Angel's Landing

When I was checking the news, I was shocked to see that a hiker died this weekend from falling off Angel's Landing. Angel's Landing is one of my favorite hikes, but is also the scariest. (It was scarier than the Girl Scouts trip to Mt Rainier when our leader got lost and we wandered all day because she couldn't find the trail - the park was blasting and had covered the trail in boulders.) You see, the last half mile of the hike is along a narrow ledge with drop offs on both sides. You have to walk single file and be careful. I remember thinking that if my mother knew I was on this trail, she would be SO mad because it was so dangerous. Then I thought about how I am not the type of person who does dangerous things, so logically, I must not really be there on that trail...so that meant I was safe because I wasn't really there - my mind protected itself from fear for a few moments by trying to convince itself it was having an out of body experience. My mind was there, but my body was safe down in the parking lot. (What does that mean, Rena?) The best part of the hike is when you get to the top and you are rewarded with a beautiful view from a large flat area at the top of the mountain. Angel's Landing is one of the highest elevations in the park, so you can see the whole valley around you. This news story got me thinking about how grateful I am for my college roommate who loved the outdoors and planned these trips to the national parks, so that I could experience places like Angel's Landing before I became too busy or too scared. (Rena would say it was before I had a fully developed frontal lobe.) I had always planned to hike Angel's Landing again, and maybe it's because I am waddling around in my 9th month of pregnancy right now, but I wonder if that will ever happen. And maybe someday I will be telling my kids that if they want to hike Angel's Landing, they shouldn't tell me about it ahead of time, but tell me after they get back and I know they are safe. :P