Moab – Part 2

Canyonlands National Park was our destination on Saturday.  Being a weekend and having experienced the wait times at Arches the day before, we got an early start to get ahead of the crowds and it worked!  We arrived before the first bus load of people and the ranger suggested a specific tour route to stay ahead of the crowds.  Much appreciated.

This park was established on September 12, 1964, covers 527 square miles or 337,598 acres and consists of three sections; The Maze, The Needles and Island in the Sky.  Since you can’t get from one section of the park to another via roads within the park and it was more than 100 miles further to drive to The Needles, we chose to limit our visit to Island in the Sky, the shortest drive from our campsite.

The Island in the Sky section of the park is a broad mesa that was created by the Green and Colorado Rivers on either side and over 2,000 feet below.  We enjoyed seeing Mesa Arch, Upheaval Dome and the Green River Overlook.

We’ve found that some National Parks are “drive-thrus”.  For us, that means we drive from one end (or, in this case, section) of the park to the other to see the sites, mainly at vista points along the way.  Usually this involves a short walk or very brief hike along a paved path with placards explaining specific features dispersed along the way.  Canyonlands fit into that category of park for us.  So, without further ado, here are some of our favorite pictures from the day…

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After departing Canyonlands, we had the pleasure of checking out Dead Horse Point State Park as it was on our way back to our campground.  This place receives great reviews and its campgrounds fill up for the entire season as soon as the reservations open in the spring.  Arthur and Linda had gone here today for a mountain bike ride and recommended it highly if we had time to.  While here, we stopped to have a picnic lunch and got to meet two nice folks from our area in New Hampshire.  They were not yet retired but were on an extended vacation  and enjoyed talking with us about our common experiences.  They said they are looking forward to one day doing what we are doing now.  Made us feel grateful and lucky.  Anyway, here are our best pics…

Back at the campground, it was happy hour and dinner with Arthur & Linda where we shared stories about our day and made plans for our next destination to visit…

ttys

K&S