Canyonlands National Park

After hitting the Arches Visitor Center and getting some snack, we switched drivers and decided it was time to head into Canyonlands National Park. 

I know these national parks looks close together, and they ARE, just not as close you THINK they are. Canyonlands is a bit of a commitment to get into, and oh, it's so worth the commitment. But first: prepare. Once you are in the park, plan on staying in until you are done. Bring your water. No, bring more water than that. Being snacks, again, more snack than you thought. Make sure you have a full tank of gas. As we were driving in, there were multiple signs to the effect of "there's no food, water, gas, or place to stay in here. You sure about this? You got everything you need for a day? Okay, cool, let's go!" 

We only visited Island in the Sky; there are two (three if your count the river) other districts of Canyonlands (the Maze; Needles). Turning onto Island in the Sky Road after leaving Arches took fifteen minutes. It then took a bit more than half an hour from that turn to actually get into the park and to the Visitor's Center, and that was with no traffic and no line for entry. We decided to drive all the way down to Grand View Point with no stops (planning for stops on the way back), and that took another half hour. Like I said: time commitment. 

Canyonlands was such a stunner. The colors are vivid and contrasting; there's a similar feel to the Grand Canyon but the canyons are many, so many, and they are everywhere, and they are open and vast, rather than tall and deep. It feels like there's no end in sight, and you just keep looking at canyon following canyon until your vision can't take anymore. Canyons, mesas, buttes, arches... it's just everything, everywhere, all colors, all at the same time. 

We drove to Grand View Point, and hiked the rim trail. We knew we might only have time or energy for one to two hikes in Canyonlands (remember, at this point, we've basically been awake since yesterday morning), so we wanted to pick our best hikes. 

Grand View Point trail did not disappoint. It's two miles, walking from the point of Island in the Sky along the rim, and you have views of the canyons and mesa from both sides. If you've got a fear of heights, I would try to overlook trail and assess how you feel. You can stay plenty far enough back form the big drops, but it's impossible not to see the drop. It was beyond words. The color, the silence, the views. We frequently stopped for pictures and to just sit on the rim, looking out into the vast beyond. We shared the trail with other people, but even though it was steady traffic, it was not overwhelming and there were still moments of solitude. I saw someone flying a drone, which pissed me off, but I didn't happen to cross paths with them. NO DRONES IN THE PARKS, PEOPLE ugh I am off my soapbox now. 

This hike did not feel particularly strenuous to me, and All Trails rates it as easy. I noticed some people struggling with stairs, but I think that might be more of a product of elevation--which I definitely noticed but YAY all that training has paid off and the elevation change gave me zero trouble. This trail has no shade--they day we hiked was cool (high 40s, low 50s) and honestly, I would not want to be there when it was much hotter. It would be easy to overheated and become quite ill. 

Other trails and overlook points we hiked: White Rim (also amazing, highly recommend) and Shafer Canyon Overlook. We did quite a bit of the "jump out of the car, race up to overlook for the scenic view" type behavior, because we were rapidly running out of gas, the human variety. Our car was fine. The same commentary applies for all of Canyons--vast, overwhelming beauty. We desperately wanted to stay longer, but also did not want to drive four hours back to SLC in the dark. We stayed in Canyonlands for about 3.5 hours and it was no where near enough. It was like licking one small lick of your favorite dessert platter. I can't wait to go back here. 

One thing we saw was that there was an off road vehicle trail--a Jeep trail. In fact there are quite a few opportunities to use a 4WD, high clearance vehicle and do some "scenic auto touring", as the NPS website calls it. It looked AMAZING--we could see some far off Jeeps, looking like tiny specks--on the list for the future. 

Also on the list for the future is going to Canyonlands before sunrise and watching sunrise there. A popular place for this is Mesa Arch, but I really want to see sunrise at Grand View Point trail, along that rim trial some where, or on the White Rim trail.

Picture Post: Arches National Park

I haven't grabbed the pictures off my actual camera yet, so these are shots with my phone. I'll circle back sometime with pictures from a real camera.

I want to put in a plug for sunrise here. There were very few people on the trails we were on, and there was plenty of parking. It was silent. We had some arches and trails to ourselves. Cannot recommend enough.

 

Turret Arch, as the sun was starting to rise. 

We got up close and personal with Turret Arch later on as it got a bit brighter, but we wanted to watch the sunrise from the North Window Arch. Walking up to Turret Arch was amazing though; you go up the path and around a slight curve and BOOM, huge arch and bonus sweeping mountain and canyon views beyond it. 

We had to hustle to The Windows so we could watch the sunrise. Although it looks quite bright in the picture, the sun was not up yet, and it was actually dark--I brightened the image so you could actually see the landscape.

