Canyonlands National Park

On one of our three days in Moab, we drove out to Canyonlands National Park. The park has two main areas; we visited the Island in the Sky district while staying in Moab. This area is a large mesa top that overlooks both the Colorado and Green Rivers on either side and the stunning canyons the rivers have cut. For a lesser-known national park, I was surprised at how scenic and enjoyable it was!

One hike we did was to Upheaval Dome, a 2-mile diameter crater in the park. Geologists say they can't figure out why it's there. It's pretty strange, filled with piles of mystery grey-colored sediments but surrounded by red sandstone.

We left Moab on Friday after our windy, sandy three-day stay. We didn't get out before the weather gave one more blow: light rain our last night there meant that the tent and its contents were not only sandy, but wet. It was a mess, but fortunately the inside of the tent (and the contents) remained mostly dry. We repacked the car and headed out to the other half of Canyonlands NP: The Needles district. This part of the park is remote, less visited, and known for a range of rock spires that looks like a field of needles.

Our first task was to find a campsite, which proved to be one of the strangest encounters we've yet had on the trip. The campground in the park was full, so we went to the private campground just outside the park. Here, we looked around at the spots to pick a sunny one to dry out the tent and equipment: this was our cardinal sin. When we headed in the store to register with a spot in mind, the woman owner instantly jumped us, asking "if we could read" and telling us that we were supposed to register before looking around. Despite my explanation, she could have cared less and said she had "no interest in people like you" and that we were "welcome to camp up the road somewhere else."

We left (sort of stunned) and drove a few miles back down the one road to the park to explore the BLM lands for camping spots. However, all of the roads were impassable for the van, especially after the recent rains in the area. There were no other camping options, and we had no choice but to make our visit to the park quick and just keep heading down the road afterwards. We checked out the visitors center, drove through the park, and walked two short hikes to a canyon and a strange pothole-covered rock.

Looking across Canyonlands

We left and found a National Forest campground just outside of Monticello, UT. We arrived late in the afternoon but still in time to unpack the tent and tarps with the hope that they would dry out. Because of their condition, we would have to sleep cramped in the car. Another reason to sleep in the car was the record lows forecast for that night of around 30 degrees. Despite our positive hopes leaving Moab that morning, we found ourselves once again sleeping in the car to avoid the cold, windy weather.

Our poor tent before cleaning and drying out

Cooking in the car for the fourth (or something?) day

We woke up on Saturday morning to a temperature of 27 degrees and frost on the inside of the car windows. We packed up the tent as quickly as possible. It was much cleaner, though it was covered in frost that would inevitably melt in the car. Even though the night had been cold and planned last-minute, we made it, and we set out for Colorado around 7:30 AM. Only two nights of camping were left while heading southeast and down in elevation to our sprint east and home, which left us with hope that things would only go uphill.

After so long on the road and the recent tough weather, we're in New Mexico now with a week left. I'm hopeful and excited to finish so soon: surely we can survive whatever is left!

Arches National Park

We arrived in Moab, UT in the early afternoon. After setting up camp just outside the town, we went into Arches National Park to drive around.

Arches - like the rest of Utah - is formed out of red sandstone, which in this particular location has eroded into all sorts of fantastic and impossible-looking shapes, obviously including arches. The landscape is generally flat, bordered by the towering Rockies to the east, with strange sandstone fins and shapes protruding from the ground. We saw many of the park's named and famous formations that day driving around, most of which are very matter-of-factly named.

The landscape of Arches NP

 

Balanced Rock

Double Arch

The Windows

We took another full day to do two long hikes in the park: the first through the Devil's Garden, and the second to Delicate Arch. The Devil's Garden was a fun and challenging trail, half of which looped through the sandstone fins and required some climbing and a lot of trust in your feet. This trail winds past several arches and other formations, including the world's longest arch, Landscape Arch.

The Devil's Garden trail

Double O Arch

Landscape Arch - 100 yards across

It was clouding up by the time we finished and headed to Delicate Arch. This arch is the iconic image of Utah and seemingly the entire West, so I was excited to visit it. It is big - probably 50 feet tall. I think it's most intriguing because it seems to just stand on its own, unconnected from any surrounding fins or rock, unlike many of the park's other arches.

The world's most famous arch!

Me under the arch for scale

Our stay in Moab - which included one more day to explore part of Canyonlands National Park - was not as smooth as our visits to the parks. We happened to arrive as a weather system was pushing strong winds around 50 mph through the area during the days we were there. The tent was no match for the weather, so we gutted the extra seat and stuff from the van, put it in the tent, and collapsed it and weighed it down. This gave us the entire back of the van as wind-free living space; we had to cook, eat and sleep in the van for the three days and nights in Moab.

Our site and the tent in collasped-storage mode...

The wind itself was not our only enemy: the desert sand that it blew around was just as bad. Only after our pillows, mats, and sleeping bags got covered in sand during a particularly strong gust did we learn to always keep the car shut. And it made all the hiking more difficult: the sand stung my skin and ended up in my ears, eyes, and mouth. It was a particularly tough place to camp, but our spirits were propped up by the quickly-approaching end to the camping portion of our adventure and the return to sleeping under a roof!

