OK, I know we shouldn’t feed the wild animals, but as soon as Wanda opened our bag of trail mix, about 6, not so wild chipmunks, came right up to beg. Jeez, what can a person do in that situation?

The toilets at the Canyonlands entrance pay-station featured squat toilets. We saw these all over India and some in Thailand, but never in the US. I didn’t bring my camera into the toilet so I don’t have a photo of these strange contraptions. However, farther in the Park, I did get a photo of this instructional sign. Apparently, some people need clear instructions on to use a toilet.

I have had a handful of re-occurring dreams. I have had the flying dream and the naked, which I have heard is somewhat common. But the dream I have the most often is oversleeping and missing a college class. Which class subject is usually not clear, although Spanish class has come up a couple of times. What’s worse, it is a class where my graduation hangs in the balance.

I assure you that I did complete all of my subjects and I did successfully graduate in 1977. So, what does this have to do with our trip? Our plan was to get up at 6 am and immediately head over to Arches National Park. We had heard from our camping neighbor, Jeff, that Arches fills up fast in the morning.The line at the gate can take over an hour to get in.

We both slept well past 6 am. It was 7:15 am before we stirred. My dream became reality. It was 8:05 am when we reached the entrance road to Arches. The line was quite long. Change of plans. It was off to Moab’s sister National Park - Canyonlands National Park. To reach Canyonland, we had to take Highway 313, or Dead Horse Mesa Scenic Byway, our second scenic byway in the Moab area. (Yesterday, I forgot to mention that the official name of Highway 279, the scenic byway that we explored, is Potash-Lower Colorado River Scenic Byway.)

We were the third car in line when we approached the gate-house. It only took a minute. All three of us waived our magic old-geezer cards, and we were let right in.

Canyonland is divided into four sections: Island in the Sky; Needles; Horseshoe Canyon; and the Maze. Only the first two are accessible by car. The other two you either need a half-track troop carrier or a helicopter. Well, a high-clearance 4x4 would also work.

We chose the Island in the Sky unit. To start with, we drove halfway to the end of the main road to check out Mesa Arch. It was just a short .5 mile loop trail from the parking lot. The morning was still young and cool.

Mesa Arch looks out over a deep canyon in Canyonlands.

After that, we high-tailed it to Grand View Point Overlook at the end of the road. There is a 2 mile trail along the top rim of the mesa overlooking a wide canyon. The panorama was amazing. Way below us was another mesa which was gashed by yet another rugged but narrower canyon.

Wanda pointing out the nice square block cairns used to point out the trail. (Cairns are stacks of rocks used to mark a trail.)

This tiny cairn seems to be indicating that the trail continues out over the ledge.

We are standing on top of a broad mesa looking down on a lower level mesa that has it’s own canyon. Two levels of mesas and two levels of canyons. I guess that’s why they call it Canyonlands.

As we worked our way back on the main road, we stopped at a zillion overlooks. We caught a side road to Green River Overlook, Whale Rock, and Upheaval Dome.

Green River Overlook was the most awesome of the three. The mighty Colorado River and the very substantial Green River meet in Canyonlands. This overlook, obviously was overlooking the Green River as it cut into the landscape. Whale Rock looked kind of like a whale - duh!

Upheaval Dome was the odd duck. It wasn’t a dome at all. It was a crater. It isn’t certain what caused the crater. One possibility was a meteor strike. The other theory was a complicated series of events that involved a sea, some evaporation, a bunch of liquefying salt, salt spewing out and distorting some rocks, etc. Well, I don’t know ‘bout dat. I put my money on the meteor theory.

The trail to Upheaval Dome was straight uphill. It was early afternoon and the furnace was turned up to full blast. It was 95º, no breeze, and full sun. That trail took a lot out of us.

The Green River is forming it’s own canyon through the lower mesa.

Looking down into Upheaval Dome. First of all, it’s obviously not a dome. It looks more like a crater made from a meteorite. But, what is that white stuff in the middle? The info plaque didn’t say.

Many of these tan mounds are hardened left-over sand dunes.

Our last stop was Shafer Canyon Overlook. The short hike took us to a small butte top that overlooked a deep canyon. The coolest part was watching a caravan of Jeeps creep along a dirt road as it switchbacked up the canyon wall.

OK, we just knocked off number 4 of the five National Parks in Utah. Tomorrow, if we wake up on time, we hit number five - Arches National Park.

Shafer Trail Overlook. The rugged Shafer Road (last two photos) runs through the canyon and up the side of the cliff.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

Get Vaccinated To Save Lives.

Virtual Business Card

North America . Europe . Mexico . Asia . Product Reviews . Books & Maps

Please send us your thoughts and any errors we may have missed. We're on the road and cellular service is intermittent in the remote areas. As soon as we get online, we are eager to read all of your messages.

Text: 715-252-6664 | 715-252-3326

Email: [email protected]