Travel: Canyonlands Tips and Trails
Part of a series: (links to go live as they get posted)
- Packing
- Getting to
- Moab, Utah
- Silver Sage Inn
- Arches Tips and Trails, part 1
- Arches Tips and Trails, part 2
- Canyonlands Tips and Trails
- Salt Lake City, part 1
- Salt Lake City, part 2
An outing to Canyonlands National Park is much more straightforward in its options than one to Arches. There are many distinct areas of Canyonlands, but only the Islands in the Sky section is practical for a day trip when you are already in the Arches/Moab area. Even though it is just forty minutes down the road, the geographical features are completely different.
This section of the national park protects an area of mesas. These flat-topped plateaus rise in layers. This makes activity choices fairly obvious. Either you can explore the relatively flat but short area atop the mesas or you can tackle the steep climbs and descents of the sides. There are long hard hikes and short easier hikes. Nothing is in between.
Up this high, there are even fewer resources than in Arches. Besides the bottled water available at the visitors center, there are NO water or food sources within the park. Two of the easier trails I would recommend are the Mesa Arch and the Grand View Point Overlook.
Mesa Arch is a short half mile round trip. It reaches an accessible and breathtaking arch right on the edge of the mesa. I was surprised that there were no guardrails or protective features, because the cliff is right in front of you. I walked towards the falloff and became really light headed. When I visited, there were a number of small children running around. A mom was at the point of a nervous breakdown. I didn’t blame her one bit. It’s a nerve testing site.
Grand View Point is a longer trail of two miles. This one is interesting because it extends out towards a narrow end of the mesa. On the early part of the trail, you see the Colorado River side of the formation. Then, unexpectedly, you will turn and the Green River side becomes visible. At the end of the trail, there’s a high rock crag. Climbing up it, you may be able to follow the edge of the mesa all the way around.