Canyonlands NP - Island In The Sky section

After visiting Arches NP, I went to the nearby Canyonlands NP. Some days ago, I talked about that park, the Needles Section. This time, I visited Island in the Sky. Both parts of the park are so different that they could well be two different national parks! Besides, the entrances are so far away!!



Island in the Sky is an amazing place for photography and to enjoy beautiful landscapes. Basically, it can't get much better than that! The name comes from the fact that you are on top of a mesa, looking down at Canyonlands, where the Colorado and the Green river advance lazily towards the point where they meet and become one. This is a place to relax. To sit by the edge of a cliff and watch the view for a long time, until you cannot take any more of it. It is a place to be enjoyed slowly and intensely.




The rest of this post is some photos and panoramas I took there. Please click on each of them to see them properly. The landscape was so breathtaking that it was difficult to get it all in a couple photos... but I tried my best! ;)

Arches NP

My last day in Utah was pretty crazy. I woke up in a hostel in Moab and went to Arches National Park early in the morning.



Arches NP is one of the most amazing places I have been too. It is really cool and there are soooooo many arches!! But, an important piece of advice, if you do not do any hiking, you will simply see nothing and come back home disappointed!! This is a place to hike, walk, climb and enjoy. Some hikes are kind of hard if you are not used to hiking: rock climbing, big falls is you are not careful, long distances... But if you go for it, it is amazing! :)



The park is full of geological oddities: arches, rocks on top of rock pillar that could fall at any moment, colorful mountains...



This one is Balanced Rock:



The gem of the park and the symbol of the state of Utah is Delicate Arch. That arch is superb! It is really amazing when after hiking (strenuous hiking) for more than hour you get there. Really beautiful!




Hiking allows you can stop and contemplate beautiful places and details:



And sometimes it is the only way to get to some of the park highlights: Landscape Arch for example



This is Partition Arch:



And this one, Navajo Arch:



The hike to double-O arch is long and quite hard but pretty rewarding. I really liked it. The landscape was beautiful and rock climbing quite often:



This is Double-O Arch, a complex arch composed of two openings, one on top of the other! Bizarre, isn't it?



This is Skyline Arch:



This is the narrow opening in the rocks which leads to Sand Dune Arch:



And Sand Dune Arch:



Broken Arch:



Turret Arch, in the Windows complex:



The Windows:



Double Arch:



Quite an amazing place! Much more than expected!! The park is full of beautiful arches that will take your breath away!! ;)

Newspaper Rock NHS

On the long road from the main road to Moab to the entrance of Canyonlands NP - Needles, there is a nice sample of Native American art. A nice rock with thousands of drawings! It is Newspaper Rock National Historical Site.

Canyonlands NP - Needles section

After visiting Monument Valley, long drive North with a stop at Canyonlands National Park. This NP is divided in three sections which are very different and completely isolated. You cannot go from one place of the park to another. They actually look like different NPs!! So different!!



The Colorado and the Green river get together in the middle of the park and that divides it in three areas. The Northern one is called Island-In-The-Sky and you will see why tomorrow. The SouthEastern one is called Needles, because of some funny geological structures there.



First, I went for a short hike where I could see some Moon-like terrain...



... and some mushroom-like huge boulders.



The landscape was pretty cool - Canyon Lands ;)



Then, I went for the real hike, to the place where the two rivers get together. That hike is amazing and pretty technical. You need some skill and pass by narrow trails exposed to huge falls... can be kinda scary if you are not used to hike ;) Also, some moderate climbing involved. My shorts got torn... hehe...





After hiking for around 1 hour (some parts running), I noticed I could not make it to the rivers confluence, so I just gave up. The landscape was rewarding enough! I got up to a point where a large red plain could be seen. I guess the confluence was not that far, but I did not want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere, without a torch and without Moon at night... a bit frustrating... I should have prepared the hike better!!




Anyway, this NP was cool. It is really backcountry and not much people there. :)

Monument Valley

Monument Valley is a Navajo Monument located in Navajo Country, in Southern Utah / Northern Arizona. It is quite an impressive place, one of those places which have something that makes them special!

This is what you see when you approach it. Suddenly some beautiful buttes appear together in the distance and you now you are getting close :)




And when you get there, well... you can see it by yourself.



There is a scenic route that goes among the buttes. It is pretty beautiful but pretty rough at some times!

Goosenecks SP

After leaving Natural Bridges NM, narrow road towards the South. I was going to Monument Valley, and wanted to stop at Goosenecks State Park on the way there.

At some point, the road became unpaved and went down an amazing canyon! Incredible!! This is what it looks like. The descend was almost vertical!



Then, I finally got to Goosenecks SP. So beautiful!!