The America's National Parks Podcast is sponsored by L.L. Bean.

This year, L.Bine is joining up with the National Park Foundation,

the official non-profit partner of the National Park Service to help you find your happy place in an amazing system of more than 400 national parks

including historic and cultural sites,

monuments, preserves, lakeshores, and seashores

that dot the American landscape,

many of which you'll find just a short trip from home.

L.L. Bean is proud to be an official partner of the National Park Foundation.

Discover your perfect day in a park at find your park.com.

may your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Edward Abbey.

I hope you'll indulge me something personal on this episode.

Before dawn on what would become a perfect October day in Utah, I set out to

attempt a solo hike. It wasn't the type of hike that would have been a big deal

to an avid hiker, but for me it was bound to be.

I'm Jason Epperson, and on this episode of America's National Parks,

my journey up the side of a cliff at Zion National Park and I'm on my way to take a solo hike, which is something I haven't done much of,

so I'm excited to do it. I'm heading to the Hidden Canyon Trail. Let me say right now that my hope was to do Angels Landing. It's a popular hike that takes you up high,

up numerous switchbacks and across a precarious walkway. You hold on to a chain with drop-offs on either side of you until you make it to a perch high

above the big bend of the Virgin River.

It's that sort of fear-conquering hike that's world-renowned, but I didn't have the time to do it. We

needed to swap campsites and I had to be back to our RV by 1030 a.m. to get it

...