Utah's Canyonlands National Park, Islands in the Sky Section

The Islands in the Sky section of Canyonlands didn't have many hikes of any length.  We drove to various areas, and took a few short hikes.  I assume the park is called Islands in the Sky because you're sort of on a giant mesa, with cliffs thousands of feet high all the way around.  Everywhere you go, you have great views looking out over canyons, with mountains a hundred miles away.

There are no rails anywhere along this hike, and there are thousand-foot plus drops all the way.  Makes for great views, but be careful!

Canyonlands is certainly an appropriate name for this place.  This is a canyon inside a canyon.  I really love the sharp edges of the canyon, and how they're outlined with white rock. Almost like an artist trying to emphasize an edge.  

Another canyon in a canyon.  A view that goes on for a hundred miles, as promised. I also love the way the shrubs have spaced themselves fairly evenly in the foreground.  I assume the spacing is caused by the amount of water available. 

What's the name for a formation like this?  Not quite a mesa.  More like a tower or a castle.  

This arch created a frame for an incredible view of the canyons and snow-capped mountains way beyond.  It's close to parking, and swarmed with visitors.  I had to dodge and weave constantly to avoid getting photo-bombed. 

Wow. 

An infinity of canyons.  Settler caravans looked on this view and despaired. 

If you enjoyed these, please take a look at my other posts from our hiking trip to Moab, Utah. 

Arches National Park, Part 1

Arches National Park, Part 2

Canyonlands National Park, The Needles Section

The Needles Section of Utah's Canyonlands National Park

We visited Canyonlands National Park at the beginning of June.  The park is so big that there are different sections with different entrances that must be over 70 miles apart.  The entrance to the Needles section is about an hour and a half drive from Moab, and the entrances to the Islands in the Sky section is about a half hour from Moab in the other direction.

We went to The Needles first.  It's far from any development, so there are very few visitors compared with Arches National Park.  On our hike, we saw a total of maybe twenty people over a four hour period, which is really nice.  Several of those were folks who had spent the night and were on their way out with their camping gear.  Needles is characterized by this white layer of rock that forms rounded caps on columns of red rock all over the park.  This photo shows a tiny sample of the thousands everywhere.  

The rocks are all very layered, created by sediment settling out of a sea here many millions of years ago.  The white rock is a harder layer than the others, so that's why it's resisted being eroded away longer than the red,forming these caps and sheltering the other red rock underneath, which leads to the columns. 

This was the best view we saw on the Chesler Park trail.  This made for a great shady place to hvae lunch while looking out over this great view.  A couple of crows came and sat on a ledge and waited for us to finish lunch so they could scrabble for crumbs afterward.  They were very persistent.  They sort of acted like they might be a couple, as they would take off together and coast around in a circle, then land back on the same ledge and walk back and forth.  

In this one, these white mushroom top shapes are made of the white rock that is harder than the red.  You can see some layers of white rock in the ridge standing behind the mushrooms in the front.  This is a closer view from nearly the same spot as the photo above.  

So many layers visible in this rock. 

All the different textures make this one good for a black and white version. 

A whole area of these mushroom columns has fallen over sideways here.  

This crow arrived soon after we pulled up to our second hike of the day.  I dropped a crumb on the ground when I stood up from the car.  He was on the car, and then on the crumb within seconds of us stepping away.   

This was about a one and a half hour hike, which gave some great views for the effort.  

I really loved all the trees out there.  Many of them look dead, but aren't.  Unfortunately, this tree is actually dead.  The ones that are alive still have at least one green branch.  In the lower left of this photo, you can see a huge exposed root of this tree. I love how it's such a twisted spiral, which was actually pretty common. Somehow these trees manage to survive in really dry, rocky places.  I must have taken a hundred pictures of gnarled old trees on all the hikes in Utah.  

That's all for The Needles section of Canyonlands National Park.  Next up, the Islands in the Sky section of Canyonlands.  

If you liked these, you can also check out the first set of photos from Arches National Park, and the second set of photos from Arches National Park.