5 Days in Salt Lake City and Zion

This last month, I spent a few days down in Salt Lake City and down in Zion to do Angel’s Landing!

Day 1: Arriving in Salt Lake City

I got in Friday afternoon and we had a chill evening before our weekend adventures began! We went to The Front Climbing Club – South Main for some sport climbing and then walked over to Second Summit Hard Cider Co. for drinks and food. The Front Climbing was an awesome location, with three floors and lots of options for working out and bouldering, as well as some insanely tall walls. Second Summit was very chill and had free pickleball courts out back (though I couldn’t convince my friend to play).

Day 2: Salt Flats & Pink Lake

Saturday, we hit some of the most stunning views and photo op spots. We headed out very early in the morning to the Bonneville Salt Flats for sunrise. The sunrise itself didn’t photograph well with our phones but the early dawn light was ideal for some beautiful pastel pictures. The salt flats are an hour and a half drive from SLC and I would definitely recommend checking them out! It was very empty while we were there too, with only a few other groups, so we got the area pretty much to ourselves. (Note – there’s really nothing in this area for food or coffee, so come with your own snacks.)

Mid-morning, we started the drive back to SLC and stopped at the Pink Salt Lake, which is part of the Salt Lake near Stansbury Island (go to the Stansbury Viewpoint). The road is a little rough getting out there but it is 10000% worth it and was such a unique experience. While you definitely CAN get in the lake, I wouldn’t recommend it as it’s incredibly salty and had our clothes, shoes, and legs very crusty until we could wash them off (and there’s no shower or hose out there).

We rounded out the afternoon with a little hike on the Lower Mill B North Fork Trail (2.2 miles, 895 ft elevation gain) for some views of the Cottonwood Canyon area, which is apparently also a great climbing area! The bottom part of the hike had a little waterfall with a few climbing routes, though they were mostly 5.12s.

I wrapped up the night with a killer BLT and really, really good fries and a flight of beer at Hopkins Brewing Co. before we prepped for our driving day down to Zion.

Day 3: Arriving in Zion

We kicked off our Sunday morning with a visit to the Wheeler Farm Farmer’s Market, which was located on a historic farm and had a great selection of food, veggie, and crafts for sale. We picked up some great bread and tasted some local honey and honey products (Utah is the beehive state).

We then started our 3.5 hour drive down to Zion (listening several murder podcasts on the way). The entrance to Zion didn’t seem to be checking for National Park Passes (though we both had one). We settled in that evening at the Watchman Campground (no showers) and were treated to some amazingly clear skies (killer stargazing with a late moonrise and very visible Milky Way) and super high winds that kept us up a good chunk of the night.

Day 4: Exploring Zion

Monday was our day to explore Zion before we hiked Angel’s Landing on Tuesday and we kicked off the morning with Watchman Trail (3.1 miles, 636 ft elevation gain). After our morning hike, we took the shuttle from the visitor’s center to Narrows (the only way to travel in this part of Zion) where we walked around but didn’t do the Narrows hike.

We walked quite a bit this day, just exploring the area and checking out some of the museums in the park. We wrapped up our evening with some OK food and great fresh watermelon margaritas at Bit & Spur Restaurant & Saloon, which had really nice outdoor seating, live music, and a craft market on their lawn.

Day 5: Angel’s Landing

Angel’s Landing (4.3 miles, 1800 ft of elevation gain) is now only accessible with a lottery permit and there were rangers posted at the bottom of the turn off for the hike checking for permits. I applied for the lottery back in April (I don’t believe it’s a very competitive lottery) and winning my permit became the motivation for planning this trip to Utah.

You choose during the application process if you want to begin the hike before or after 9AM and I chose the earlier slot. Most of the hike is open to anyone (the portion that is on the West Rim Trail) for the first few miles and you’ll hit a very nice viewpoint. From there, the permitted section is the Angel’s Landing trail, which is not particularly strenuous or long but is not well protected, though there is a chain on one side you can hold for most of the hike. Overall, I did feel that it was more sketchy feeling than Half Dome and sparked off more of a fear of heights for me, particularly since people have really died on this hike.

That being said, the view was amazing as you’re basically walking on a ridge and have a killer view of the valley floor below you. I would absolutely recommend this as a hike that is not too difficult but is tricky for those who are afraid of heights. We did the hike in a total of 3 hours, which included jogging back down after our descent from Angel’s Landing.