Not far from the most recent rockfall, water collects in a riverside depression, forming a desert swamp where the croaking of frogs echoes off the canyon sides. The swamp teems with wildlife and plantlife seen nowhere else in Zion, including a unique snail with a small shell and big feet that has adapted to the rocky, swampside terrain. At the end of the trail, hikers must decide if they want to continue along the river, a venture that requires them to scramble over boulders, wading and swimming into ever more compressed canyons. In late summer, those expeditions might prove dangerous. When rains fall, flash floods quickly fill all the breathing space.
Most visitors retrace their steps instead.
One afternoon, I stopped at the handsomely rustic Zion Lodge, near the spot where Isaac Behunin sat outside his cabin and dreamed up a name for this place. The trail starts at the Grotto picnic area and goes up 1,500 feet off the canyon floor. But it's beautiful up there. At Angels Landing, you're above everything. Being in this canyon gives me claustrophobia.