By Land and Sea – October 1, 2021

Today was our day to visit the last of the scheduled National Parks, Canyonland.

Arches National Park is 60 square miles large and Canyonland National Park is 600 square miles but that didn’t mean we were going to do 10 times more hiking. There are only 4 trails marked as “easy” and one of those, according to the Ranger, is lots of steep steps. The scenery is totally different, though, with lots of canyon views that were awesome and reminded us both of the Grand Canyon. Bear in mind the camera never captures what the eye can see, here are some pictures.

In the evening, we went on a boat cruise onto the Colorado River for a light show reflected on the canyon walls with narration and music.

We learned a few interesting facts about the area like Utah gets its name as a spinoff of the Ute people that lived in the area. Also Moab maintained a small population until the 1950s when the largest uranium mine in the world was discovered here. Once the demand was diminished, it went back to its former sleepy town until the 1980s when the Arches National Monument was converted to a National Park and now brings 1.5 million visitors to town each year.

We also learned that it takes about 10,000 years for one of those arches to develop and how to recognize the early formative years of one developing. Now when we drive around we point out baby arches developing.

This was the last Park on the schedule and we are now headed south again to Albuquerque for the 50th Anniversary of the Balloon Festival.

Update Note: If any of these canyon pictures look like something you’ve seen before, its because the famous final scene in the movie Thelma and Louise was filmed going off one of the cliffs right here in Moab.