Canyonlands - Island in the Sky

Saturday, November 2 and Sunday, November 3, 2013


Yesterday and today we experienced more of this unique area. We visited Canyonlands National Park eleven years ago in a tent, with our then 17 year old daughter. It was July and over 100 degrees. We had a few quick hikes and retreated at night to a campground at 10,000 feet in the Manti-La Sal National Forest to get cool.


This time we were able to get into the tiny Willow Flats Campground in the park. Before leaving nearby Dead Horse Point, we filled extra water jugs and dumped our tanks. Willow Flats has no amenities, but is a lovely park near the Green River overlook. We arrived early enough in the morning to snag a spot in this popular campground. We registered, a deal at $10 a night, we paid $25 at Dead Horse Point, had lunch, and then drove out to Grand View Point at the end of the Island in the Sky peninsula. Canyonlands NP consists of three separate areas, Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze which are below us and inaccessible from the park roads. Both areas require long detours to travel to them.

The Grand View Point trail took us along the rim looking thousands of feet below us to the canyons carved by the Colorado and Green Rivers. The view is similar to Dead Horse Point but different as we were hiking farther west of there. We stood on large stone ledges jutting out into the void above sheer cliffs and gazed at amazing mesas, buttes, spires, canyons and the meandering canyons formed by the rivers, so deep that we couldn't see the water!

Grand View Rim Trail

Unfortunately, no camping here! Can you spot Greg?

Looking down on the Colorado River, The White Rim trail follows the edge where the White Rim sandstone is exposed.

Kayenta sandstone cliffs. Can you spot the rig at the top of the cliff?

Mormon Tea?

Fierce Wildlife - when he grows up, he will be 3 whole inches long!

Tour guide

We could see the tiny ribbons of dirt roads and a few bug sized Jeeps venturing out on them. Following them with our binoculars, we watched their slow progress over the vast plateaus. Greg's dream had been to bike the White Rim Trail below us, a three day endeavor, camping as you go. I would drive a Jeep following him. Eleven years later, with the wisdom of our older selves, we decided to take that one off the Bucket List!
Realizing that we were getting low on propane, we had a good meal last night, bundled up, streamed some video, (Thankfully our MIFI with the amplifier helps us get a signal), and crawled under the down comforter, ready for a cold night, with no heat, to conserve the propane. Surprise! It only got into the 50's. We were plenty warm.

This morning Greg did a short hike down to the Green River overlook and explored the area.

After lunch we drove to Upheaval Dome and took a hike there. It is a bizarre crater that the geologists aren't sure how it was created. I'll let Greg give a brief explanation-

Upheaval Dome is a basin about 3 miles in diameter and maybe 2,00 feet deep. It consists of the same rocks as the surrounding area but where the neighboring rocks are flat lying for tens of miles, the dome consists of a ring of downward-folded rocks (a syncline) surrounded by a ring of upward folded rocks (an anticline). The rocks in the basin core are twisted into tight folds and a wildly contorted center spire. The National Park Service info boards simply state that there are two theories for the creation of Upheaval Dome: a meteorite impact or the rise and subsequent collapse of a salt dome from the underying Paradox formation (of petroleum fame). Greg favored the salt dome theory because of the folding of the otherwise brittle sandstones and the mining of a salt dome a few miles away below Deadhorse Point. Later, he downloaded a geologic paper from NASA that provided pretty convincing evidence that Upheaval Dome is the result of a meteorite impact.

View across Upheaval Dome

Contorted Rocks in the crater bottom.

Lichen on slickrock (Navajo formation)

The trail wasn't more than a mile long and went to two overlooks above the crater, but the hike required a lot of scrambling across slickrock, which is steep, but not really slick if you are wearing a good pair of hiking boots. We did wind up on top of some large rounded areas, high up and very windy! The weather had begun turning. The sun was still out as we made our way back, but the wind was getting brisker.

Steps cut into the slickrock

Another view into the side of Upheaval Dome

View of the RV from near the trailhead

After returning to our campsite, the wind and rain started. We are sitting in near darkness, since the time change occurred last night as well. Time to get out all the battery powered lights and bundle up while I make dinner. The temperature has dropped from the 60's to the 40's in the last hour.

Squall moving in

Raining here, sunny there

Tomorrow we'll head into Moab and take care of chores, laundry, groceries, and so forth, so we will be ready to head south to warmer climes. We'll save the rest of southern Utah for warmer weather. Tomorrow night we'll spring for a private campground and catch up on “luxury”!