Park 7: Canyonlands National Park, UT: 

Canyonlands National Park, another park of which we were not familiar, is just a stone’s throw away from Arches, so we bedded down in Moab, UT for 2 nights.  This is a funky old western city kept alive by all the outfitters in town pushing float trips on the Colorado River, 4 wheel drive and mountain bike rentals, and guide led excursions.  

Canyonlands is a vast area where the Colorado and the Green rivers merge, dividing the park into three distinct regions: Island in the Sky, The Needles and The Maze.  Most of The Needles and The Maze are accessible only by 4 wheel drive vehicles, so we explored Island in the Sky.   The high mesa known as the Island rises as a headland 2,000 feet above the confluence of the rivers.  We spent the day driving the winding roads with sweeping views of the park’s narrow, interlocked canyons, towering buttes and wide skies at every turn.  Below in the distance, hidden in deep gorges you can barely spot the Green and Colorado rivers, but you can’t miss the strange landscape they carved in the red rock. 



Colorado River side of Island in the Sky

Green River Side of Island in the Sky



Cairn of the Day

We hiked the 2 mile rim trail at the end of Grand View Point Overlook and picnicked on a precipice 2000 feet above the canyon floor.  The trails are mostly slickrock, with the trail marked by cairns, or man-made stack of stones.  We learned the hard way yesterday at Arches that 3 cairns mean do not enter; you are going the wrong way!   
 We continued on to Upheaval Dome where a half mile trail took us to the lip of an unusual geological feature---a mile wide crater enclosed by rock strata upturned in concentric circles.  Some geologist believe a meteorite collided with Earth here. 



Beginning of a 100ft rock climb

On the way home we detoured to follow the Colorado River to Potash where the salt is mined.  Along the route we stopped to watch rock climbers scaling the steep canyon walls in the cool afternoon shade.  Another day in this adventurer’s paradise! 

Odometer: 3,812 miles.