Desert Southwest 2024

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

We got a late start today, not from sleeping in, but from having a late morning required entry reservation into Arches. It was nice to have the leisurely beginning, as yesterday was a long day, and today had that same potential.
So, a quick drive to the park entrance got us started on our way to the first of many stops. First up was a two mile round trip hike through what they call Park Avenue. These impressive rock formations, while not containing any of the more famous arches, provided a nice introduction to the park. Mainly walking along a dry creek bed, we descended into amazing views.
This vast park is not quite what I expected, as, unlike Canyonlands, the famous rock structures are often many miles apart, punctuating an undulating, yet barren landscape. Next we headed to the far end of the park, at the Devil's Garden hiking area. There are more of the famous arches here, and also a lot more people as at least one part of the trail is quite easy to trek.
We then started making our way back to the entrance. We descended into the Fiery Furnace and then went on to view Utah's chosen icon, the Delicate Arch. We were already a bit tired, so we chose to go to a view point instead of taking the moderately strenuous trail to get there. Later, when we were at the Windows area of the park, I snapped an "above" view from about three miles away, an impressive feat for my camera. (Last photo) The Windows area offers the most arches, often tucked away inside the narrow canyons of the rock formations.
After about 5 miles of hiking, and seeing at least the major highlights, we returned to the hotel. Later, as the sun was setting, the town experienced a power outage, leaving us in the dark for about 2.5 hours. This could've been great for star gazing, but unlike every other night on this trip, it was overcast.Read more