Definitely an orb weaver. I have a love hate relationship with them. They are beautiful and build beautiful webs. They happen to build those webs in the worst places though. I run early in the morning, so I’m frequently the first through the paths/walkways. Once the weather gets a bit warmer they start really building huge webs from one tree to another, across my running paths. For the last couple months there has not been a single run where I didn’t end up covered in their homes/them. Face full of web and the accompanying spider is NOT fun.

That looks very close too checking image results! I'm not particularly knowledgeable with identification, I just did a reverse image search and was comparing the shape and markings. With some of the things labeled golden orb weaver and yellow garden I am having a lot of trouble telling them apart.

Either way it is indeed quite a cool little creature!

Ooh that's really cool! I guess in some areas they are more abundant, but at least we got to spot one. Sadly didn't get to see a web myself, do you happen to remember what it looked like?

Yeah it's possible. I am no stranger to hiking and these little ones have stayed out of my sight while doing it over the years. This one however was just sitting on a wall, waiting to be discovered! Also I can imagine, suddenly running into a spider like this and its web right outside your door would be quite a sudden shock!