This morning we headed back to Canyonlands NP, this time to the popular Islands in the Sky district. We had a fabulous hike here last year on the Neck Springs trail, but didn’t go any deeper into the park than that so it was high on our list of places we wanted to return to. In particular I was eager to see the now incorrectly named Upheaval Dome. Until 2008 there was a lot of uncertainty about what caused this unique feature. However, a relatively recent discovery confirmed that it was caused by a meteor impact.
Our two tracks and some pictures are here.
We started pretty early in the day, but apparently 8:30 wasn’t early enough to avoid the ridiculous heat that Moab is currently experiencing. The trail was exactly what we’ve grown to like: uneven, sparsely populated, beautiful. The views down into the crater were also awesome, but the heat was pretty overbearing. By the time we made it back to the car we were all desperate for Fred’s air conditioning.
Next, we made our way down to the southernmost point in the part of the park. Since we’d had a chance to cool off everyone was ready for a second go at hiking. Of course, by now it was later and hotter but we managed to finish the 2 miles out and back to see the views from Grand View to the canyons below.
We also squeezed in a few other activities before returning to Moab. The girls became junior rangers, we saw Mesa Arch, some woman from Texas got really mad at me for parking within 30 feet of her RV, and a couple other little walks. We made it back to town in time for me to do some laundry, but some groceries, fuel up Fred, and write this post. We’re planning on an early dinner tonight so that we can reattempt the Devil’s Garden at Arches really early tomorrow. Last year this was the hike that nearly got us washed away in a flash flood. We’re not worried about rain this year but we want to avoid the heat that sets in by 10 AM here. Hopefully we won’t feel like we’re walking on sunshine.
