Hallelujah through the Haze - Canyonlands National Park (Islands in the Sky District) - 5/28/10

Through our week long trip throughout Utah and Arizona in May of 2009, we were fortunate enough to see some of the United States' greatest scenery. Monument Valley, Sedona, Arches National Park and the creme de la creme' - The Grand Canyon. The first time one sees the vista of Mather Point overlooking the vastness of the Colorado carved canyon it is etched in your memory forever. However - little did we know that a vista nearly as grand was nestled high above the town of Moab, just a short drive away from our home in Denver...

And so on to May of 2010. After leaving Natural Bridges National Monument outside of Blanding, UT, we drove north towards our overnight destination, Grand Junction, CO. The sky was cloudy, the wind fierce, and a pall of what looked eerily like smoke covered the Moab skies. However - in pursuit of "one more stamp - because we ARE right here after all", we decided to detour up the windy road 25 miles to visit the Islands in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park.

Canyonlands is without question, an odd duck, because the drive up the mountain can not prepare you in the slightest for what you are about to behold. A colorful rock here and there as you drive, and then the car approaches an innocent looking plateau that announces the entrance to the park. The skies were almost worse at the top, but after showing the Ranger our America the Beautiful Parks Pass, we drove towards the visitor center where our jaw hit the floor.

Beyond the haze (which we have since understood is a fairly common occurance) was a canyon that not only rivaled the Grand, but surpassed it in some aspects. The colors of the rocks, while muted to us along with the cragged rocks allowed the visitor the sensation that this place was tangible. The Grand Canyon, so large and majestic, can overwhelm the casual visitor. Canyonlands provides the opposite. This great Park can be absorbed in a look, a short climb and a overlook containing a hand-shaped canyon close enough to touch.

We do realize our photos are rubbish.....Nowhere in the above capsules could the casual blog viewer be able to recognize what our eyes did that hazy May Day. The very first words we uttered after leaving the visitor center were, "We are SO coming back here the first chance the sky is clear". The anticipation is almost too much, as we still have yet to visit the Needles District, with its colorful hoodoos, but this is what the National Park System is to us. A humbling grandeur allowing the everyday tourist to see something as wondrous as this.

Arches National Park, a short 30-mile drive south (and down approximately 4,500 feet) Canyonlands offers a drastically different landscape, but one that is quintessentially Utah. Moab is a biker's paradise on the ever-present slickrock tracks through that parks amazing viewpoint. But Canyonlands seems almost forgotten, with every other site in Utah taking center stage due to its own natural beauty. Perhaps our thoughts are far off, as millions pass through here every year. However - the name doesn't come to the tongue first when speaking Utah superlatives.

For us, it assuredly will now.

Visit here.......go out of your way 500 miles to do so if necessary, but by all means take the plateau drive to these Islands in the Sky.

FINAL RATING

10/10 (even with the haze...it might Spinal Tap its way to 11 next time)