Day 5 - The Canyonlands

We started the day visiting the Dead Horse Point State Park. This is an area just east of the national park that offers some great views of the Colorado River Valley. One particular point of interest is a high plateau with a narrow entrance of about 90 feet wide, with sheer drops to either side, that overlooks a horseshoe bend in the river. Pretty spectacular views from 2000 feet up.
We headed to Canyonlands National Park after that. It's just a short drive,but takes awhile as the speed limit is 35mph. Not for winding roads, but I guess to keep traffic slow. Most people obeyed that rule. Anyway, we stopped at the visitor center then headed to the furthest point South in that segment. Canyonlands is divided into three parts, none of which is accessible to the other except for driving many hours. The popular one is Islands in the Sky, where we were. The deep canyons and gorges of the Colorado and Green Rivers, with no bridges, is the reason for the separation.
The southern point is called Grand View Point. It overlooks the confluence of the Colorado and Green, which at the area, aren't visible due to being deep in their canyons. But the vast desert of multicolored rock formations is visible for probably hundreds of square miles. The La Sal mountains are prominent on the eastern horizon, and from here they're over 40 miles away.
From here, we drove to the most western part of the Islands in the Sky, to the Upheaval Dome. We hiked the 1.5 mile round trip, somewhat strenuous, and certainly rugged trail to see two viewpoints of what scientists think is a meteor strike from millions of years ago.
An ambitious day, but very rewarding.Read more