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Friday, June 3, 2022
Today we drove to Canyonlands National Park. It is our fifth and last national park in Utah. Whatever we will do next?
The drive from Moab was a quick 35 minutes. Ironically, Arches is one of the most popular of the national parks and Canyonlands, just a short drive away, is one of the least visited. We really had little idea of what to expect. The park is rather odd. It has three distinct entrances / sections and it’s impossible to get from one section to another from within the park. Island In The Sky, the entrance we came through, has the most friendly trails. The Needles section has some camping grounds but most of the trails are rather advanced. The Maze section is only for serious hikers / campers. That section requires a four wheel drive vehicle with high ground clearance. None of the sections have electricity or running water.
The road to the park is through the now familiar desert with high sandstone bluffs. Just across the road from the visitor’s center we found an enormous canyon that seemed to stretch on for miles. It was very reminiscent of The Grand Canyon. We took some photos and drove down the road towards our first hike: Mesa Arch Trail.
The Mesa Arch Trail was almost a mile through a rocky desert landscape to what promised to be a spectacular view point. It was still before noon and the temperature was in the mid 70s. Fortunately there was significant cloud cover and some light breezes that made the hike enjoyable. As we walked we saw a number of prickly pear cacti with flowers. Some were yellow, some pink and others were red. Everyone on that hike stopped to take pictures. Eventually we came to a steep cliff. At the end was a long arch through which you could see bluffs in the canyon below. It was quite a remarkable sight.
Back in the parking lot we found a raven. He was hopping back and forth between cars. He was looking for handouts. Every time a car passed by he moved to the side and then continued about his business. He was so appealing and so amusing that, in spite of the fact that you’re not supposed to feed the wildlife nor should you reward bad behavior, I gave him a few cheese doodles. He really seemed to like them.
Our next stop was Grand View Trail. At the trail head is a lovely lookout over another canyon. The trail follows the rim for quite a ways and then crosses over to the other side where there is another canyon to see. At the end of the trail you can climb a high pile of rocks and see both sides at once. By the time we were headed back the temperature had climbed and the sun was shining brightly. It was rather draining. We stopped to drink many times along the way but it didn’t seem to help. By the time we got back to the car we were rather overheated. Fortunately we had plenty of water and Gatorade so we suffered no ill effects. Once we cooled down we ate our sandwiches (and whatever cheese doodles we had left over) and continued on.
The Grand View Trail was at the end of the main road. We doubled back and took the fork to Upheaval Dome. The parking lot there was overflowing. We had hoped to see the dome from the car but apparently we had do some more hiking which we were not prepared to do.
Our next stop was the Green River Overlook. This view featured a narrow ribbon of water almost imperceptibly hidden in a deep fissure on the canyon floor. Both the Green and Colorado Rivers flow through the area and have helped form the canyons.
The park has many pullouts strategically place along the roads from which you can take some fantastic pictures. We’d been stopping at these pullouts all along. On the way back to the visitor’s center we stopped to see a huge rock formation in the middle of one of the canyons. It was one of the best sights we’d seen all day.
Saturday, June 4, 2022
We went down to breakfast at 6:30 am so we could be back in our room by 7 to watch the ladies final of the French Open. Coco Gauf, in her first major final, put up a rather poor showing. Iga Swiatek dispatched her in two quick sets to win her second French Open in three years. We stuck around to watch the Men’s doubles final, too. It was a very competitive three set match.
For lunch we drove into town and ordered an eggplant and onion pizza at Pasta Joe’s. It was a little disappointing. Instead of thin slices we got chunks of eggplant and the sauce had none of the natural sweetness you usually find in tomatoes. Also, the service was rather bad. To make up for it we walked across the street to Crystal’s Cakes & Cones. We’d been there before. Their ice cream is really quite good, the portions sizes huge and the prices reasonable. What more could you ask for?
Back at the hotel we intended to rest so we could go out late that night. I wanted to take some pictures of the night sky. Sunset that night was at 8:38 pm and it wouldn’t likely be fully dark until at least 10:00 pm. Arches National Park is an excellent place to photograph the stars. It has been designated as a Dark Sky Park. Getting high quality photographs of the stars is not as easy as pointing your phone’s camera skyward and snapping a picture. It takes a complex camera setup, careful planning, and a tripod. By evening there was thick cloud cover so we just stayed in and watched some TV.
Sunday, June 5, 2022
The day started off much as the day before. This morning was the French Open Men’s Final. The contest was between Raphael Nadal, who has 21 Majors and 13 French Open Championships and Casper Ruud, who’s having a good tournament. Not surprisingly Nadal took Ruud easily in three sets. Coco Gauf was also competing in the French Open Women’s Doubles Final but we didn’t feel like getting up at 3:30 am to watch it.
After the tennis match we packed up, went to the grocery store to get another case of water, got gas for the car and had an early lunch at The Canyon Steak and Waffle House. We each got one of the senior specials for $7.99. Mine was eggs, bacon, home fries and three pancakes. Her’s was eggs, bacon and half a waffle. What a bargain.
We headed South out of Moab. Our destination was 90 minutes away to a town called Bluff. Talk about the middle of nowhere. Our room wasn’t expected to be ready until 4:00 pm so we tried to kill some time. We stumbled on to an historic site called Bluff Fort.
In the late 1870s the Mormon Church launched a mission to the area. They created a settlement and eventually became very successful raising cattle. The trip was expected to take six weeks but, because of the rugged terrain and many unforeseen obstacles, it took six months.
The historic site is a realistic reproduction of what the original settlement was like. The cabins have been rebuilt and decorated by ancestors of the original settlers. One of the volunteers gave an in-depth talk about the settlement. After we toured the grounds we sat under a covered porch and spoke with some of the other volunteers. They were more than happy to answer our questions.
Still having some time to kill we drove the length and breadth of the town. There wasn’t much to see. Since it was Sunday most of the businesses, including restaurants, were closed. We visited a Native American Trading post that had a lot of hand made jewelry, rugs, pottery, etc. The items were very high quality and the price tags outrageous.
Finally, still a full 90 minutes early, we went over to the hotel hoping for an early check-in. At first we were rebuffed. We were told that we’d have to wait until 4:00 pm to check-in. Then the clerk decided to see if our room was ready. It was! I’d forgotten to request a ground floor room so we had to drag our stuff up a flight of stairs. Still, it all worked out well in the end.
We had a little camera scare. Some of the photos from the last two days showed signs of vignetting (dark spots on the corners). This afternoon I had some time and played around with things. I determined that it wasn’t the camera but one of the lenses – the main lens of course. I googled the issue and none of the causes mentioned seemed on point. Finally, I decided to readjust the lens hood and voila – all was well. When I was experimenting with techniques for shooting the night sky I had removed the lens hood. Apparently I put it back in the wrong orientation. I hate when that happens!