5/18/2023
Today was a long day of hiking. I started out at Canyonlands National Park. This park isn’t very big, but the canyons are incredible. I drove out to Grand View Point and enjoyed the view for a while. On my way back I stopped at Upheaval Dome to do some hiking.
This was supposed to be a short two mile out and back hike, but it turned into a four or five hour back country hike. I started out on the normal trail out to the formation. Scientists don’t know exactly what created the dome. It could’ve been a meteorite or a salt bubble that created the crater and upheaval in the center.
Once I got out to the viewpoint, I looked around and saw what looked like a better view not that far away, but off the trail. The beginning was easy, but then I got to a steep incline with a fissure on the side that I needed to get past. The first section of the incline wasn’t so bad. My boots had enough grip to keep me steady. The fissure at the top ended up being wide to safely jump. I went over the back of the ridge and found a nice path to go a little further out.
The second slope was much steeper, but had footholds at least. This part was much harder than I initially thought. After scrambling to the top I was greeted with an amazing view of the two canyons where the river splits. It was worth the hike. I stayed up there for a while to catch my breath before heading back.
I took a different path back than I did out. The hike down the slopes was sketchier than on the way up. I had to crab walk in some parts to keep my center of gravity low enough to keep grip. When I got tired, I was able to sit on my heels. My boots saved me on this hike. When I got to the bottom I was trying to follow the path of previous hikers, but it was hard with tracks all over the place.
About halfway back I met up with a girl that was out doing the same thing as me. We started hiking together and chatting. She was from Germany and was travelling to a few different parts of the US. We shared stories, got a little lost, found the trail again, and made it back to the vehicles. She was an hour late meeting up with her friend because she went off trail too. This has been one of my favorite hikes so far.
I still had a few hours of daylight left and Arches National Park was just on the other side of Moab. Arches is a much larger park than Canyonlands, so I was just going to drive the loop. I stopped at a few of the viewpoints to take some pictures. I had to move pretty quickly through this park to see everything as I was losing light. Some of the highlights were Courthouse Towers, Double Arch, Cove of Caves, Garden of Eden, Fiery Furnace, and Devils Garden.
By the time I got out to the Devils Garden there was just enough light to hike out to a couple of the arches. Devils Garden is a neat formation of rocks. There are tall thin rock formations that you walk through. It was like a pizza cutter cut slits into a short mountain.
After a short walk I came to the split for Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch. I initially skipped the Tunnel Arch and walked a little way until I could see Pine Tree. On my way back I was able to get a better view of Tunnel Arch and walked out to the viewpoint. I’m glad I did. It was really neat with where the sun was, the picture doesn’t do it justice.
