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| Monument Basin |
Canyonlands
had quite the reputation to live up to. People had said that it was
better than the Grand Canyon – now considering I have previously
been to the Grand Canyon and was pretty awestruck by it, I had my
doubts over the credibility of this call.
Still
we did have rather high expectations, and this is always risky
behavior as one can sometimes come out a little let down if these
lofty standards aren't met.
A
little advice for anyone thinking they may well visit Canyonlands in
the future – you can not drive through it, there is a dirty big
canyon in the middle preventing any such attempts. Knowing this, the
smart move would be to check out the north section, Island in the Sky
(if you are coming from Salt Lake) first, on your way to Arches, not
the other way round. A lot of people talk of checking out Dead Horse
Point S.P. on the way from Arches to Canyonlands, but given
Canyonlands is split into two sections, be wary of which section they
are talking of.
As
you may have guessed we didn't have this information so we back
tracked to get into the Island in the Sky. A decision that bore some
rather delicious fruit. Not many people we have met talk highly of
the northern section, rather everyone raves about the south east
section, the Needles, but do yourself a favour and set aside ½ a day
and give Island in the Sky a decent crack.
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| Buck Canyon |
Most
of the scenic view points are mere metres off the main drive, and
they are remarkable. The views on offer at Grand View Point Overlook, Buck Canyon Overlook and Green River Overlook are incredible. The canyon carved out by the
Colorado River in parts has fingers reaching out to draw you in, and
in other areas looks remarkably like the ancient ruins of a
civilisation lost to time.
The different looks of the Meander Canyon
We
spent the good part of an hour or so wandering along the rim taking
shots of the same thing from slightly different angles, and being
ever more enamoured with the canyon with each one.
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| Green River Overlook |
A
short hike brings you to Upheaval Dome – a fascinating feature that
still baffles scientists today. They still debate whether the
formation was created by a meteorite or just the combined effects of
it's previous life as a salt lake and the Colorado Uplift. Either
way, go and check it out for yourself – sort of like a mini volcano
within a larger crater.
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| Upheaval Dome |
And being so close to Arches N.P. it wouldn't be that far out of the question for Canyonlands to contain a world class arch of its own would it? No, no it wouldn't. Mesa Arch isn't spectacular on its own, but the view it commands (and frames) is beautiful.
After
deciding against checking out Dead Horse Point S.P. (we had heard
it's very similar to Island in the Sky but with an overlook of the
Colorado River and we didn't really see the point in paying $10 for a
photo – yeah we're cheap!) we made our way south to the Needles.
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| Mesa Arch |
The
Needles are a must, and if you can fit in an overnight camping trip
out into the heart of the park it's well worth your troubles – or
so we have been told.
We
arrived a little too late to organise an overnight trip, a little too
late to secure a camp within the park and a little too late for some
old duck's liking as well. The old duck running the closest private
campsite had obviously just shut up shop when we arrived. As we were
looking at the registration papers and the exuberant prices she was
trying to rob us for, she politely came out and told us to 'put the
money in the envelope and f_ck off!' Well f_ck off we did – to
another campsite.
Hamburger
Rock turned out to be one of the nicest 'primitive' camps we have
stayed at. Being a 'primitive' camp no water is provided and the
toilets usually remind you of day 3 of a festival, but the location
more than made up for it.
As
mentioned if you have the time, spend a night out in the wilderness
of the Needles, and if you don’t, try and spend a good part of the
day out there. We had thought of doing the 11 mile hike out to
Confluence Overlook but the ranger informed us whilst it's a good
hike if you've done most of the other hikes on offer, essentially you
are just walking out there for 5.5 miles to see two rivers meet and
then walking back. But then again isn't that what 95% of hikes are –
walking your sorry arse for miles, looking at something, and then
walking your sorry arse back? But seriously for some bizarre reason
we love it. Not that we have done any hiking of the sort back in Aus
but apparently that's what we're all about when we're overseas.
The
ranger's suggestion was to hike Chelser Park, where there is no real
end destination, just a loop through the park with highlights and
amazing views everywhere you look. And he wasn't wrong. There haven’t
been too many hikes we have done that aren't focused on one or two
viewpoints along the way, but the Chesler Park loop was incredible.
You get right into the heart of the Needles and it's easy to tell why
so many people fall in love with the park.
Chesler Park
The
loop is a pretty strenuous 12 miles but the variety of scenery and
landscape you cover keeps you enthralled the entire way. From the
fantastic rock formations that give the section it's name, to the
one-man wide crevice that is Joint Trail, the loop can take you half
the day or all day, it just depends on how lost you let yourselves
get – not lost in the traditional sense but you do see people just
sitting back and taking it all in, and others charging through to get
back to the car, out of the heat.
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| Joint Trail |
As
mentioned earlier, people have been quoted as saying Canyonlands is
better than the Grand Canyon. I will say that it lived up to all the
hype, and some, but I will be holding back on my judgment of the
above statement until I have revisited the Grand Canyon.
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| Wooden Shoe Overlook |
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