Angel’s Landing Trail Closes Temporarily

Zion National Park’s most famous thrill-ride of a hike, Angels Landing, has been temporarily closed to the public after a structural post snapped along its spine-chilling chain section. Park officials paused the mandatory permit lottery to allow crews to rapidly fix the damage, with a planned reopening scheduled for the morning of June 12. While Scout Lookout remains accessible, the final half-mile precision walk above the canyon floor is strictly off-limits.

A Century of Acrophobia

Angels Landing was originally named in 1916 by Methodist minister Frederick Vining Fisher, who famously remarked that only an angel could land there. Taking that as a challenge, the National Park Service constructed the trail a decade later in 1926. Engineers carved steep switchbacks, known as Walter's Wiggles, directly into the sheer canyon walls and anchored heavy iron posts and chains into the spine of the rock to give hikers a fighting chance against the 1,000-foot drops flanking both sides.

A History of Heavy Wear

Because Angels Landing funnels hundreds of thousands of visitors annually across a precarious fin of Navajo sandstone, maintenance closures are a recurring reality. The trail was famously shut down in 2018 after severe monsoonal storms washed out entire segments of the neighboring Refrigerator Canyon. It faced similar emergency halts for safety chain repairs in June 2022 and regular multi-day maintenance windows in late 2024 and early 2026.

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With the 2022 implementation of the permit system to curb extreme overcrowding, protecting the trail's physical infrastructure has become paramount. For those eager to tackle the heights, always pack a hands-free hydration pack, respect the closures, and check the National Park Service website for real-time lottery updates before making the trek.