Re: Angels Landing Trail Closure, November 17, 2016

SPRINGDALE, UT – Angels Landing Trail will be closed Thursday November 17, 2016 beginning at 12:00 p.m. at the West Rim Trailhead near the Grotto shuttle stop. Through hikers on the West Rim Trail will be allowed to pass by Scouts Lookout, but not go out to Angels Landing. The Kayenta Trail will remain open. The Angels Landing closure is needed while park rangers clean up vandalism along the trail. Rangers will need to scrub off graffiti, remove cairns along the chained sections of the trails, and clean up litter – water bottles, food wrappers, and other trash left by hikers that have blown over the edges of the cliffs and caught on lower ledges.

Hikers already on the trail will have time to exit before the closure. The trail will reopen the following morning. Alternate suggested trail hikes during this closure are to Hidden Canyon or Echo Canyon.

Due to the nature of the trail, its narrow working area and 1000-foot drop offs, this task requires a multi-divisional team from the park including rappelling operations from the cliffs, and providing security for visitors from possible falling debris while cleaning is performed. Angels Landing is an incredibly popular and busy trail for park goers. “It is our hope that hikers understand and work to improve their trail ethics in order to minimize closures like this – pack out your trash, don’t create graffiti and don’t build rock cairns,” remarks Therese Picard, Canyon District Ranger. “It is everyone’s responsibility to care for this beautiful and extraordinary park now and into the future” adds Jeff Bradybaugh, Superintendent, Zion National Park.

"Removal of cairns."

Those damn jackasses stacking rocks all over the effing place. I saw a recent photo from the summit of Angel's, stacks and stacks of rocks overlooking the canyon. Pisses me off.

There should be a fine for creating those stacks.

Quote
hotrod4x5
"Removal of cairns."

Those damn jackasses stacking rocks all over the effing place. I saw a recent photo from the summit of Angel's, stacks and stacks of rocks overlooking the canyon. Pisses me off.

There should be a fine for creating those stacks.

I agree. Each time we go to upper Emerald Pools in Zion, there are more cairns than the last time we were there. We take them down when we see them. Same thing when we were in Arches and Canyonlands this summer. Forgot to say this when I first posted. When we were in Arches we kept seeing that someone was drawing "petroglyph like shapes" on cliffs and rocks with a strange orange colored chalk so my son and I used water and washed them off. Next day in Canyonlands saw the same thing so we washed those off. You are not going to believe this but over a week later when we were in Zion, we saw those markings again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2016 01:54PM by parklover.