Mat and I agree – the fear of cliff edges seem to get worse as we get older. At least we don’t remember the stomach lurching and twisting the way it does now. We looked over some serious cliffs today and watched jeeps drive down the craziest road ever to the canyon bottom. Canyonlands is the perfect name for this national park. It’s Utah’s largest national park so we aren’t going to see the entire place. And after witnessing jeeps “dropping” into the canyon on the infamous White Rim Road, which is the 100 mile road that accesses more remote parts of the park, we’re okay with not exploring the whole place!

Imagine this park is a picture of the Flux Capacitor from Back to the Future – the flow of the Colorado and Green Rivers are what “make time travel possible” and are called the River District. The rivers divide the park into 3 other districts: Maze, Needles and Islands in the Sky. From Moab, where we are, we can easily visit Islands in the Sky. To visit the other districts you have to leave the park and drive hours to get to the other entrance. So we decided to see everything we could in Islands of the Sky. We visited the Visitor Center, drove every mile of road and enjoyed the lookouts. We hiked the short and popular trail to the iconic Mesa Arch which was a stunning site.

The highlight of this park was hiking the Grand View Point Trail. It was our favorite hike of the whole trip so far! The mile hike out to the “Grand View Point” was an awesome mix of stone stairs, rocky cliffs, and sandy paths with beautiful desert vegetation that almost looked landscaped it was so nice. And the view was in fact GRAND. Pictures can’t do it justice but it was soul-filling. We spent at least 40 minutes enjoying the wonderment and different views from any direction you looked.

After finishing the Jr. Ranger books (one of the kids favorites so far, “tied with Carlsbad Caverns” they said) they earned their badges and we left the park. On the way out you have to pass RIGHT by Dead Horse State Park so we paid the entrance fee to check it out. It was totally worth the stop. The views were amazing and different from all that we’ve seen yet. From Canyonlands you can see the impressive canyons, but you don’t have a great view of the rivers. From this state park, the views of the Colorado River were awesome and memorable! We aren’t seeing the Grand Canyon on this trip but today felt grand for sure.

Then off the pool to cool off and some well deserved down time. Mom had the great idea to drive into nearby Arches National Park for a great view of sunset but we just watched the cloudy sky get dark. Not all my ideas are winners but it was still a fun evening and Murphy got to visit his first national park.

Sunday, August 1, 2021