Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands is really spread out with the unique sections. We headed to the closest part of the park, known as Island in the Sky. It took us about 50 minutes to reach the entrance, where we encountered a short line of cars to get in.

The diversity of landscape in just this section of the park is incredible. Our first hike was on Lathrop trail go the canyon rim. The first leg was through a grassy, sandy desert area. We transitioned to a rocky area with beautiful formations before getting to the rim of the canyon.

Our second stop was at Mesa Arch. This was a relatively crowded half mile hike to a very cool arch. Seemed wrong to me that someone was able to pull into a handicapped parking spot (with permit) and then walk 1/2 mile over rocky, uneven terrain that included some elevation.

The third hike was at Mesa Butte. There were two parts to the hike. The first took you to a granary storage area built into a cliff , supposedly over 1000 years ago. Most of the bricks were still in place. From there we climbed the Butte. Lots of scrambling and climbing up smooth rock. It was fun, the wind was strong, and the views were incredible. It was a great way to wrap up the day in the park

Dinner was pizza, unfortunately they did not serve beer.Read more