Canyonlands National Park–Island in the Sky

For our last day in Moab, we got up early, packed a lunch and took a driving tour of Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park.

Our first stop was Dead Horse Point,

where we were overlooking the same canyon that we traversed in the Jeep last week.

Dead Horse Point State Park borders Canyonlands National Park at the White Rim Canyon,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

overlooking the Colorado River.

We enjoyed the view from each of the overlooks,

and took a quick drive through the campground.  Some of the sites were long, but the roads were really narrow and had pretty tight turns . . . I don’t think it’s a place we’ll be staying. 

From there, we continued on highway 313 into Canyonlands, past the Monitor and the Merimac,

and stopped at the Schafer Trail Overlook.

These are the roads that we drove down in the Jeep last week . . . even more frightening from above!

Our next stop was the Mesa Arch Trail.

Since it was not too hot yet, and the trail was billed as a .5 mile easy walk, we decided to take the hike.  We walked through Utah Junipers,

to the edge of the canyon, where we reached Mesa Arch.  Of course, Nick & Bryce were way ahead of Tom and I, and reached the arch first!

It’s supposed to be a really beautiful sight at sunrise.

Our next stop was the Green River Overlook, which was new territory for us.

Oops!  We lost Nicolas!

Just kidding . . . there was an intermediate level to the canyon, before you got to the big dropoff, and he was standing on that!

The views on this side of the canyon were just as amazing as the other side!

We drove to the end of the road where we reached Grand View Point.

This is the point at which the Colorado River and the Green River come together, and the canyons converge into a single large canyon.

 

We followed the dead wood  trail to the overlook, and caught part of the Ranger’s talk on the geology of Canyonlands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It truly was a GRAND view!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our driving tour, we went back to the RV and changed into bathing suits to spend the hot afternoon the same way we spent most of the afternoons while we were in Moab . . . at the pool!

The city of Moab has a really nice Aquatic Center, and for $50 we got a 1-week family membership. 

They have Open Swim everyday from 1:30pm – 5:30 (7pm on Friday and Saturday), and we certainly got our money’s worth.

 

On the way home we got 50-cent ice cream cones at Burger King to tide us over until dinner.

 

Afterwards, we did most of our packing up so that we could get a really early start on Tuesday . . . we had almost 300 miles to drive and it was going to be another HOT day!