September 22, 2003
"Canyonlands"
| ...No such luck. Once again, we were kept awake half of the
night by Mary's incessant coughing. Would this ever end? We awoke early in the morning and, once we were showered and dressed, we began our day's adventure. Our plan for the day was to hike and explore Canyonlands National Park, about 35 miles from Moab, Utah. To get there, we took US 191 north to Utah Highway 313, and that took us right into the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park. We stopped first at the visitor center, in order to get a stamp for our passport book. There, we received our map of the park to help us plan out our day. John found two trails that he thought we should hike: the Mesa Arch Trail, and the Grand View Trail. Both trailheads could be found along the main road through the park. Before we left the visitor center, we decided to cross the road and take a look at the Shafer Canyon Overlook, to get our first glimpse into the stunning canyons that make up the national park. Having seen the Grand Canyon for the first time only last month, I was not expecting that Canyonlands would be able to rival its spectacular beauty...but it did. It was just as spectacular as the Grand Canyon...maybe even more so. And what was the first thing John said to me? "Look, honey, a road!" Yes, lo and behold, there it was: a road! And not just any road; no, this was a Verley road, for four-wheel drive vehicles only. I knew that this was an omen of things to come. We left the visitor's center and drove to the first of the two trails that we would explore that day: the Mesa Arch Trail, a half-mile loop trail that would take us to beautiful Mesa Arch.  The trail was a rather easy one - even hiking at Mary's pace, we still managed
to get there in about ten minutes. Along the way, on the trail, there wasn't
much to see - no, this was a destination trail, one with a destination so
stunning that it made the hike worthwhile.Mesa Arch was not a large arch; in fact, the height of the opening was maybe five feet, if that. What made it spectacular was the view. On the other side of Mesa Arch was a sheer drop-off and a view of the canyons that seemed to go on forever. It was also an east-facing arch, meaning that at sun-up, visitors can catch the morning sunrise through the window of the arch. Since it is not very tall, visitors can also climb to the top and catch a lovely, unobstructed view of the canyon...that is, unless you're afraid of heights. John carefully climbed up there with Mary. I wasn't even going to try! We asked another hiker to take a picture of us in front of the arch. Then, we began our hike back to the Jeep. The next trail that we planned to hike could be found at the end of the main road through the park: the Grand View Trail, a 2-mile trail (round trip) that began at the Grand View Point Overlook and ended at a mesa overlooking the White Rim. The trail was an easy one to hike - it followed along the rim of the canyon, giving us some stunning views all along the way. It was also much less crowded than the overlook at the trailhead, which had been packed with tourists that morning, so it was a relief to get away from all of the people. The trail ended at the Grand View, overlooking the White Rim, another set of canyons through which there was a popular four-wheel drive road called the White Rim Road. The road is 100 miles long and is best done over a period of several days. (There are primitive campgrounds along the way, where travelers can stop to stay the night.) Although we were not going to be in Canyonlands long enough to do the White Rim Road, we certainly kept it in mind for a future trip.  We sat on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the White Rim, and we ate Pria
bars as we listened the silence and marveled at the beautiful canyon. We also
watched four-wheel drive vehicles, which looked like ants from our standpoint,
maneuver over the rough and rocky road below us. We were all thinking, "Wow,
what an adventure it must be to explore the canyons like that, spending days
traveling in your Jeep, seeing very few people..."Well, I knew that we were not going to make it out of Canyonlands without doing a little bit of travel through the canyon in our own four-wheel drive vehicle. John had been mulling it over throughout our hike of the Grand View Trail, and once we returned to the trailhead, he decided that he wanted to drive Shafer Canyon Road. The map indicated that it was 35 miles along Shafer Canyon Road from the main highway to Moab. When he asked the park ranger how long that would take, the ranger told him that it would take about four hours along that road, for it was very rough. John wasn't convinced that it would take four hours to go only 35 miles, but he was convinced that we needed to take that road back to Moab. And so, we left Canyonlands National Park via Shafer Canyon Road, switchbacking all the way down into the canyon, along a narrow, steep, rocky road with sheer drop-offs. With the Jeep in the lowest gear possible, John maneuvered down each switchback as carefully as possible, so as to avoid sending the Jeep over the edge, while I held onto the "oh shit" handle and watched with wide eyes. Although there were a few hairy moments going down the switchbacks, we managed to make it to the bottom of the canyon without incident. From there, the road improved a great deal - in fact, for the most part, the road was so good that we didn't even need a four-wheel drive vehicle at all! Once we were in the canyon, the road became a straight run through the desert. The trip through the canyon was very scenic. We passed by a number of gigantic monoliths and towering canyon walls. We also drove along steep precipices overlooking the Colorado River. (We stopped there and took pictures of each other at one of the overlooks.)  After 6.3 miles, we left the National Park boundary, at which point the Shafer
Trail became Potash Road. From there, it continued on through the desert,
following along the banks of the Colorado River, past the southern boundaries
of Dead Horse Point State Park. About 15 miles from Moab, the road rambled
through a flat of land covered in a strange white substance - it almost looked
like snow in the desert! We discovered that it was the Moab Salt Flats,
glistening there under the hot, afternoon sun. Soon after we passed through the salt flats, we arrived at something we had not seen in miles: pavement! After riding for about two hours on that dirt road, we were grateful to see paved road again. That paved road became a state highway, which led us right back into Moab, only miles from the hotel where we were staying. It was nearly dinnertime when we arrived back in town. Tired and hungry, we decided to stay in our room for the night and order a pizza - not exactly the healthiest choice that we could have made, but at least we didn't have to go out for dinner! While we ate, we downloaded the pictures off of the camera and sent out our e-postcards to show everyone what we had done that day. ("Look, everyone, a road!") Right before we turned in for the night, we medicated Mary again, in hopes that we would have a good night's sleep, but we knew that it just wasn't going to happen... Return to Park & Ride. | |
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