Zion's 5.4-mile Angels Landing Trail (1488ft ascent) is the one everyone's heard of – and fears. At times the trail is no more than 5ft wide, with precipitous drop-offs to the canyon floor on both sides. Steel your nerves and hang on to those chains for dear life, and soon you'll be atop the park's most thrilling summit.
Start at the trailhead across the road from the Grotto picnic area. Head right and follow the sandy flood plain until you start ascending sharply. After Walter's Wiggles, the set of 21 stonework zigzags that take you up a cleft in the rock, there's a wide area (with pit toilet) that offers vistas and a place to gather strength. Acrophobes may stop here, before the chain-assist rock climb and the 5ft-wide ridge – with 1000ft-plus cliffs – that you have to cross. The final push to the top is even steeper, and requires some rock scrambling – but oh, the views from the top…
