A Wilderness of Rocks

Thursday, September 15

Today we ventured out to Canyonlands National Park.  This park is a geologist’s dream!  There are big rocks and layers of rock wherever you look across the wide canyons.  The park is huge…it covers 337,500 acres. There is not one road that connects all the parts of the park, as there are few places to cross the two rivers in the park.   It’s amazing that Arches National Park is so close, but the parks are so totally different.  Canyonlands seems to be more peaceful and remote…and more spread out and  rugged, but still beautiful!  We visited the main part of the park..Island in the Sky…which is a huge mesa, so you can see canyons all around.  We started with Mesa Arch observing stunning views beyond the arch. 

Then we hiked the Grand View Point trail, which follows the canyon edge, and provided spectacular panoramic views.  Pictures just don’t do it justice…there is too much for the camera to capture. That’s Jim on the edge of a rock!  In the far distance you can barely see Needles, another section of the park.  The vastness of the land is remarkable. There was a bit of a haze on the horizon, perhaps due to the wind over the past few days.  The wind was gone today, and the weather was very pleasant.  And today I remembered my fitbit!

I found a neat little app for the phone called Gypsy Guide.  Once you download on your phone, it runs on GPS, and automatically activates commentary that describes the things you are seeing as you approach.  It’s a personal tour guide…right in your pocket..the best $6 I’ve spent in a long time!   It’s pretty amazing, and helped us navigate through both parks here, and educated us on the park history, and features.

When looking across the canyon, it almost looks like a moon landscape.  The spire in the picture is Candlestick Tower, which is 5,865 ft. high! 

I thought this tree along the trail was interesting!

 

The roads down to the bottom of the canyon were once used by farmers and cowboys, taking their cattle and horses to the river.  Then, the roads were used by miners getting to uranium deposits! 

Another very interesting and weird event of the day was finding a wallet in the middle of the road.  Jim spotted it as we drove by, and at first thought it was just a reflector that had detached from the road.  But, we did a u-turn, and sure enough, it was a wallet full of id…social security card, veterans card, loyalty cards, doctors names and numbers, etc. etc.  There was $30 in cash, but no drivers license or charge cards.   I found a list of emergency numbers and called the wife, and left a voice mail, then texted, but didn’t get a response.  So, we left the wallet at the visitor center with a ranger, who looked a little scared to take it.  We’ve been coming up with all kinds of scenarios on how the wallet ended up there in the middle of a road, not really close to any viewpoint or trailhead…was it stolen and tossed out the window? (but why didn’t a thief take the cash?); maybe somebody left it on top of the car and drove off?; maybe it was a bicyclist that dropped it out of a backpack?  Sure would like to solve the mystery, but most of all, I hope the guy gets his wallet back.

After a stop for frozen yogurt in downtown Moab, we returned to the campground to rest our legs and feet. Boy am I glad I got new hiking boots before we left home!  We’ve put in a few miles the past few days.

It is our last day here—we move on tomorrow for a new area looking for new adventures.  Hopefully I can find a wifi to be able to post the blog.