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Phase Seven

Las Vegas - Bryce Canyon Park - Capitol Reef Park - Canyonlands Park - Arches Park - Grand Junction

August 22 – September 5

After picking up our car in Las Vegas, we began this phase of our journey by camping in Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce Canyon is famous for having the largest selection of hoodoos found anywhere in the world. Now you might be asking, what is a hoodoo? Hoodoos, also called fairy chimneys, are rock formations that come in large varieties of shapes and colors. There are big round hoodoos that resemble piles of cow pies, tall thin hoodoo spires that seem to go on forever, and rounded chimneys that look like heaps of melted wax. It is because of these endless variations in shapes, that that hoodoos are so damn interesting. These strange geological wonders were formed after thousands of years of erosion from frost wedging when melting snow seeps into the cracks of the stone and freezes overnight. As the water freezes it expands bit by bit prying open new cracks and making existing ones ever wider.

Because of its truly unique landscape, I liked this park the most of all of the ones we have visited to date on our adventure. Bryce Canyon sits at an elevation of around 8,500 feet, which is higher than any place else we have visited. The positive effect of this was that the temperatures here were more pleasant than the ones we experienced later in the rest of Southern Utah. The negative effect was that our bodies needed time to acclimate to the thinner air making it difficult engaging in strenuous hiking for the first couple of days..

By the third day we were ready for a more ambitious hike. We choose to walk down into the canyon via the Peekaboo Trail and come back up through the Queen’s Garden Trail. This six mile trek took us through a constantly changing array of tunnels, valleys, and vistas. It was one of the best hikes we have ever done. We were totally blown away by all the sights we encountered.

Our next stop was Capitol Reef National Park, where we spent the night just outside the park in the village of Torrey. This park is filled with colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth. Our favorite hike was through Capital Gorge which is a narrow canyon with absolutely massive soaring walls.

For the remainder of our Utah travels the high daytime temperatures ranged between 93 and 101 degrees. Because of this, we had to begin our hikes earlier in the morning then we normally would have preferred. In arid regions such as this, the variations between day and nighttime temperatures can be very extreme. When we got in our car to drive to the park, it was quite chilly, and we both wore sweaters. When we started our first hike around 8:00 it was still a little cool, and I was down to a t-shirt and long pants. By 10:00, when we started our second hike it was still pleasant, but in anticipation of the coming heat, I stripped down to shorts. And by 1:00 when we got back to our car, because it was already so damn hot, we returned to our air-conditioned apartment until 6:00. By then it started to become cool, and we ventured out again to explore Torrey, which proved to be a very short excursion.

On the way to our next destination we took a slight detour for a few hours at Natural Bridges National Monument. This is a pretty little park, which is popular for its three natural bridges. While there, we took a short hike to see the Owachomo Bridge which stands an impressive 106 feet high and spans 180 feet. Later in the day, we stopped briefly at Newspaper Rock, and absolutely mind blowing mural of storytelling in stone.

That night we camped near the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. On the map, Canyonlands appears to be one solid park. In reality it is split by the wide deep gorges of the Colorado and Green Rivers into three diverse regions. Needles is a remote area, over a two hour drive from the main portion of the park. This area is famed for its colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that seem to poke up from the desert floor.

Other than the ranger station, the only civilization within 40 miles of the park is the Needles Outpost campground and general store located just a mile from the park entrance. This was the most perfect campground we have ever stayed in. We set up our tent in our super large lot under the shade of two trees with unobstructed views of the mountains behind us and great desert sunsets in front of us. Our stay at the Outpost was totally off the grid. Their electricity comes from solar panels, and their water is trucked in. For $3 we were able to take a five minute shower.

During our day in Needles, we completed one moderate and three short hikes. It was way too hot to attempt anything more ambitious. Our favorite hike, the Slickrock Trail, provided us with excellent views from above of some small canyons and interesting rock formations. As the day progressed, we found relief from the heat by taking breaks under rock outcrops where the stone surfaces would still be cool from the previous night, and at the end of each hike by jumping into our car and letting the air-condition run for extended periods of time.

By 2:00 it was too hot to continue, and we were forced to return to our campsite. Sitting in the shade when the breeze blew it was actually relatively pleasant. The general store was air-conditioned, and I would find myself going there on a couple of occasions to buy a cold beverage, and drinking it very slowly while I sat on their big sofa. By 7:00 it cooled down significantly and the surrounding desert began to become alive with a vivid array of colors. We just sat back and watched the amazing show the night sky had to offer. First with the awesome sunset, and then later with the clear sky filled with stars.

Owachomo Bridge - Natural Bridges Monument

Slickrock Trail - Needles District

Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument

Needles Outpost

The next day we drove to Moab. In my descriptions of the various towns we visited on this journey, I occasionally have used the term “outdoor adventure playground”. Moab is the ultimate outdoor adventure playground. Within a 40 minute drive of town there are two national parks, two national forests, one state park and a whitewater rafting river. We had little expectations of what a small rural town in the middle of the Utah desert would be like, but we were pleasantly surprised. The small downtown was jam packed with interesting shops and restaurants

We began our first day in the area at Arches National Park. With over 2,000 stone arches, this park contains the largest selection of these natural formations anywhere on the planet. In addition to arches the park is jam packed with other interesting rock formations such as towers, pinnacles and balanced rocks. We started off with the park’s most popular hike to Landscape Arch which is only 11 feet thick and spans an amazing 306 feet. This formation appears to defy gravity and looks like it could come down at any moment. In fact as recently as 1991, a 60 foot long slab fell down from the arch’s underside. The arch would probably not be able to withstand this happening again.

We continued our adventures with short hikes to Sand Dune Arch, North & South Window Arches, Turret Arch, Skyline Arch and Double Arch. At the end of the trails we scurried up the rocks to reach the open areas under the arches to take in the views of the surroundings countryside. It was an awesome experience siting in the cool shade under these massive stone formations. Even though this day turned out to be the hottest of our vacation, we were not the only crazy people exploring the area. It seemed that as the day progressed and as the temperature rose, that the roads and trails became more and more crowded. Cars were actually waiting in line in some of the smaller parking lots to get a space.

Double Arch - 104 ft. High - 148 ft. Span

Skyline Arch - 34 ft. High - 71 ft. Span

Turret Arch - 65 ft. High - 35 ft. Span

Balanced Rock - 128 ft. High

The next day we visited Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park. This park is far less popular than Arches, so it was good to get away from the crowds. Because of its name, I was expecting to take long hikes through winding canyons. Instead the only canyons we saw were from the mesas and buttes 2,000 feet above. But I am not complaining. The views were absolutely spectacular and unlike anything I have ever seen before. In the park we took a variety of short hikes to awesome viewpoints of the Colorado and Green Rivers far below.

Our last destination was Grand Junction. Along the way, we decided to take the longer scenic route that literally hugged the Colorado River for 40 miles. Along this stretch of river, the canyon walls were far smaller than we previously experienced, but it was still a beautiful roadway. Towards the end of the drive we were surprised how quickly the soaring canyon walls dissolved away to almost nothing. The road then continued through flat boring countryside.

As I previously said, Moab over performed our expectations. I’m sad to say that Grand Junction did the oppositae. We found the city to be a very uninteresting place to visit. The one thing worth seeing was the Colorado National Monument just on the city's outskirts. This was a beautiful little park with towering monoliths, vast plateaus and canyon panoramas. Our favorite hike here was to the Devils Kitchen. We left our Rav4 resting in Grand Junction until our next adventure.