Bryce Canyon National Park

Less than 100 miles from Zion, our next stop was Bryce Canyon National Park. It's more of a long ridge that is eroding spectacularly than a true canyon. We spent an afternoon driving along the ridge, stopping to do several short hikes to viewpoints, before camping there that night.

Just as Zion is the beginnings of a Grand Canyon, Bryce is the beginnings of another Zion. Here, the gulleys and carvings that water and ice have left are in their smallest state, just forming. Erosion and weathering have created this panoramic maze of hoodoos - small, odd-shaped rock formations - that stretches out for miles with the same diverse color palette as Zion, still slowly eroding away today.

The weather was cold and breezy while we were there on Sunday afternoon, and the clouds and surrounding rain showers made for some great pictures of Utah's high plateaus and the hoodoos.

The hoodoo structures and eroded rock are fascinating: I could (and did) spend hours taking in the patterns and shapes.

The cold day meant that the night would be even worse: we decided to settle for an uncomfortable night sleeping in the car rather than in the tent and severe cold. Sure enough, we woke up on Monday morning to frost on the van windows and a temperature of 32 F. 

On that morning, we hiked down under the rim for several miles through the hoodoos. It was neat to hike around and (literally) through them, yet the hike was tough due to the multiple ups and downs in the canyon. They are very large, most 30 or 60 feet tall. They are also surprisingly fragile - the sandstone will rub off and fall away as sand with just the touch of your fingers.

The scale of some small hoodoos...

...and some much larger ones.

Often the trails cut straight through the rock.

Our visit was great, but cold. Fortunately, we had a planned hotel stop on Monday night to rest warm and well. This hotel stop in Richfield, UT was the midpoint of our drive east across the state - on Tuesday, we arrived in Moab to start our journey through two of Utah's eastern national parks: Arches and Canyonlands.

Zion National Park

A short drive from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon put us at Zion National Park. I really knew little going in to the park except that it was in Utah, so it was probably pretty neat. What I found was that "pretty neat" doesn't even come close to doing it justice.

Zion is similar to Glacier National Park in its extreme peaks and valleys but is centered around one canyon (Zion Canyon) and is made up of dramatically-colored sandstone. Private vehicles are prohibited in much of the park, so we rode the shuttle bus down the canyon, which starts out narrow and tall and becomes wider and flatter. The canyon walls tower over 1000 feet on either side; you have to look all around, including straight up, to take it all in.

We first hiked to the Emerald Pools to get out in the canyon and up close to the towering walls. The pictures hardly do the enormous scale of the canyon justice. 

The canyon wall

Looking across the canyon

Zion Canyon is essentially a younger Grand Canyon: both are formed by river and runoff erosion, but Zion is currently much earlier in its life cycle, and thus much smaller. Both are carved from similar rock in the Colorado Plateau; the signature rust-colored weak sandstone.

Zion's intricate layers and colors of sandstone eroding away

Our second day there, we hiked to Angel's Landing. The trail is ridiculously steep for the first couple miles:

and then turns into a climbing adventure. For the last three-quarter mile, the trail is really a balancing act along sandstone cliffs and ridges. There are no rails or fences to keep you in; only a chain to hold on to while climbing.

Looking back on the trail from Angel's Landing

The trail is bordered by canyon walls and dropoffs...

and only a couple feet wide in some places.

It was a test of will even for us to get out to the end: but it was worth it. The top has panoramic views of the canyon in both directions and was definitely the highlight of our trip to the park.

Looking downstream to the wide, flat valley

Looking upstream into the narrow canyon

Colorful canyon walls

It's hard to capture the park in pictures and words. It's a more colorful, more accessible Grand Canyon that you can be immersed in, hike around, and actually walk around and touch. Angel's Landing is one of the best hikes we've done on the trip as far as great views. It was an all around great experience and has us excited for the rest of our time in Utah!

Through the Grand Canyon

We left Tucson for a two-day drive north to the Grand Canyon. The drive was scenic; what started out as generally flat prairie...

slowly turned to the colorful rocks and sharp cliffs characteristic of the Colorado Plateau, through which the Grand Canyon is carved. Much of this rocky region in northern Arizona is designated the Navajo Indian reservation, which did not look to be any better off than the other reservations we've passed.

We visited the North Rim of the canyon, so en route was the Navajo Bridge on US highway 89A: the first bridge built across the Colorado River for hundreds of miles in either direction. Today, the original bridge stands besides its hardier and newer replacement but is still open to foot traffic.

The Colorado River below the Navajo Bridge

Navajo Bridge - old and new

We spent a good part of the day at the Grand Canyon on Thursday and camped there before leaving Friday morning. We went to several popular viewpoints like Bright Angel Point and Point Imperial, but road construction and closures prevented us from seeing the North Rim from all of the places we had intended. Regardless, the canyon (like the Hoover Dam) is bigger than I could really fathom, especially seeing it only  from the top. The colors are pretty, and the pure expanse of canyon is breathtaking.

Bright Angel Point

The canyon walls

Point Imperial

Point Imperial

From our brief stay at the Grand Canyon, we will keep heading north to spend about a week in 4 of Utah's 5 national parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Canyonlands. For me, this has been one of the most anticipated weeks of the trip; we'll be heading into one of the most scenic and spectacular areas in the country!