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.