One of the biggest national parks in the area is the Canyonlands National Park. It roughly consists of three areas. Island in the sky and the needles district can be accessed from route 191 on the Eastern side. The maze district, however, requires you to have an overland or a 4×4 vehicle which you will need to start driving from Hanksville on the western side. These two are at least 4 hours away, so I have chosen to go to the Island in the sky and the needles district this time.
Canyonlands occupy such a big area that some of the best ways to explore its vastness are jeeping and rafting. I chose to explore in a less so efficient way, hiking. Speaking of which, I went around May, so the weather started to get really hot during the day, so please prepare enough water for your entire hike I will not be any water refilling on most of the trails, even the popular ones.
The Needles district has the most amount of hiking trails. The trail I chose was the Druid Arch and the Chester hills. This amazing trail gives you a glimpse of all sorts of rock formations within the park. It’s roughly around 13 miles. Except before, there will be no water so prepare accordingly.
On the other hand, the hikes in Island In The Sky were usually shorter, hence more popular. However, none is as popular as the Mesa Arch sunrise crowd. Facing such a beautiful place, the tourists seem to behave as well. The couple nearby me graciously allowed me to take pictures if I could send some of the good ones to them. Of course, I agreed. Others just asked courteously. No shoving and no pushing happened that morning. It truly was a magical moment as you watched the sky turning from Blue to Pink to red and then to a bright yellow; the song graced its warm rays onto the sneaking rivers and the rough sands below.
The road towards Moab, route 313, was also a magical drive. It had many scenic stops. The most famous one was called the newspaper rock, where you could see a huge collection of petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are common but not something quite common in this area but not in this quantity.
Moab was still as good of an experience this second time around as the first time. Spots on the agenda this time are still arches and bridges. The Jeep Arch, the unknown arches along the Colorado River, and The Morning Glory Arch. By the way, if you are looking for somewhere to stay there are plenty of campsites nearby. Don’t Bank on free campsites though they are hard to find.
I didn’t spend too much time in Moab because I will be spending a little bit of time just north of there at a geographic location called San Rafael Swell. Particularly I will be visiting the so-called Little Grand Canyon.
Little Grand Canyon is popular amongst the locals. The campsites are easy to find; many are free, and the views from the campsites are amazing. Nights are really dark so you will have a good time viewing the stars at night. If you are into more anthropological seemed sites, I recommend stopping by the buckhorn wash pictograph panel on route 332 that goes through the bottom of the canyon. No matter how often I see these pictographs or petroglyphs, I never get tired of them. The ancient ways of making use of the geographic features to illustrate aspects of their lives seemed so fascinating to this social anthropology graduate.
On the way back, I took a small detour to the fifth third Hot springs. This hot spring it’s so popular with the locals that you still see people come in in the middle of the night. I don’t blame them. Soaking hot water under a blanket of stars is indeed romantic.
