This part of Utah – here at Utah’s Canyonlands – is what writer and environmentalist Edward Abbey called the “most arid, most hostile, most lonesome, most grim, bleak, barren, desolate and savage quarter of the state of Utah – the best part by far.”
It was another early alarm clock day as we set off for both Canyonlands National Park and neighbouring Dead Horse State Park, about a 35-minute drive from our campground in Moab. We wanted to beat any crowds and be there as close to sunrise as possible.
We pulled into the park before the Visitor Center was even open, so set up and cooked breakfast. We love this about the Roadtrek – we can cook, eat, clean up (and take short naps) ANYWHERE. The flexibility of the lifestyle is irresistible.
After brekkie, we watched the excellent short film at the Canyonlands Visitor Center, just to get an idea of what was ahead. We’ve been finding that the park intro films give us just the right amount of background about geology, wildlife, etc. to really help us appreciate our visit.
While the roads and trails at Arches National Park wove between dramatic red rock formations, Canyonlands is more about never-ending vistas and the expansive canyons in this part of the Colorado Plateau. Millions of years ago, this was an area of shallow seas, sedimentation, and uplift forming the current landscape when great blocks of rock fractured and were eroded into needles, spires and arches.
We were at one of the highlights – Mesa Arch – well before the crowds got there. That being said, Canyonlands has many fewer visitors than Arches, so there was nothing like a lineup of cars at the entry gates. In the final tally, it’s the remoteness of today’s two parks that would make them our top picks in the area.
We drove all the scenic drives, got out and took hundreds of photos, did a few hikes (the short Mesa Arch loop trail and the trail at Upheaval Dome as well as rim trails at most of the lookouts). The national parks are not particularly dog friendly – dogs are only allowed in parking lots and certain paved areas, so our hiking time was pretty limited.
From the pullouts and trails we could see the great, wide river canyons and the meandering, wide green water of the Colorado River. Canyonlands is the confluence of the Green River and the Colorado River. The area was largely unmapped until the expeditions of John Wesley Powell in the 1860s – the same explorer who mapped Grand Canyon.
We found ourselves comparing Canyonlands to Grand Canyon. In some ways, Canyonlands seems more “relatable”: They are similar in geology, but the canyons here are much wider and more expansive (not as deep though). Next time we come here we’ll put aside a full fay to take one of the jeep tours along the very bottom of the canyons – we could see a few at a distance, navigating the dirt roads. Seeing the canyons from the “bottom up” would be very cool.
Not far down the road from Canyonlands, we stopped at Dead Horse State Park. The view from the overlook at Dead Horse Point – of the gooseneck turn in the Colorado River – is on almost every Utah Tourism brochure. It’s also close to the spot where Thelma and Louise took that famous last ride over the cliff edge.
Dead Horse is like a long peninsula rising above the canyon far below. It’s said that in the late 1800s, cowboys would herd wild mustangs to Dead Horse Point, then lay brush and branches across the narrowest point called the Neck, essentially creating a natural corral.
The sun was setting and we decided we wanted to spend the night in this beautiful, remote spot. The park campgrounds were full, but we tried a dirt side road and found a very nice, small BLM site called Horsethief just north of the state park. Our hope was that the skies would clear and we’d be able to appreciate the pitch black and why Dead Horse and Canyonlands have both been designated as International Dark Sky Parks. Not so lucky . . . soon after we pulled in a light rain started to fall. No stars, but the high desert after a light rain smells so very special. Clean, renewed with hints of pinyon-pine and juniper.
Edward Abbey’s book, Desert Solitaire, is an environmentalist’s classic – a great read. It’s on our bookshelf at home but, oddly enough, the public library in Kingston doesn’t have it in its collection. Ditto for his other well-known book, The Monkey Wrench Gang. They both deserve much more ink and spotlight than the current Brangelina meltdown!
