On Friday, I hit the road early for a long and packed day visiting two state parks and Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands actually has three different sections, I visited one of the other two on Sunday, so will share some pictures of both in one post!
In between Torrey and the Moab area is a small state park called Goblin Valley, so-called because of the weird rock formations that look like goblins. I swear, Utah has more interesting rock shapes than anywhere else in the world. It wasn't actually all that interesting, and ultimately probably not worth the detour of ~an hour, but hey, YOLO.
The big one in the middle looks like a dog-goblin to me
After a couple more hours of driving (and completing the very excellent audio book Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah) I arrived at Dead Horse Point State Park, a destination I'd really been looking forward to! I've read a couple different explanations of the name, but the one from the park itself is that legend has it that the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa. Cowboys would choose the horses they wanted, and (for reasons unknown) leave the others corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst. Not a very pleasant story for such a beautiful place!
You can drive to the major viewpoints, but I chose to do the easy hike to them and even found a Norwegian couple to take a photo of me.
After my little hike, I carried on to the Island in the Sky area of Canyonlands National Park. I actually didn't know what to expect since I hadn't done much research on this park, but the friendly ranger helped to suggest several short hikes for me to do some sightseeing. The park is another HUGE canyon, with views that are easy to glimpse without very rigorous hiking involved. I did three short hikes: Mesa Arch, Grand View Point, and White Rim overlook, each offering different viewpoints over the impressive canyon.
Mesa Arch: supposed to be most impressive at sunrise, but I can't wake up that early, so this midday view will have to do.
Views from the Grand View Point hike
End of the White Rim Overlook trail. Sheer drop into the canyon at the edge, eek!
A couple days later, I visited another part of the park called The Needles, which is about an hour and a half drive from Moab (Island is the Sky is about an hour drive in the other direction). Here, I did the biggest single trail of my trip, the 11 mile Chesler/Joint Trail hike.
Man, 11 miles is a long time! It took me about 5.5 hours to finish it, and it. was. HOT. Over 90 degrees the whole time! At the beginning of the trail I met some other hikers, but once I was past about 3 miles in, I literally did not see another person. It was peaceful, but also made me paranoid that maybe I was on the wrong trail and also about getting attacked by a mountain lion (even though they don't have those here).
The trail featured lots of difference desert scenery: rocks to scramble up, the big rock formations that give The Needles its name, and even a couple of sections where you walk in between giant rocks through openings only about 18 inches wide (a little scary, but the shade was amazing). Here are a few of my favorite views from the day:
Viewpoint of the "Needles"
It looks shady in this photo, but it was not shady. Anywhere.
Walking through a tiny space!
Mile 9 (which is also mile 2) where a nice family took this picture for me.
The cutest rock you ever did see ;)
The Needles was my last stop on my trip, and it was nice to accomplish such a challenging hike on my last day! Tomorrow I might actually do one more small hike (one that I got lost on the first time I tried it!) since my flight doesn't leave until the late afternoon. Then, back to the real world!