The Grotto - Base Camp for Angels Landing
Photo: Aneta Kaluzna, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
A stop on Zion Canyon, a free self-guided tour.
This shady spot under the cottonwoods marked the end of the road into Zion Canyon in the early 1920s, and it later held a campground. Today it is a picnic area and one of the park's busiest trailheads.
Across the river, the West Rim Trail climbs toward Angels Landing, a narrow fin of rock rising high above the canyon. The trail was built in the 1920s and includes Walter's Wiggles, a stack of tight switchbacks named for Walter Ruesch, the park's first superintendent. As the story goes, Frederick Fisher named it in 1916, saying only an angel could land on top.
Angels Landing is not for everyone. Since 2022 a permit, awarded by lottery, has been required for the chain-protected final stretch past Scout Lookout, and it has steep drop-offs. Check nps.gov for current permit rules, and turn back if conditions are wet, icy or windy.
Getting here: Walk the Kayenta Trail from the Emerald Pools back down to the Grotto, or return to Zion Lodge and ride the shuttle one stop up canyon.
Did you know?: Walter's Wiggles are a set of 21 tight switchbacks stacked one above another on the climb to Scout Lookout.
Photo op: From the footbridge over the river, frame Angels Landing's tall fin rising above the trees.
Nearby: Restrooms, picnic tables and a bottle filling station at the Grotto.
More on Wikipedia: Angels Landing · West Rim Trail
Stops on this tour
- Zion Canyon Visitor Center - Gateway to the Canyon
- Pa'rus Trail - Walking with the Watchman
- Zion Human History Museum - People of the Canyon
- Canyon Junction - Where the River Meets the Road
- Court of the Patriarchs - Three Stone Fathers
- Zion Lodge - A Hotel Rebuilt in 100 Days
- Emerald Pools - Waterfalls in the Desert
- The Grotto - Base Camp for Angels Landing
- Weeping Rock - The Cliff That Cries
- Big Bend - Giants All Around
- Temple of Sinawava - Where the Canyon Narrows