We left Salina behind around 9:00 am and headed east on Interstate 70 through beautiful scenic countryside which turned from green mountain vistas to red buttes and mountains. We stopped at several scenic lookouts before stopping in the town of Green River for a couple of cappuccinos. At Crescent Junction we headed south on highway 191 into the town of Moab where we had motel reservations. However it was too early to check in so we picked up a sandwich and had a picnic at a pretty little city park.
We headed towards Arches National Park but at the last moment changed tack and took Scenic Bypass 128 along the Colorado River. The road started out through a narrow canyon with red cliffs on both sides and the river next to the road. We saw several rafters and kayakers and the further we drove the more rapids we saw. There was one vineyard and a couple of very nice looking resort ranches along the road. We could see the La Sal Mountains in the distance with small patches of snow on top and an odd rock formation called Fisher Towers. After 25 miles we turned around and returned to Moab.
We drove to Arches National Park and started our sightseeing. First we stopped to photograph odd rock formations named Three Gossips, The Organ, Tower of Babel and others. Then we saw the petrified sand dunes but decided they wouldn’t look impressive in photos. We stopped to hike to Balanced Rock with crowds of Chinese tourists. We took the road to the Windows Section and saw our first arches in the park. We hiked a loop trail that took us to the North Window Arch, South Window Arch and the Turret Arch. Returning to the main road we also saw the Double Arch and Cove Arch from the road. The temperature was around 100 degrees and we decided to return to Moab for a drink.
We stopped at the Moab Brewery and had a couple of different beers to help cool us down. We went to our motel, checked in, and unpacked the car. After a little while we drove to a restaurant named Zax where we had dinner. We drove back to Arches NP and, as the sun was setting, we drove to the Delicate Arch viewpoint. Delicate Arch is the poster arch for Utah tourism. We drove back to Moab in twilight with plans to see more tomorrow.
Friday turned out to be another hot day with plenty of sunshine. We drove to Arches NP and straight to Delicate Arch where we hiked to the upper viewpoint for a good morning sunshine view. Next we drove to the trailhead for Sand Dune Arch, a tough walk in thick red sand. We could also see Broken Arch in the near distance. On the way to Devil’s Garden we saw the Skyline Arch by the road. We parked at the Devil’s Garden trailhead and hiked to Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch and the imposing Landscape Arch. We hiked back to the car and noted the temperature was 99 degrees. We stopped at a store for beer and took it back to our air conditioned motel room to enjoy.
Around 6:00 pm we drove to see some Indian petroglyphs near the local golf course then headed north to drive the Scenic Byway 191 to the potash mines around 17 miles down the road. The drive was nice along the Colorado River with red rocks, petroglyphs, dinosaur tracks, rock climbers and the occasional arch outside of the national park. We returned to town, had dinner, and called it quits for the evening.
Saturday we visited Canyonlands National Park. We are definitely getting jaded. If we had visited this park first we would have oohed and aahed at the scenery but after Zion, Bryce, Arches and the Grand Canyon, this park seems rather ordinary. The park setting is on top of a large mesa or plateau with canyon walls surrounding it – that’s why the major part of the park is called Island in the Sky. We first drove to Mesa Arch and hiked to view the arch on a canyon rim. Next we drove to the Grand View Point Overlook for super views of the Colorado and Green Rivers and all the surrounding canyons. Finally we drove to the Upheaval Dome which is a large crater created either as a collapsing salt dome or a meteorite crashing to earth millions of years ago. We drove back to our motel and finished off the beer we bought yesterday.
Tomorrow we head south to see Newspaper Rock, Natural Bridges National Monument, Monument Valley and stay in the town of Mexican Hat.
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