Arches and Canyons!

Family camping (read: Car Camping!) at Dead Horse Point (whattaname, right?) State Park in Utah. We spent a (rainy) day in Arches National Park and the next day in Canyonlands. Having never visted Utah, or the desert, I didn't really know what to expect. I was warned that it would be hot and to bring plenty of water. Checking the nps websites indicated that temps would be warm, it would be dry and it would only cool to the mid 50's overnight. So, I passed that info along to the kids and my girlfriend and we packed accordingly. I broke my rule of carrying warm clothes and gloves on EVERY trip - hey - its car camping right?

BIG MISTAKE!

It got cold - it SNOWED and it rained. It was chilly and damp all weekend (I thought it was a desert!)

Friday

After getting out of work a little early and stopping for the last minute stuff, I loaded the car up and we collected the children and off we went. Sarah wasn't terribly excited about going (she wanted to hang out with friends), but we cut deal: I'd take her shopping if she gave me good attitude all weekend. Just west of Denver we encountered some snowfall - this persisted all the way past Vail and it rained pretty steady from there on into Utah and thus added a couple of hours to the trip - we didn't arrive at Dead Horse Point until after 1 am!

Saturday

Woke up before dawn to the sound of thunder! Sounds like rain is hitting the tent too.... wait - I'm in the desert - there's RAIN falling? I go back to sleep and wake up when its light out but I still hear rain hitting the tent fly. I sit up and unzip the door to take a look and its all white outside! White? What the hell? That's SNOW!

I'm incredulous - thinking my daughter is gonna kick my butt! She had asked in the car while driving through the snow "Is it gonna be doing this in Utah?" Of course I say "No - we are camping in the desert".

So much for the dry, hot desert.

We make our way on down to Arches National Park and do what any proper tourist would do and stop at the visitor center. The visitor center at Arches is top notch and very informative with lots of displays that show how the various formations came to be - it was very interesting. They show a short film as well which is well worth the time you spend - it's about 15 minutes long and covers both Arches and Canyonlands.

Leaving the visitor center we stopped at the first point of interest along the road - Park Avenue. This mile long stroll takes you down a wash past impressive red rock cliffs towards a couple of towers. You do get the feeling your walking along a street lined with skyscrapers. It's a pretty impressive introduction to the park.

After walking along Park Avenue and taking tons of pictures we got back in the car and proceeded along the park road viewing The Three Gossips and Sheep Rock, The Organ and Petrified Dunes. About the time we got to Balanced Rock the low clouds that had been threatening made good on the threats and opened up with steady rain. We figured it would pass, but it turned out that it rained pretty hard for the next few hours. We didn't get to see as much as we'd have liked as a result but still got a good flavor for the park - and a great excuse to have to return later this year (it's only a 5 or 6 hour drive from Denver).

One really nice aspect of getting the rain was getting to see some spontaneous waterfalls at Cove of Caves.

We finished the day by driving up Hwy 82 for a bit to see what the National Forest/BLM camp areas looked like that I read about online. They are adequate, but lack any kind of toilet facilities and they are right alongside the highway - not my idea of nice at all.

Dinner at Eddie McStiffs - the famous Eddie McStiffs - (highly recommended), shopping a bit in the Moab stores and then we went out to Dead Horse Point to check out the views from the point since the rain has finally stopped.

The views from the Point were really just incredible.

We spent about an hour just gawking at the views and taking pictures. Alex and I explored the rim just a bit, which made the girls nervous (but it was fine).

Back to camp for some marshmallow roasting!

Sunday

We woke up Sunday to not very clear skies, but it was dry! I proceeded to fry up a package of bacon and scramble eggs while Alex played hackey sack and the girs stayed out of the wind in the tent playing Scrabble. After breakfast we broke camp and went on down to Canyonlands to sightsee for the day.

Canyonlands has a totally different character than Arches. Overlooks where the ground drops away 2,000 feet to the base of a canyon are the norm. We were in the Island in the Sky District and took in views like I've never seen before.

The Green River Overlook was most impressive. The white rock rim on the canyon is 1,000 feet below with the River itself another 1,000 feet below that.

We were rather awed by the scale of things.

Equally impressive - and otherworldly was the Upheaval Dome area. Scientists are not sure what caused the crater like depression. It may be an ancient meteor strike, or it may be a salt dome that collapsed. Whatever it it, it doesn't look like it belongs in the area. Strange colored rock is exposed in the bottom of the mile wide hole and the character of the thing is just out of place. The hikd up to the rim is mild, climbing somewhat, but not strenuously.

The rain brought out some blooms along the way that otherwise would have been lifeless looking little plants.

We had lunch at the picnic area there at the Upheaval Dome parking lot and Alex enjoyed scrambling around on the rocks in the area.

From there we went along to take in the Buck Canyon overlook and then onto the Grand Point Overlook. At Grand Point you can see a huge mass of area that the Colorado River has carved - the resulting area has given in to erosion which creates a landscape that is simply mind boggling.

Monument Basin is just one example of the work done by water and wind.

Finally, we wrapped up the day with a short hike out to see Mesa Arch. A nicely formed arch right on the side of a cliff.

The area is remarkable - the most striking thing to me was the diversity between Arches and Canyonlands - and the two parks are only about 35 miles apart - but vastly different. I told the kids that in Arches we saw geology going up and in Canyonlands we saw geology going down.

The desert bloom was the most impressive thing to see. Everything was so green!

We'll be back - we'll bring bikes probably. I also want to do some backcountry exploring in the area - as well as see more of what SouthEastern Utah has to offer.