Canyonlands is Another Planet

Canyonlands is Another Planet - Pt 1

Thursday, May 12th – Moab, Utah – Day 91

Utah is another planet. I cannot do justice to the sights that I have seen in Canyonlands National Park. They are beyond compare. I would encourage everyone to visit. The pictures we have taken do not convey the beauty of the scenery we witnessed.

We woke up in the morning after a late night. The kids did some schoolwork. We ate our oatmeal. We tried to clean up the dust that was all over the trailer. The wind had subsided in the night and the morning was pleasant and warm. Aisling had made us promise that we would climb the rock that they had all been climbing on. We strapped on our hiking boots and started towards the rock. A quick climb later we were at the top; on the way down, we were looking for pretty rocks.

The road to Canyonlands sits between two buttes with their cliffs rising on either side. The drive was thirty minutes to the entrance. The visitor centre had displays that detailed what each layer of the canyons were made of: sand dunes, mud flats, wetland debris. The Ranger helped us develop our plan and we were off.

Our first stop was to see the Shafer Canyon Overlook. We walked from the parking lot onto a flat outcropping that had a rock formation at the end, with extremely steep sides that fell into the canyon. The view was amazing. John needed to be intensely supervised. There was a massive canyon and the entrance to that canyon led to a view of more canyons with mountains as the backdrop. We climbed the rock formation. The kids stayed on the main section of the outcropping while Gen and I climbed out to get some photos.

Photo credit: Charlotte

Next stop was the Upheaval Dome and the 1.2-mile moderate hike to the viewpoints. We had some sandwiches before the hike. The viewpoints were on top of massive, rounded rocks that overlooked a multitude of canyons. There were stairs carved into the rock to assist the steep portions. The trail was really fun to walk; rocks to climb on and over, and great views.

Working on Junior Ranger activities

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