From the Dead Horse Point we went to the Canyonlands National Park using the road that takes you over to a mesa called the Island In the Sky. The confluence of the Colorado and the Green river both flowing southwards has split the land here in three districts – Island in the Sky, Maze District and Needles District to. The plateau at a height is Island of the sky; to its South-East that has red and white pillars is the grasslands, the Needles; and the plateau stretching from South-West is the Maze.
Canyonlands is made of many colorful canyons, mesas, and buttes that present a symphony of colors, delighting the passersby. John Powell discovered it in 1869 while he was on his historic trip through the Colorado River. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared it as a national park on 12 September 1964. More than 400,000 people visit this park each year.
This park is spread over a very large area so we decided to visit a few chosen locations. In any park one has to walk at least a little bit to get to the viewpoints. Sometimes these are easy or moderate walks but sometimes they can be very strenuous. The park information booklet gives clear information about the difficult level of each trail as well as the distances. It was not possible for me to do the strenuous trails so we picked a few easily accessible but popular viewpoints.
We did the Whale Rock trail, which is 2 km walk, the Grand Viewpoint (again 2 km), the first look of the Upheaval Dome (1 km) and finally, the Mesa Arch (half a kilometer). The Upheaval Dome is not a dome above the ground but rather, it is a dome shaped yawning hole in the ground about 1000 feet deep. This crater could have been caused by a meteor fall. On our way to the Grand Viewpoint we stopped at the Buck Canyon overlook. Mesa Arch is a natural arch created in a rock raised due to upheaval and then the softer lower layers being eroded by wind, rain and heat. The top of this arch is a bit flat so people were climbing over it to take pictures. The view from inside the arch is very beautiful. From here you can see canyons, buttes in the valley and La Sal Mountain in the distance. In the end we went to the Green River overlook to view the sunset. It was beautiful as always.
May it be a river or a mountain, a plateau or an ocean, sunrise and sunset are always beautiful and introspective. Out of the three regions we spent time only at the Island in the Sky. The other two regions are far and have to be accessed using separate roads. The Island in the Sky gets the largest number of visitors. This park is also popular for trekking, river rafting, rock climbing, horse-riding, and camping. There are regularly scheduled ranger talks on fauna and flora – it’s history and geology.
After this park we went to our hotel in the town of Moab. This is a small but beautiful town. On our evening walk through the town we stumbled upon a nice Italian restaurant and had pasta for dinner. It felt good to eat at a nice restaurant after several days of camping food.
Meera's Travels 