2013 Western Trip – Canyonlands NP

For our second day in Moab, we headed out to Canyonlands NP and like Arches, it doesn’t take us long to see things as we’re pretty well confined to the road and short, easy trails (except one this day).

To get to the park, we drove from the valley up to the top of the Colorado Plateau at around 6000’ with the drive up providing some interesting scenery.

Canyonlands is divided by the rivers into three parts and we visited the Island In the Sky part with our first view just across the road from the visitors center.

Once on top of the mesa, the canyons carved out over the ages by the Green and the Colorado Rivers are spectacular and while they are not the Grand canyon, they are grand canyon’s none the less.

I like to watch TV shows about how the earth was formed and it occurred to me this day that it is still being formed every day.  When I gazed the many miles across the canyons at the next piece of land that was at the same elevation as us, it was hard to comprehend the amount of erosion that has occurred as is still ongoing.

We did take one short hike on the Upheaval Dome Overlook Trail the and it was described as 1/3 mile with 100 foot elevation gain, but what they didn’t say that it almost like going up a 10 story building.  Here are some shots Bev took along the way and of the top - it's much steeper than it looks here.

I don’t know which hurt worse, my lungs on the way up or my knees on the way down – whichever, it was good for me – I think.  Here are a few more shots of the park.

The Colorado Plateau contains nine national parks and the majority of them are associated with erosion ala the Grand Canyon.  I assume that 100 million years ago the plateau was at pretty much the same elevation and Mother Nature has been using performing her magic with water to create the sites we now see.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/13/2013 event date