At the top of Angel's Rest

Finally a clear weekend that we felt climbing up for a viewpoint would be worth it and Angel's Rest did not disappoint for view, the overall hike wasn't as enjoyable as others we've done unfortunately.

I got off to a bad start with this hike, I really don't like the hassle of dealing with a water bottle and I seem to drink like mad on hikes so we invested in camelbak packs with 3L water bladders.  3L might seem like overkill for our average hikes but I thought it better we get the larger size, we can always fill it less than full but if we had a 1 or 2L we couldn't fill it any fuller than its capacity. Great for convenience but I failed to consider the extra weight that water would be in my pack... just wow.

This was no Eagle creek, this trail started out steep and kept on going steep with a few less steep places mixed in the middle.  The trail itself was unremarkable, it was as you see in this pic, trees, some ferns, looks like any old patch of forested area in the state and trail was littered with rocks.

First open view point on the trail.  This was a large area of loose rock with several large ones scattered about perfect for a break or lunch. You think you're at the top but its all a trick. No, really.

I think we walked about 15 minutes to reach the top which involved some actual climbing

Itty bitty people on the top of the rocks on the right of the shot, that still not the furthest point on the rock formation.  This was taken from the top of the trail, we stopped there for lunch before heading out to the point. Tired me=dizzy me=splat/not nice.

The trail down couldn't go fast enough, however. For all the quiet of the hike up, we only ran into a few other groups, the hike down had a ton of people, many of which I found annoying.  There was a family with small children that didn't bother to watch the children as they ran all over and got in the way, the girls who were in their hiking gear with a full face of makeup and their hair done to impress whatever guy they were hanging on, these girls also were incapable of walking single file so we had to stop a lot. It got "better" the closer we got to the trail head, a group of girls in their late teens talking about a friend who was not present in a way that implied they all stab each other in the back as often as they can and a woman still talking on her cell phone, just wow.

on a better note I got to see several bald eagles flying around and amazingly enough I got a photo of one.  Hope everyone has a great week!