treats all who make it to absolutely crazy sick views up and down the valley. We did our best to snag a couple photos that did it some sort of justice... I don't think we quite succeeded. Oh well, if you're that curious you'll just have to come down and check it out yourself someday. I mean it's only 3 hours drive from Vegas... Oh s***, did someone say VEGAS?!?!?