Day 46 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

Today we are going to visit Canyonlands National Park. There are 3 sections to this park, today we are visiting the “Island in the Sky” area.

The drive to the park from Moab UT was very scenic. Lots of neat rock formations with lots of rocks balancing on top of other rocks.

The Prairie Sunflowers were in full bloom.

We arrived at the Park entrance, showed our pass and received our park map.

Shortly after entering the park we spotted 2 Big Horn Sheep and took photos. When we got back to the Park Rangers Office, we told them that we had seen the big horn sheep and the Rangers were very interested in learning more. Fortunately by going back and looking at the photos I was able to tell them that one was wearing a collar, that we saw them at 10:11am, I was able to tell them exactly where we spotted them. We helped the Rangers fill out a page of information for their records.

We went along to Upheaval Dome and walked the trail to the top of the dome. There are several theories about how this crater was created, I tend to believe the meteor impact theory, but you can click on the link and make your own decision. Scientists have been coming here for years and no one is in agreement.

It was quite a hike to the top for 2 inexperienced and out of shape hikers, but worth it when we got to the top.

After leaving Upheaval Dome we headed to Holeman Spring Canyon Overlook.

Then Orange Cliffs Overlook.

Then Grandview Point Overlook.

And Bucks Canyon Overlook. A nice concrete poured path to walk on. We are getting a little tired from scrambling up rocky trails.

A raven was keeping its eye on us as we wandered around the overlook.

Mesa Arch is our next stop. This is more of a hike than I care to attempt, but Karen is game to give it a try, so she went ahead and walked the trail to the arch. She brought back some great photos.

She saw lots of wildflowers.

She saw a lizzard.

and made it all the way to see the Mesa Arch.

We stopped at the Island in the Sky Visitor Center and purchsed postcards, a hat pin and got our Passport Book stamped.

Driving out of the park and on our way back to our hotel in Moab UT, we saw some more rocks balancing ontop of other rocks.

Tomorrow we will visit another section of Canyonlands National Park, we will visit the Needles area.

If you would like to see all of our photos from today you can click on this link to my FLICKR site.