We finally made it to Utah in September to see the three northern-most National Parks. Our home base with Sue and Dean Hereford for the first two weeks was Moab, which was well situated to get to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The Colorado River runs through the entire area and the river canyons dominate the landscape. The canyons, rock formations from millions of years of erosion, and the desert climate result in an awesome beauty that can’t be replicated in pictures (although we tried). During our stay, the horizon was continuously smoky due to the massive fires in California, but it did result in some great sunrises and sunsets. Further, Moab is a “dark sky” area which provided some great star gazing at night.
Moab was just a dusty desert town until Uranium was discovered there in the early 50’s. Fueled by the Cold War and the nuclear arms race, Moab turned into a boom town overnight. As the government need for uranium declined so did the town and in the early 80’s the uranium mines were closed for good. Since then, the area has transformed itself into an “outdoors mecca”, centered on mountain biking, river sports, and the National Parks. The town has evolved to handle the tourism explosion. Of course, they are still cleaning up the toxic and radioactive mess from the mines, and will be for at least another decade. Nonetheless it’s a great place to visit, albeit a bit on the warm side (90’s in the afternoon) in September. We did a lot of hiking but needed to start around 7:00 and be off the trails by 11:00.
Arches National Park: This is the pearl of the three northern Utah national parks and is close to Moab. It has hundreds of stone arches carved over millennia, often with stunning appearances. The park is not huge compared with many other national parks, but still has a wide variety of cool things to see and rewarding hiking trails. Rafting down the Colorado River was a great experience even though the rapids were relatively tame. Additionally, we did a few 4-wheel drives to get to trail heads and the dinosaur tracks, but the highlight was a death-defying professional Jeep tour that took us around the perimeter of Canyonlands.
Canyonlands National Park: The park is more primitive and less crowded than Arches, but boasts a wide variety of terrain, hiking trails, and fabulous panoramic views. The park is about 30 miles from Moab, but is an easy drive. Like many large National Parks, it has multiple sections to the park that have separate disconnected roads. Often the entrances to those sections can be close to 100 miles apart and Canyonlands is one of them. We spent most of our time in the “Island in the Sky” section but drove and hiked the “Needles” section as well. The park features a lot of “slickrock” which are huge, smooth sandstone areas that are fun to hike and mountain bike on.
Dead Horse Point State Park: Dead Horse is a relatively small park wedged between Arches and Canyonlands and is notable for its views of the Colorado River gorge. The “Point” itself overlooks the awesome Goose Neck curve on the river. Also, there is a sizable network of mountain biking trails. The park was allegedly named because the end of the peninsula formed a natural corral and was used by 19th century cowboys in the 19th century to hold mustangs. Those horses that didn’t “make the cut” for sale elsewhere were often abandoned there and died of exposure.
Colorado River: The River runs through the entire area and is the life-blood of region. The gorges are not quite are extensive as the Grand Canyon, but are amazing just as well. The locals complained that the water level is very low compared to other years. This is not surprising given the draught conditions over the past decade in the entire Southwest and the unprecedented low water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead. None the less, the river flows are large and there still are rapids. We took an all-day rafting trip that covered 15 miles and even jumped overboard to cool off. Just a great experience.
You really captured a great variety of pics!
What a beautiful landscape in Utah, along with incredible hiking!