This is the largest and most rugged of all of Utah’s parks. It is divided by the Colorado and Green Rivers into three distinct parts. Canyonland’s first superintendent, Bates Wilson, invited visitors to “come to our wilderness, but be ready to rough it.” That advice still holds true for much of the park. We visited The Island in the Sky section of the park as The Needles District has only 8 miles of roads accessible by foot, four-wheel drive vehicles, or mountain bikes and The Maze District has no paved roads. The Island in the Sky section sits atop a massive 1500 foot mesa—quite literally an island in the sky! From these lofty viewpoints, visitors can see nearly 100 miles in any given direction. From the Neck we looked down on Shafer Canyon. Hank got very nervous as he definitely did not like Matt standing so close to the edge.
Matt was driving and next we went to Green River Over-look.
We went to see Upheaval Dome. This stone curiosity does not resemble a dome at all, but rather a meteor crater. When we found that we would have to hike over 3 miles round trip in the 99 degree heat, we decided to have a picnic instead. We saw several bluebirds and blue pinon jays while having lunch.
Hank was thrilled that we had one more overlook—Grand View Point. In fact, both he and Alice found themselves leaning in towards the center of the truck as Matt drove us higher and higher.
I had to include this photo of Whale Rock. Do you see his eye and mouth?
Amazing that Arches and Canyonlands are mere miles apart and yet are such totally different parks. Arches has the red arches and rock formations, while Canyonlands has the deep canyons reminiscent of Grand Canyon. Just a few more pictures of Canyonlands.
We stopped for drinks at Moab Brewery and then Alice made birthday dinner for Hank—she served Matt’s mother’s famous meatloaf recipe. Hank was just happy to be away from the cliffs and treated us to ice cream at the campground to celebrate.
No comments:
Post a Comment