Up we went, into the North Window Arch (the arch on the left in the previous picture) to watch the sunrise. It was glorious. It was us and one other couple. Total silence other than occasional quiet talking. 

One sister, on the rocks. 

Honestly, the whole thing was a pristine and magical experience. Highly recommend foregoing sleep to watch the sunrise. I have a picture of the North Window Arch looking up from standing under it, but it's shaky at best.

After sunrise, we moved on to other areas of the park--primitive trails, Double Arch, Delicate Arch, Balanced Rock, and Devil's Garden. 

We hiked around the loop of the Windows Trail, and there's some fun, very mild scrabbling to follow the trail. 

The Windows Arches from the backside, and I think they missed a real opportunity here to call it Owl Eyes Arches.

Double Arch was by far my favorite arch.

Double Arch felt like a religious experience in a temple to me. It stunned me while at the same time, brought serenity. I hung out in Double Arch for awhile, soaking in the silence and the views. 

Looking out of Double Arch back towards the trial head, the Windows, and Turret Arch is nothing to sneeze at. 

One of the many roadside scenic pullouts--just me and my favorite hat. 

From here, we went on to Delicate Arch, Balanced Rock, past Fiery Furnace, and into Devil's Garden. Those pictures are all on my camera, so I will pull them off soon and do a Arches Picture Post 2.0. 

Arches National Park

This past week was the whirlwind trip to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, plus a side of Great Salt Lake State Park. I want to preface this by saying, WHEW that was an adventure, from the start and the crazy flight times to the driving through the night to the adventure itself. 

This part is just going to be Arches. 

My sister (JE) and our friend (D) rolled into Salt Lake City around the same time as me--12:30 am. We met at baggage claim, rented a car, packed up, and started the drive to Moab around 1:00 am. It's a 3.5 hour drive, and that drive is a doozy in the dark, especially when you've never driven it before. We talked and planned and took turns napping.

We rolled into Arches at 5:15 am, and slid into the park prior to reservations being required, which was our major goal, since we did not manage to snag a timed entry ticket. We made our way to the Windows section, and parked at the trail head there. By 5:45, we were out of the car and walking around, and it began to lighten up. We hiked the trail while the sun was rising, and experienced Turret Arch and the North Window Arch for sunrise. We actually watched the sun rise through/in North Window, and, oh. It was magical and lovely. 

We hung out there for awhile, going  back and forth between Turret and North Window, watching the sunrise and just listening to the silence and the birds and feeling the massive temperature difference between the shade and rays of sun. We continued on the rest of the loop on the Primitive Trail portion, and while it was easy, it was also easy to lose the trail. JE and D would have been lost-ish if I had not been there. Some experience here helps with recognizing how to follow trail markers and cairns. There were a few spots of minor rock scrambling that were fun, and the views were sweeping and wonderful. 

We saw literally two other people. Sunrise hikes for the win, y'all. 

We then did Double Arch and Cove Arch via Parade of Elephants. I thought Double Arch would be cool, but I wasn't expecting to be completely captivated by it. It just really struck a chord with me and I was mesmerized. When I saw someone scrambling up, the words "Fuck yeah!" popped out of my mouth and up I went. Again, since it was so early in the day, we saw maybe five other people. We hiked on via Parade of Elephants to Cove Arch, and then back to the car. 

We did the quick Balanced Arch viewpoint hike, and stopped at many pullouts along the way. Since we were trying to cram so much into one day, we opted to skip Delicate Arch, and just do the view point hike. If you are trying to check the box and see Delicate Arch, just know that the view is a big distance from the actual arch, so it's quite tiny. If you really want to see it, do the hike. We were ambivalent about it, so we were fine with the tiny sighting. 

From there, we stopped at Fiery Furnace pullouts and oh boy DO I EVER want to do that when I come back. We headed back to Devil's Garden, and just meandered, hiking parts of random trails but with no real goal in mind. We were getting close to our go-time for switching to Canyonlands, so we did not want to get too deep in. 

As always, the Visitors Center was fabulous, and I recommend as many of the pullouts with interpretative signs as possible. There's just so much to learn. 

I can't wait to come back here with JK and the kids; this is a very kid friendly place, and it's wild and interesting and easily accessible for kids, with so much to keep them interested and moving. 

I definitely would love to do another sunrise here. I would like to do sunrise at Delicate Arch, and then go right over to Devil's Garden and spend the rest of the time there, hiking the various trails. I also want to do Fiery Furnace, and hit a few of the trails closer to the visitors center. 

All in all, highly recommend. It was a quick sampler, but it was wonderful and enticing, and I can't wait to go back.