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Zion National Park's Hike to Angel's Landing: eHike to the Top

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Published Date

May 18, 2009

Zion National Park's ehike of Angel's Landing, shown here in profile, is well worth your time. NPS photo.

The hike to the top of Angel's Landing in Zion National Park has gotten a lot of attention from Traveler readers over the years.

If you've never experienced it and are curious, check out the ehike the park recently produced.

Part slide show, part video, part symphony (natural, and orchestral) performance, this eHike leads you from the floor of Zion Canyon nearly 1,500 feet up to the outcropping that is Angel's Landing. But the production is much more than simply a look at scaling this iconic overlook. It's an audio and visual portal into the ecosystem of Zion Canyon.

There's information on the geology that forms Zion Canyon and the forces that sculpted the canyon. You can watch a video of the Virgin River at normal flows, and one of a flashflood down the river bottom. There's a great shot (and even a short video) of Walter's Wiggles, a stretch of switchbacks that you have to negotiate, and information on the different microclimates and animal and plant-life to be found along the hike. Not only are you offered photos of the birds that inhabit the canyon -- from the Black-chinned Hummingbird and melodious Canyon Wren to the Turkey Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, and, if you're lucky, even the California Condor -- but also audiofiles with some of those species' songs and calls.

Naturally, there's also a video of hikers working their way along the section of trail where chains offer you something to hold onto. And for aspiring climbers, or those heading to Zion to climb, there's an interactive shot of three popular climbing routes, and some photos that will test your comfort levels in high places.

This is a great work of audio/visual interpretation.

Comments

Very well done! It's great to see the park service starting to build up their online interpretive information. I hope they will continue to post more interpretive information online. Even much simpler content is very useful, like building up their online collection of plant and animal ID descriptions and photos. I often find myself visiting a park's website in hopes of putting a name to some animal or plant I happened to snap a photo of on a earlier visit.


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