Although the mileage looks pretty low for the day, we were out from 9 in the morning until 10 at night. We visited two iconic State Parks and had dinner in Moab before a drive back in the dark.
We started the day at Subways again and bought sandwiches and salads for lunch and stored them in the coolbox. Heading north up the route 191 we enjoyed view of the Abajo (or Blue) mountains behind Monticello and further on far-reaching views of the La Sal mountains. 30 miles up the road, we passed our first rock arch, Wilsons Arch as we headed towards Moab. Moab has a name in Utah as the outdoor capital of the State offering horse-back treks, off-road 4WD experiences, rafting down the Green and Colorado rivers and a variety of other extreme sports. It is a touristy town, for obvious reasons, but originally had been a centre of Uranium mining. North of Moab the road quickly enters the Moab Fault, a gorge where the cliffs on the eastern side have fallen 800 feet compared to the western side as a result on seismic activity.
Six miles north of Moab, we turned off into Arches National Park and again showed our pass to get in. We quickly studied the free maps we were given and decided that we could visit the whole park and would stop at each point indicated on the map where there was parking. The photographic orgy was about to begin again!.
The road quickly climbed up cliffs and entered the Park proper. Virtually all the rock in the area was red and consisted of huge cliffs, free-standing rock towers, canyons and arches. Many of the rock towers had implausibly balanced boulders perched on top of them. We stopped first at Park Lane, a small gorge with cliffs that were looked a bit like office-block buildings lining a street. Not far from here we came upon 'The Organ', 'The Courthouse' and 'Sheep Rock'. Cameras to the fore, we stopped at several overlooks, one especially amazing of a view of a huge boulder balanced on a thiner rock tower. Further into the park we turned off the main road to visit 'North Window', South Window', 'Turret Arch' and 'Double Arch'. Whilst Ken walked down the trail to Double Arch, I followed another trail that went to the other three arches. I branched off up to Turret Arch as it was quieter and was rewarded with views of all four arches. I was able to pass under Turret Arch from where the Windows arches were beautifully framed. Continuing on, we next turned of to see 'Delicate Arch', perhaps the most iconic of the arches in the park. There was a choice of trails, the first which climbed up to the arch was 3 miles long, the second 100yds long to a viewpoint a very long way away or the third a half-mile scramble up rocks to a ridge overlooking the cliff on which Delicate Arch stands. The temperature by now was 84 degrees (the Americans don't have much time for Centigrade), so we opted for the half-mile scramble. It was quite a climb the upper part on slickrock, which reminded me of 'Enchanted Rock' in Texas. Even though we were directly opposite the arch we were still quite some way from the arch itself on the other side of a deep canyon, nonetheless, it was a beautiful sight. The arch dwarfing the people that had climbed the longer trail.
Back down at the 'tour bus' we had a good long drink of water (I know we should have taken it with us!) and then headed even further into the park, past the 'Firey Furnace' and on to the 'Devils Garden'. Here we were lucky enough to find a shady picnic table and ate our rather late 'Subway' lunch whilst watching ground squirrels and lizards.
Following lunch, we decided to head back out of the park and managed to do so with only two or three more stops for 'one more quick picture'!
Back on the route 191, we continued north for a 6 or 7 miles and then turned west onto the route 313 which was signposted to Dead Horse State Park. After about 20 miles, we passed the State Park and entered one part of Canyonlands National Park. This huge park has several entrances all of which are no-through roads. We had chosen to visit the 'Island in the Sky' part of the park. This part of the park consists of a huge mesa overlooking the confluence of the Green River and the Colorado River, both of which flow in deep canyons. The Colorado river continues south and west and eventually flows through the Grand Canyon. Once again we used our park pass and drove deep into the park to the Mesa Arch. We walked the short trail to the arch which is perched on the canyon rim over two thousand feet above the Colorado river. The arch, which was quite small, was rather impressive, especially as it framed a staggering view to the canyon and river below.
We turned right at the road junction in the middle of the park and briefly visited the 'Upheaval Dome', the cataclismic result of some huge event in the past. Scientists still don't know if it was volcanic or meteoric. We then stopped at the Holeman Spring Canyon overlook and Green River overlook to view the river and its immense canyon. Finally, we drove to Grand View Point overlook at the far end of the park where we stood and wondered at the huge canyon where the two rivers meet. Below the main canyon rim, lies a lower bench, some 1000ft below, then a narrow canyon cuts into that down to the river another 1200ft below that. There is an incredibly adventurous 4WD trail that follows this bench called the White Rim trail. Apparently it can take days to drive this, so there are several primative campsites along the way.
By now it was 6 at night and with sunset advertised at 7, we reluctently decided to leave the park. There were quite a lot of people perched on the canyon rim waiting for the sunset view. With the park entrance 12 miles away and the main road another 20 miles and Moab a further 15 miles, we decided we had to go! We did manage brief stops at Bucks Canyon overloook and 'The Neck' a part of the road which is just the width of the road between two immense canyons.
We made it back into Moab by 7.30 and set about finding food. We happened upon yet another Texas BBQ, and ordered meals that were suitably Texan-sized complete with the requisite Margaritas. After dinner, Lynn kindly volunteered to drive the 55 miles back to Monticello in dark. Thank you Lynn!
Back at the hotel in Monticello at 10, we all headed straight for bed!
Hotel - Rodeway Inn
Weather - Clear skies, sunny and hot, mid 80s
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