Canyonlands National Park

Happy Easter!

This has been one of our longer yet enjoyable days. We left Capital Reed National Park this morning around 7:30 p.m. for the 3 ½ hour drive to Moab, UT. We were again on UT Route 12 which is a Scenic Highway. Other than a close encounter with a wild turkey, fortunately it thought better of crossing the road, the drive was once again very beautiful. After we got off Interstate 70 and began to get closer to Moab, we saw signs to Canyonlands. We decided to drive the additional 45 minutes and visit there today. This resulted in a lot of driving today (234 miles), but the best use of our time since we are only 3 miles from Arches National Park which we will visit tomorrow.

Canyonlands is different from the other parks visited in that there are no lodging, food or water facilities available. Fortunately, we had plenty of food and water for our day in the park. Canyonlands is the largest national park in Utah. It is divided into four major sections, Island In The Sky, The Maze district, Horseshoe Canyon and The Needles. Since Island In The Sky is the Northern most section of the park and closest to Moab, we decided to spend our day in this area of the park..

After a quick stop at the Visitor’s Center, we drove the 14 miles of the Scenic drive to the Grand View Point Overlook. Along the way, we quickly saw that the size of the canyons were immense. The view from the Grand View overlook includes over 100 miles of canyons and includes the Colorado and Green rivers. We hiked the 2 mile Grand View trail which runs along the canyon rim. At this park and others visited, many of the trails are on sliprock with the path being marked by a manmade pile of rocks which act as directional points. These are known as cairns. After our hike, we went to Buck Canyon Overlook. Once again, we were treated to majestic views of the canyon floor. We then proceeded on to another location known as Upheaval Dome. Here we hiked close to one mile to view what is described as a crater-like area of unknown origin. It was believed to have been created from either a meteor strike or from a salt dome. The inside of the crater is a beautiful jade green. We were able to see not only the crater, but the canyon below it. We then stopped at the Green River Overlook where the Green River runs in the distance. Our final stop of the day was at Mesa Arch. This ½ mile trail took us to the canyon rim where the stone arch hangs from a 500 foot cliff. We were also able to view the Washer Woman Arch which is located on a distant mountain..

We returned to Moab checked into our hotel and had our Easter Dinner at a local Brewery/Restaurant. Tomorrow we will spend the day at Arches..

You can see pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/CanyonlandsNationalPark?feat=directlink.

More later . . .