Angel's Landing - Zion - How late in the day?

I am planning to drive to Zion from Las Vegas, hike Angel's Landing, stay in
Springdale, hike Zion Narrows (short version), and go back to LV.

I expect we will get there too late to miss the heat by getting an early
start. How about the opposite; how late in the day can we safely head out
for AL and still make it back? I suppose if the trails are good and there
is nothing to trip over, doing the last few miles in the dark isn't a big
deal; but I haven't seen it.

Sunset is at 8:50PM. The moon will be up, but only a crescent.

Thanks.

Right now I am building a storage shed and dying of the 82 degree heat!

I HATE the heat, was born in Denver and just don't take well to it.
Still, I'd rather do Angle's Landing in the middle of the day ... when
I first when through Zion, the NPS worker there kept telling me about
all the different ways to die in his park, one of them being the trail
you're interested in after dark. Having hiked it a few times, I
really can't disagree with the guy on that one.

Still, it's gorgeous, and you should check it out with your own two
eyes.

On May 24, 9:50 am, "Toller" wrote:
I am planning to drive to Zion from Las Vegas, hike Angel's Landing, stay in
Springdale, hike Zion Narrows (short version), and go back to LV.

I expect we will get there too late to miss the heat by getting an early
start. How about the opposite; how late in the day can we safely head out
for AL and still make it back? I suppose if the trails are good and there
is nothing to trip over, doing the last few miles in the dark isn't a big
deal; but I haven't seen it.

Sunset is at 8:50PM. The moon will be up, but only a crescent.

Thanks.

Right now I am building a storage shed and dying of the 82 degree heat!

It's been a long time since I did this hike. And, of course, the time
it takes for any hike is most dependent on the individual hiker. But
the NPS says it's a four hour roundtrip. So even assuming you're
fifty percent slower than the NPS thinks you are, the roundtrip would
only take you six hours. So starting out as late as 3pm, you'd still
be able to get to the bottom before it gets dark. And if you're a
faster walker than the NPS thinks, you could leave much later than
that.

Still, to play it safe, figure on getting started on the trailhead by
4pm. And if you haven't made it to the top by 7:30pm, turnaround!

On May 24, 9:50 am, "Toller" wrote:
I am planning to drive to Zion from Las Vegas, hike Angel's Landing, stay in
Springdale, hike Zion Narrows (short version), and go back to LV.

Why don't you hike the Narrows first (during the hot part of the day,
then hike
Angel's Landing early the next morning? It's a 4 hour hike up and
down. The bottom
part is pretty straight forward to hike down but if you think it might
get dark bring a flashlight.

Zeyd