Moab August 28

Landscape Arch

Dead Horse Point

Canyonlands National Park

A storm was in the area this morning and it rained during our breakfast at the B&B. We decided to tour Canyonlands today since it is more of a driving park with overlooks. We went to Dead Horse Point State Park first and saw some beautiful views of the Colorado. We discovered that the reason that this area was not made a part of the national park is that it is being mined for potash. Water from the Colorado is pumped into 3000 foot wells to dissolve the minerals and then injected into flats, and then allowed to evaporate. The flats were kind of pretty but out of place in the environment. It was overcast but no rain so we went on to Canyonlands. While we were there, the sun came out and we had white puffy clouds. Canyonlands is Utah’s largest national park at 527 square miles and one of the newest; established in 1964. The canyon, created by the Colorado River is 1/2 the width and 1/2 the depth of the Grand Canyon so it is very impressive. We explored the section of the park called Island in the Sky which is the most accessible by car and stopped at the many view points.
Since the weather had turned in our favor, we decided to head over to Arches National Park. We walked out to Landscape Arch, the largest arch at 306’. An easy walk of 1.6 miles, there were two short side trips to two other arches along the way. We ended up in the Windows section for the sunset and views of North and South Window as well as Turret Arch. It was a long but fruitful day.