Canyonlands...it's not the Grand Canyon, but still pretty cool

Canyonlands is divided into three distinct areas by the Colorado and Green Rivers...the same rivers that cut the beautiful canyons millions of years ago! For two days we are touring two of the Canyonlands areas, the third requires a 4 wheel drive off road vehicle. Once Wayne heard it cost $1000 to pull you out if you get stuck and he had already helped a very stuck motorcycle not 6in off the highway in that powdery sand in Arches, he was pretty reluctant and I had to agree!  

First we toured Island in the Sky. The trip out to the park was quite beautiful...love those red rocks!

While the elevation at Islands in the Sky is 6000 ft, structures rise up over 1000 ft from the basin for a dramatic effect!

Our first hike was out to Mesa Arch, it was probably the coolest site of the day!

Now when we started out on this little trip Wayne and I had no idea we were all matchy matchy, by the time we discovered it, too late to turn back! Funny thing, all day long people were asking us about Mesa Verde as they were headed there next! We went there last year!

We had no idea of the drop off until we got up there...

Such a beautiful arch...

As we left we saw this window in the making, guess we'll have to see in a 100,000 years or so...

Next we moved on to the Buck Canyon Overlook...

Next we made our way to the Grand View Point Overlook and a hike along the canyon ledge looking over the Colorado and Green Rivers...

It was amazing to see the upheaval 6000 ft below with structures rising 1000 ft from the basin...

After this we made our way to Upheaval Dome...now I was hiked out but I dug deep and up we went!

They are not really sure what caused this area, one theory a meteorite, another was salt from a sea deposited layers and wind and water caused the bed to upheave much like Arches' salt bed, I tend to believe that one given the proximity to Arches...

We were so beat by then, I think still recovering from the 8 mi the day before and with only 3 mi of hiking under our belt we had to stop.  Sorry Ian and Leslie, we didn't make it over to Dead Horse Park!

That night we went out to a very nice steak house, Jeffrey's, probably one of the he best steaks we have ever had, everything in the restaurant was organic, grass fed beef and the best bread pudding we ever tasted, light and almost melted in your mouth! The neat thing about the restaurant was that it was haunted by a friendly ghost named Maureen! The waitress told us about many unexplained activities from pepper being spread on tabletops to seeing burners on the stove being turned on to faces in the window after hours...pretty cool stories!

Day 2 we headed 75 mi south to the Needles section of Canyonlands. The drive down was gorgeous...

We saw this pretty arch on the side of the road, can't recall the name...

And more beautiful rocks...

Look how one of these spires has come loose, completely in tact!

There was as much beauty before we got to the park as in it, not sure why it's not part of the park...

And finally..

Our first stop was Cave Spring for a hike...

We passed an historic cowboy camp....

The cave was pretty neat...

Including prehistoric pictographs...

The hike included two ladders...reminiscent of Mesa Verde...

And some tricky rock cliffs to climb over...

Once up top it was a pretty view and sort of moon like slick rock!

After we made it down, back under the cave wall, a bit tighter on this side...

And a cute little birdee...okay birder family/friends, what is he?

On the way back some pretty high desert flowers, cactus...

Next we took a dirt road out to Elephant Hill...

And a good view of the Needles, from far away they look like a city skyline...

This part of Canyonlands was so different than yesterday's Island in the Sky...we started back home, such a nice day...

So, this is our last blog. From here out we head back east, 4 overnight stops and then Red Bay, AL for warranty work on the coach and a replacement windshield.  NOTHING exciting happens in Red Bay, so our blog will end for now, it has been so much fun.  The last few days we have been reminiscing about our top places, what we wouldn't do again, and so forth. we thought we'd share...

Top Places we loved, this was hard to narrow down and are not in priority order..that would be too hard!

1. Banff Natl Park

2. Jasper Nat'l Park

3. Denali Nat'l Park

4. Hyder Bears and Solomon Glacier

5. The Seward whale watching boat ride

6. Arches Nat'l Park

7. Portage Glacier

8. The drive to Valdez

9. The Riverboat Cruise at Fairbanks

10.The bears outside Laird, BC

Top Rv Parks

1. Tunnel Mountain Campground, Banff Nat'l Park

2. Homer on the Alaskan Gulf Beach

3. Portal RV Resort, Moab, UT

4. Glacier West KOA, Glacier Nat'l Park ( GNP would have been in top 10 places to visit if it hadn't    rained the whole time)

5. Bow Rivers Edge, Cochrane, AB

Never again..the places or roads we really didn't like and wouldn't visit again...

1. The Top of the World road from Dawson City, Yukon Territory to Chicken, AK

2. Chicken, AK

3. The road from Whitehorse to Dawson City, Yukon

4. Dawson City, Yukon

Worst RV Parks

1. Baby Nugget

2. Dease Lake

If you get the chance, go to Alaska and Canada, the roads aren't that bad, it isn't scary, and the wildlife and views are hard to surpass!