Park 3: Canyonlands May 2009

The early morning sun casting shadows.

On the same trip to visit Arches National Park, we headed south of Moab to Canyonlands National Park. Named as such because the Colorado and Green Rivers have carved actual canyons into the landscape, Canyonlands covers about 525 square miles and is divided into 3 different districts. The area we chose to hike in is called the Needles district which is named after the red and white banded rock pinnacles which dominate it. Unlike Arches National Park, where many of the sites are accessible by short hikes or even your car, most of the good stuff in Canyonlands requires some long-distance hiking.

Starting at the "Elephant Hill" trailhead, we spent the majority of the day doing the Chesler Park Loop, which provided great views of the Needles formations. In the southern portion, the trail sent us through deep, narrow fractures in the rock called "fins". These were amazingly fun, a little bit scary, and wonderfully chilly. In the hot desert heat, these fins acted as an air-conditioned hallway to hike through.

Inside the fins.

On full day hikes like these, we usually start out as early as possible to beat the heat. That being said, by the end of the hike,  in the late afternoon sun, I was ready for some shade. (I'm sure it didn't help that Dad and I "raced" the last couple of miles... I like to hike in front, but so does he.)

The one thing I really enjoyed about Canyonlands is that the trails aren't full of hikers. Because the park requires so much back-country hiking, many of what I call "just tourists" stay away. There's nothing more annoying than sharing the trail with folks that just got off the tour bus wearing flip-flops and carrying nothing but their purses and cameras!

The Needles

Park 2: Arches (Part 3) May 2009

Here's my last little bit on Moab.

I mentioned before that Moab and the surrounding area is home to some of the greatest mountain biking on the planet. It is well known for the world famous, highly technical Slickrock Bike Trail. (Which basically means don't get on it unless you know what you're doing.) We didn't. Mom, Dad and I are road bikers, but mountain bikes are a whole different animal! Seeing that we had no desire to break or necks, we hired a guide from a local company called Rim Tours.

Rim Tours offers a variety of different guided trips to trails in and around Moab. You choose how many hours you want to bike, what level of trail you want to do, etc. We chose to ride the Klondike Bluffs trail, which takes you up a climb near Arches NP. Along the way our guide taught us how to navigate the slick rock on our full suspension bikes. (If you've never ridden a full suspension, try it! It feels like you're riding on a trampoline.) We learned how to do small jumps, climb up and over boulders and we even saw some dinosaur tracks embedded in the rocks near the trail. I wish I could say that the ride down was easier than the ride up, but it was so steep that I rode the brakes the entire way, and my knuckles were white by the end.

Mountain biking! 

Another fun thing to do is to head up to Fisher Towers just north of Moab. The hike isn't very difficult, but the rock formations you see there are crazy! The rock fins shoot up towards the sky creating sheer rock walls. But what you really want to look for while you're there are the rock climbers. Dotted all along the walls you'll see tiny people hanging by ropes, traversing the 90 degree angles. We stood there for quite a while, with our mouths open, and just watched as they slowly made there way up the side.

Yeah, they climb THOSE! (Pic courtesy of Climb-Utah.)

Our other activity outside of the park was to go horseback riding. I don't know, I guess it's a girl-thing, but I love going riding. Plus, it just seemed so country-western to go riding in Utah next to the Colorado River. About a 20 minute drive from Moab, Red Cliffs Lodge is a classic western lodge that was the site of numerous John Wayne films (had my dad right there). In fact, the lodge has a Western Movie Museum in the basement that features memorabilia from all the movies filmed in the area. We checked it out while we were waiting for the tour to start. 

The riding was nice, but, honestly, it wasn't "wow". The horses were bored out of their minds and mine kept getting sassy with me. The scenery definitely made up for the horses' bad attitudes, and it was cool to think that John Wayne probably rode the same trails. I don't know if I would recommend the riding, but the lodge itself was worth the trip out there.

Park 2: Arches (Part 2) May 2009

So, back to the actual park.

Arches NP is home to over 2,000 natural sandstone arches. In order to be considered an arch, an opening must measure at least three feet (in any direction). Many of the more famous arches have names like Delicate Arch, Landscape Arch, Double Arch, Broken Arch... you get the idea. Every year, new ones are discovered and old ones fall due to mother nature's constant wind and erosion. The last major arch to fall was in August of 2008, when, during the middle of the night, the 71-ft wide Wall Arch came tumbling down, and no one was there to witness it.

Upon entering the park, a steep, winding road leads you up past some great places to take short hikes and see the views.

Park Avenue is a long row of fins on 2 sides that resemble the skyscrapers of a big city. The Three Gossips, at the end of Park Avenue, is a sandstone tower that looks like 3 women leaning in and talking to one another. Down the road a ways is Balanced Rock, which is exactly what it sounds like; an oversized boulder balanced at the top of a tower. 

All of these are easy, short hikes, and can even be seen from your car (but why would you do that?).

Park Avenue

Defnitely, a hike worth taking is the 1.5 mile trail to Delicate Arch. Even if you've never been to Arches, you've no doubt seen the iconic landmark on Utah's license plates and postage stamps. The hike isn't easy, and takes you up a steep incline, but the view at the end is worth the sweat. Of course, when a bus load of french tourists shows up 20 minutes after you get there, the scene is a little ruined. I mean, who smokes in a national park?! Oh, right. French tourists.

Me sketching at Delicate Arch.

Another great hike is the Fiery Furnace, a labyrinth of narrow canyons and fins that requires you to do some scrambling and squeezing through tight spaces. It's called the Fiery Furnace because when the afternoon sun hits the rocks, the area almost glows red and orange. And, if you were to get lost, I'm sure the heat would feel about the same. Because there are no marked trails in this area, you have to sign up for a ranger-led hike. The good thing about this is that you get a lot of great information and history of the area from the ranger. The bad part is, you have to hike with a bunch of idiots you don't know, that try to carry a 3-month-old baby with them.

On the guided hike of Fiery Furnace.

My last suggestion is to go see Double Arch, if only for the fact that it is a great photo spot, is easy to access from the road, and, if you're like my dad, you get really excited about seeing a location from the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". 

All in all, this is still one of my favorite National Parks so far. The scenery is iconic, the crowds aren't too bad, and you're sure to come away with some fantastic photos and memories. In 2 or 3 days, you can see all that the park has to offer, but still get a slice of pizza and a beer each night in Moab.