Angels Landing
— — the fin the canyon climbs onto its own back.
Not only on a wall.
“The narrow sandstone fin above the Virgin River in southwest Utah. The last half-mile is the chain section, where the trail walks the spine of a knife between two thousand-foot drops. Most hikers turn at Scout Lookout. The ones who go on come back quieter. The light at the top is best an hour before sunset, when the canyon below has already gone blue.
Angels Landing, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Angels Landing rises to 5,790 feet above the floor of Zion Canyon in southwest Utah, reached by a 5.4-mile round-trip trail from the Grotto Trailhead. The route climbs through Refrigerator Canyon and up Walter's Wiggles, twenty-one tight switchbacks carved into the cliff by Walter Ruesch and the National Park Service crew in 1926. Since April 2022 the final chain section requires a permit issued by lottery through Recreation.gov. The name was given in 1916 by Methodist minister Frederick Fisher, who reportedly said only an angel could land there.
The final half-mile is a sandstone fin barely wider than a sidewalk, with drops of roughly 1,500 feet on either side. Chains bolted into the rock give hikers something to hold. Afternoon thunderstorms build fast in summer; rangers close the chain section when lightning is in the forecast. Temperatures on the rock can exceed 100°F by midday in July. Many photographs are taken at the saddle called Scout Lookout, which the Park Service marks as a sensible turnaround for hikers who do not want the exposure of the chains.
Access to the chain section requires a permit from the National Park Service, distributed by seasonal and day-before lotteries on Recreation.gov; the system was introduced in April 2022 to manage crowding. Zion's main canyon road is closed to private vehicles most of the year; visitors ride the park shuttle from the visitor centre to the Grotto stop. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons. The upper trail is closed when icy. The full round trip takes most hikers four to six hours.