Traveller 2004

I was up early and to the backcountry desk by 7am to get a three day permit. I figured anything less and I would run into a lot of trouble getting camp sites at the next place during the Memorial holiday. Three had me coming out on Monday morning. The planned day hike was to go to Observation Point, an 8 mile round trip hike.

	Right from the beginning of the hike I met up with Jessica Terrell. We spent the rest of the day and evening hanging out. Good company and she talked me into staying in a camp ground on my way up to Yellowstone (which ended up being the Grand Tetons instead) instead of looking for a hotel. She was on this trip called American Frontiers that had two teams that travelled completely on public lands from Canada and Mexico and met up somewhere in the middle. Pretty cool. The switch backs at the beginning of this hike are steap. In fact, most of this hike was a significant up hill.
	A neat erosion pattern.
	The trail wound back into the canyon.
	Back in the canyon it started getting hot with the sun beating down on us. There was a lone tree up on a ridge I got a short of, then a picture looking back at where we came from.
	Looking up where we're going to, the once we're up there a nice view of the back canyon.
	Two shots as we're getting close to the top and coming back into Zion canyon. Then one shot looking off the edge of the trail.
	A nice wildflower.
	Getting real close now.
	At the top! What a view. I stood on the edge and a swallow going about 80 went right past my ear. Sounded like a freight train. A nice man from Japan snapped a picture of me. This row is a nice shot of Angel's Landing which I visited the next day on my way to my backcountry camp ground.
	Some shots looking down from the top.
	A shot from the top looking to the north. All around an incredible view.
	On the way back down we stopped to explore a side canyon. Had some trouble getting past some nasty water at one point, but eventually made it all the way through the canyon. Some really great pictures of erosion patters and canyon walls.
	We finished the hike and headed towards town. I needed a water filter. We met up later for some beers in camp and had some great conversation.

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