When most people think of Southern Utah, they think Zion. I’m going to say this: Zion is overcrowded and over-saturated by social media.

While it is a beautiful place, I live right next to it and haven’t visited in over 2 years because it’s just not worth the crowds anymore. It’s more like cattle being herded through the park, and I’m not about that life.

That being said, it’s well worth seeing it at least once in your lifetime!

No matter what time of year or what time of day you go, there will be crowds. Avoid going on an obvious holiday where you know the masses of asses will gather.

Since you can do a simple google search and find a million articles on hiking and visiting Zion, I’m going to keep this short and sweet by quickly mentioning my two personal favorite hikes at Zion.

Angel’s Landing

This is an obviously popular hike, but for good reason. It’s beautiful. It has this hard-core reputation of being this crazy sketchy, difficult hike. Maybe I’m off-base here, but I disagree.

It’s a ton of fun and the views are amazing. My favorite run of my entire life was running down the switchbacks on the way back down the trail, dodging tourists. You should try it sometime.

• 

• 

There are some major switchbacks on this trail. It’s a great calf work out and obviously easier on the way back down, when it’s down-hill.

The Narrows

The nice thing about this hike is that you can make it relatively short, or do the entire hike. Either way, you start out on a cement trail and begin trekking through the water.

Keep in mind that the entire river is full of large and small unsteady rocks, so I’d suggest being THAT person and bringing a walking stick. Or you can be like me and just use another person as leverage and take the risk of one of you going down at any time. It keeps things interesting.

Fun fact: there’s two things you’ll never see me caught dead with: a walking stick, and a selfie stick. It’s a no from me dawg.

Have you been to Zion? What was your favorite hike?