Canyonlands NP day 1

after the late night we knew we wanted a little later start to our third day in Moab. So we slept in a bit and grabbed some donuts from Doughbird in downtown and headed to Canyonlands national park (our 24th US National park together). We drove to several viewpoints and hiked the short distance to Mesa Arch. Mesa is most popular for photographers at sunrise, but we just weren’t up for that after so many long days, early mornings, and the previous nights stargazing. We still enjoyed the views of the Island in the Sky area of the park, including great views of the Shafer trail. Once just one cow wide and used to transport herds up and down the canyon walls, it was widened into a dirt rustic road during the uranium boom. It drops 1500 ft in the first few miles and featured hairpin turns on rough terrain. We weren’t sure if we were up for that quite yet so we just enjoyed the views from the top. Canyonlands has 3 main areas that are hours of driving apart due to the steep and rugged terrain. We will have to check out the Needles and Maze sections next time.

Upon getting back to Moab we checked out their food truck park and grabbed some groceries at a local co-op. Of course grocery day can only be improved by combining it with laundry day! Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with peanut butter milkshakes from the food truck park and had a nice night under the stars with our propane fire pit.Read more