Canyonlands National Park is about 40 minutes from Arches. It actually has 3 parts to it; only one is do-able by ordinary car. The other two parts require an off-road capable vehicle. The part of the park we would be exploring is called "Island in the Sky".
We arrived at about noon. Canyonlands is even more stripped down than Arches - no flush toilets anywhere, even at the Visitor's Center. The only water fill up station is at the Visitor's Center. And of course, no food to buy or cell phone signal. Though there was this:
At the Visitor's Center, we asked the ranger for a half-day's worth of stuff to see. He highlighted two "easy" walks. We filled up our water bottles (to bring it to gallon+ between us) and we were on our way.
The first walk wasn't a walk - it was a hike. And it wasn't easy. Pretty much all scrambling up rocks the entire distance - with uncooperative knees and the day was warming up quickly.
So we just took it slowly, taking breaks whenever needed.
This is a photo of the "easy" trail.
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| Trail to Mesa Arch |
But it was worth it.
Now what we didn't notice was a little pamphlet at the trail head that showed the entire loop of the trail. As we were trying to decide which direction to follow for the trip back, another hiker showed us the route in the pamphlet - the direction we *didn't* take on the way up was a LOT easier. So we went that way. Amazingly less painful trip down.
After lunch, we did an easy overlook view. This is the Green River Overlook.
The next challenge was the hike up to Upheaval Dome. Since the Ranger had said the Mesa Arch hike was "easy", I was a bit skeptical after the Mesa Arch hike. According to the park map, it was .8 miles round trip.
By far, the most difficult trail so far - very steep, lots of steps, and quite a bit of rock scrambling all the way up. I basically took a break every 20 to 30 feet. A patch of shade? Took a break. Nice rock to sit on? took a break.
The race to the "summit" included one final challenge - scrambling up a steep, ginormous rock.
But, once again, it was worth it. We were looking at a huge crater - possibly caused by a meteor strike.
I'm not really sure how long it took to climb up - at least 45 minutes, maybe more. Coming down was a little faster, but not a whole lot easier.
This is what the trail looked like:
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| The "easy" trail to Upheaval Canyon |
After that it was obvious I was done with walking for the day. So we did two more overlooks:
Buck Canyon Overlook
Grand View Point Overlook
By now it was very late - closing in on 5:00 p.m. But we had accomplished what the Ranger had recommended, so we were good.
We had dinner at the Moab Diner, which was very good.
Day #7 Back to Arches.
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