A Visit to Canyonlands, Part I: Getting There

I suffered either a blond fart or a senior moment, which cost me a visit to one part of what turned out to be my favorite stop on the way home, Canyonlands.

Canyonlands is divided into four sections by the Green and Colorado Rivers. The two most visited sections are Island in the Sky and The Needles. I saw signs for Canyonlands on the way to my BLM campsite on Hwy 313.  I was probably less than ten miles away when I decided to follow the directions on my GPS, even though they took me in the opposite direction for more than two hours, finally taking me south and west of Moab.  So I'll have to go back to see Island in the Sky.

But the Needles turned out to be my favorite stop of the places I visited in Utah: Dinosaur NP, Arches NP and Canyonlands. The only problem I had was that I really wanted an off road vehicle to be able to visit even more of it.  I was limited to a 5 mile auto tour and some hikes.

But I accidently gave myself a lovely treat when I missed the first road to the park and ended up taking a much more indirect and interesting route through  part of the  Manti-La Sal National Forest.  As soon as I left the town of Monticello, I started a rapid climb. The road was so steep, I set my GPS to tell me the altitude. My altimeter told me I was climbing about four feet per second from an altitude of about 6000 feet to almost 9000 feet.  The trees and shrubs were turning colors in great swatches of golds and reds, within a matrix of dark green conifers. I had to stop a lot just to take the magnificent views in.

Then I came through a pass and started back down.  I stopped at an overlook and saw Canyonlands below me with awesome rock formations (small mountains) of various shapes and colors below me.  I wound back down another twisting road that gave me closer and closer views of Canyonlands.

Then I turned onto a smaller road that went  through an awesome canyon with gorgeous slick rock and magnificent trees in bright fall colors. The road was narrow with few places to pull off.  I was reduced to taking pictures through the windshield,  a very bad practice taught to me my friend, Bob.

When I got to the entrance to Canyonlands, I asked the Ranger if there were any campsites left. She told me I could have the handicapped site since I would be the last camper.

To be continued.

We Do the Hoodoos

The only clue that we were getting close to Bryce Canyon National Park was a pair of natural bridges across the road. The rest of the landscape was dark and we were following directions from my GPS to find our camp site. We soon were winding up to our campground where most people were asleep. (We seemed to mostly drive at night to get anywhere, because, during the day, we had to stop more than we drove.) We quietly set up out camp and went to bed.

One of the windows you drive through

Sunrise by our campgrouond

The next morning I was going to start breakfast when the sky started lighting up.  I grabbed my camera and raced toward a hill to see what  the light was illuminating. The sky was beautiful and there was a line of hoodoos being gradually lit up by the sun. After a few pictures, we ate breakfast and set off to the visitor center. We spent about a half hour there, viewing exhibits, browsing in the store, and getting information about the most outstanding places to visit as well as about programs. 

Some of the hoodoos in the amphitheater

We began our tour at Paria Point which only merited a quick look before continuing to Bryce Point overlooking the Amphitheater. I immediately started taking pictures and then started down the trail leading into the amphitheater. At every switchback, I had to stop and take pictures - of the new angle on the hoodoos, the single or small groups of hoodoos, strangely twisted trees, birds, and even a chipmunk.  But Lucy never caught up with me, so I decided I'd better turn around and find her. She had hiked along the Rim Tail before coming back to find me.

"The animal legend people who lived in Bryce Canyon long ago, displeased the coyote. Angered, he turned all the people to rock."

Beauty in death

Glowing hoodoos

Chipmunk

Then we continued on to Sunset Point for a geology talk by a ranger.  This was very interesting and we began to get a little idea of how this area came to be. This is not a canyon, merely a raised plateau that once was a sea bed.  This sea went down through the Americas where the Rockies are today, so all of the places we visited were once part of that sea. Now wind and water, especially in the form of ice, are eroding this land into the hoodoos and finally eroding them entirely away.  We could see flat areas which were hoodoo graveyards because  entire hoodoos has fallen down.And new hoodoos are born from the surrounding cliffs.

Next on our list was lunch and a hike down to Fairy Point. That point was very different from from the others but no less magical. Lucy took one of the side trails leading to a high plateau, while I went down the main trial. Later I found a trail up to almost the same place Lucy had been. At one point she was looking down on me and we took each other's pictures.

Fairyland Vew

Nature's bonsai

Glowing hoodoos

A few white hoodoos

Wonderful colors

View to far cliffs

Lucy on the trail

Orange and pink

We rested up by sitting in the visitor center theater and watching a movie about Bryce Canyon National Park. We were pretty dirty by this time, having only sponge baths for a three days and were ready for a shower. We drove to the general store where we  had to pay $2.00 each for a shower,  but it felt really good to have clean bodies and clothes.

We were ready for a long hike -  three miles down the Navaho trail, through the Queen's garden, and back to the rim trail to hike back to the car. I had wanted to do that in the late afternoon so we would have the beautiful evening light.  That will be the subject of another blog.

We got back to Sunset Point just after dark.  Lucy  wanted to see the historic lodge and I wanted to work on editing pictures - by this time I had a least 500 from three days of taking pictures.  Eating dinner there sounded like fun, so we ordered a wonderful shrimp and prosciutto risotto and shared an apple dumpling, made from an old settler recipe.  Then we hung out and I edited pictures while Lucy explored and made friends with the maître d'.  She was picking his brain about working at Bryce next summer. 

By this time it was almost 10:00 P.M. so we drove the short trip back to our tents and were immediately asleep. Walking about seven miles definitely makes for a restful night. 

More pictures of this part of our trip are in my Picasa Albums