2020 Road Trip: Canyonlands

Island in the Sky

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early to go to the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands. Canyonlands National Park is broken up into three sections-the other two are Needles and The Maze. We did the Needles but didn't make it to The Maze because it's more of a back-country 4x4 experience. 





I think we passed maybe 2 cars on the hour drive. It was way less crowded than Arches.













Merrimack and Monitor rock formations along 313.







Once we got to Canyonlands we headed to the Upheaval Dome trailhead. We hiked to the first viewpoint and decided to keep going to the second one. This trail was a doozy but I was really glad we did it. Lots of steep drop offs and climbing but the kids really enjoyed all of those features!

One of the overlooks along the way.

The actual dome.

So much climbing up slickrock.





























It was crazy windy up on top but I took a video of the kids anyway.

We stopped at the Green River Overlook on the way to Mesa Arch. Canyonlands is really neat because two major rivers (Green and Colorado) form the canyons which you can see from the Island in the Sky section.

You could see forever from the viewpoints.









Next stop was Mesa Arch which had some of the most dramatic views I've ever seen.







Saw lots of chipmunks this day!

The boys really loved this one. Just past where they were sitting it dropped off completely.

We had one more stop to make- Grand View Point. It definitely lived up to its name!

Needles

Friday morning we drove down to the Needles Section of Canyonlands. It was about 1.5 hours from Moab, but worth the drive if you have an extra day in the area.

On the drive. Such cool rock formations.








When we got to the entrance for Needles we were the only people there. It was so weird! We went to check out Cave Spring Trail and it was completely deserted until after we finished up.








This area was used by Native Americans for shelter and a water source.

Based on the information it looked like this spring never went dry. We saw lots of animal prints nearby.

The boys loved climbing the ladders on this trail!

More cairns with pretty views.

Mushroom cap. These did not feel safe to be under!

After our hike we checked out Pothole Point. There were lots and lots of little "potholes" that grow an ecosystem whenever it rains.

Last stop in Needles was the Big Spring Canyon Overlook.

I couldn't get enough of these weird looking rocks.

My phone loves to make me stylized photos!









On the way back to Moab we stopped at the Newspaper Rock. It's just off the road so it's an easy place to stretch your legs!

We all enjoyed pointing out different petroglyphs...some looked remarkably like bigfoot?

From the drive back to Moab.








I would love to go back to the Moab area when the weather wasn't quite so hot-we could have done a lot more trails and longer ones but it was just too much for the boys. We kept most hikes to around 3 miles or so which limited our experience, especially at the Needles. It was really cool being at a national park with very few people, usually they are so crowded!