* I actually drafted this journal entry several days after the 8th. My memory failed me as I e actually stopped at this bar – Duke’s Slickrock Grill in Hanksville – the evening we visited Capitol Reef, the day BEFORE this. Oops. I also tried publishing the Capitol Reef post with several of the Canyonlands photos, which is one of the hazards of visiting so many amazing parks in such a short time. If you think you saw some of the below photos before, you’re not wrong. The record has since been straightened.
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Saturday, May 8, 2021
CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK
What a big, gorgeous park that we barely got to scratch the surface of! We’ve been averaging 8 miles of hiking every day since the 29th when we headed down into the Grand Canyon, an average that includes my “day off” with less than 3 miles, and a chill day at Bryce Canyon with less than 4 miles. We’re tired. (Even Dustin. Maybe. A little.)
In any case, this park feels vast, and even with the 7 miles we put in visiting Mesa Arch, Uplift Dome, and Murphy Point, I feel like we hardly scratched the surface. We didn’t try any real elevation-change hikes, which kept us up on the rim, but someday if we come back, I would love to gо down.
Mesa Arch, one of the park’s most iconic views (see gorgeous postcard) is as stunning as promised. If you sneak up to the edge, just under the arch, you discover the drop-off is RIGHT THERE and it goes WAY down. Regardless, people filled all the spaces under and around the arch. It reminded me very much of the top of Angel’s Landing, just with less danger to get there.
Uplift Dome (probably the site of an ancient meteor impact) and Murphy Point were not deserted, but they were much less crowded. I spent most of these hikes, particularly the Murphy Point hike, practicing my new obsession with soil crusts. We started seeing notes about soil crusts back in Vermillion Cliffs, I think, but this is the first park where I’ve actually seen them, and I think they’re really cool. They are primarily created by cyanobacteria, a critter largely responsible for making the earth habitable for the more complex denizens, including humans. Lots of respect! And yet, no one else seemed to be demonstrating sufficient love. My goal became to step off the path onto a nice, safe rock before the dull-witted approaching hikers could try being polite enough to let us pass at the expense of the poor, defenseless crusts. I’m sure [the other hikers] thought I was nuts, as sometimes this meant I stepped off the trail a good 30 seconds before our paths actually crossed. Whatever. Save the crusts!!
The air here is super clear, and the views from the rim were super crisp. This place gives me the same feeling of immensity that the Grand Canyon did, though on a sweeping-to the horizon scale, rather than a depth scale. We didn’t actually stay past sunset, but that “After dark” art below does the best job of all the images in their publications of conveying that feeling.
We headed east out of here toward Arches and stopped at a totally random bar in the middle of otherwise nowhere.* We had a bowl of chili, a plate of nachos, and a beer for about $20, surrounded by cowboys and other cliches. It was a perfect way to end the day.
* I actually drafted this journal entry several days after the 8th. My memory failed me and I recorded the stop at this bar – Duke’s Slickrock Grill in Hanksville – the evening we visited Capitol Reef, which was actually the day BEFORE this. Oops.
Thither & Yon 