Canyonlands National Park

Dave and I had a lot of ground to cover; Canyonlands in the morning, Capitol Reef in the afternoon, and ending the evening in the town of Boulder, Utah. Canyonlands National Park is over 335,000 acres of beautiful arches, grand mesas, and bottomless canyons. Despite its size, very little of it can be explored by vehicle. We visited the park’s most accessible district, the Island in the Sky, where a 12-mile scenic road rides on top of a mesa surrounded by cliffs and steep escarpments.

The view from Shafer Canyon Overlook was stunning. We arrived just as the sun peaked through, and slowly lit up the canyon in front of us. 1,000 feet below was White Rim Road, an unpaved, four-wheel drive route that traverses the canyon floor below the Island in the Sky Mesa.

Our first hike was to Mesa Arch. I had repeatedly read tips to get here during sunrise, and I am so glad that we did. The inside of the arch was glowing bright orange from the sunlight. It was gorgeous. And to top it off, it perfectly framed the rocky terrain that stretched out to the La Sal Mountains on the horizon.

We stopped at a few more overlooks before hiking to Upheaval Dome, one of the park’s most intriguing geologic features. Scientist disagree over how it was formed; some say it is a collapsed salt dome, while others say it’s the site of a meteorite strike some 60 million years ago. We weren’t exactly sure what we were looking at; it was a large, rocky depression with an odd pointed center. But Dave insisted it was a meteorite strike, so we’ll go with that.

Although there were other districts of Canyonlands we didn’t see, it was so close to home that we could easily plan another trip back. So we left Canyonlands and began the two-hour drive to Capitol Reef National Park.