Steve and I treasure a visit to our National Parks, as you may have noticed in past episode of our blog! Along our travels we often choose our route to pass near National Parks and National Monuments for a visit. Utah is home to five of our National Parks, collectively known as “Utah’s Mighty Five”. Bryce and Zion, near the southern border of Utah are sites we have explored during previous trips. Although our route brought us through Utah during the summer heat, we planned visits to Canyonlands and Arches, separated by a handful of miles in the south eastern area of Utah, in an area known as the Grand Circle.
While these two parks are close in distance they are vastly different in geology and appearance. Canyons, mesas, buttes, towers, windows, petrified sand dunes and arches left us in awe.
What is the purpose of our National Parks and why do Steve and I pursue visiting them?
“…to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
-National Park Service Organic Act, August 25, 1916
We camped for a few nights between the two national parks, in Dead Horse Point State Park, which is on the edge of some of the vast canyon lands of the nearby National Park. We enjoyed sunset at the point of the bluff with 360 views of the confluence of the Green River and the Colorado River as they wind through a horseshoe bend carved in the canyon far below. It was a breathtaking beginning to our time in this part of Utah.
Canyonlands National Park
Following the guidance of an amazing app called GyPSy Guide, we headed out for a day of exploring in Canyonlands. We really enjoy this tour app because it is GPS linked to our location and the narrative is like having a personal guide with us, pointing our all the must-see places. We learn so much about the history and geology
of the Parks and know what to see or do at each viewpoint or trailhead.
The tour gives options based on how much time you have to spend in a
Park, and your abilities and interests.
Most of the roadways in Canyonlands, established as a National Park in 1964, were developed by ranchers or by the government to provide access for miners to search for Uranium. Yes I said Uranium! Think Cold War and the nuclear arms race. We learned that the Native Utes and Paiutes actually discovered Uranium deposits and ground the ore to mix with their body paints, giving them a supernatural glow-in-the-dark effect!
To drive onto the Mesa called Island in the Sky, the Canyonlands roadway crosses over an area called the Neck, which is a natural bridge only about 40 feet wide, with cliffs dropping away 
into the canyon below on either side! Touring the park is to drive along the edges of the Mesa to various view points revealing mazes of canyons stretching to the mountains at the far horizon.
Arches National Park
One of the most visited National Parks in the nation, Arches has instituted a pilot program to distribute visitors more evenly throughout the day.
Months ago we obtained our “timed entry” pass to enter the park between 9-10 am. We arrived about half an hour early to get into line and entered the park in about fifteen minutes. Without the timed entry system I have heard that there were times when they stopped cars from entering until cars had left the park. While we visited in high summer I think this system is working and I wish some other parks would institute a system to disperse the traffic jams!
Immediately after entering the Park, the roadway climbs some steep switch backs along stunning cliffs of red rock! At the top of the incline vast views opened before us. Every mile of the drive brought new stunning vistas and rock formations.
Due to the summer heat we planned to do hikes that were short but still brought us great sites, such as the Windows, the Double Arch, Pine Tree Arch, Landscape Arch and Sand Dune Arch.
These are some of the most easily accessible arches, but even taking the shorter hikes from parking lots to views and arches, we covered about six and a half miles of trails and experienced some awesome places in the park!
The well known Delicate Arch is way behind us, as we did not think we should do a three mile difficult hike in the heat of summer! We chose the one mile round trip viewpoint instead.
In the picture to the right, if you look closely, you can see some people standing below the arch, giving the perspective of how high this arch is!
We
absolutely loved both parks, each was special and spectacular in its
own way. Canyonlands seemed more laid back with less visitors, and
Arches is very iconic and popular!
More Adventures on the Road to come in Colorado! Thanks for continuing to pray for us for safety, good health, divine opportunities, and lots of ADVENTURES.
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