Canyonlands in 1/2 a Day!

Since we had seen most of Arches in two days, we decided to check out the easily accessible part of nearby Canyonlands National Park before heading south to Flagstaff.  Before sunrise we were once again greeted to a near full moon over the Colorado River:

We drove slightly north of Moab, before heading west and then south towards the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands.  This section of the park has a paved road that weaves along the mesas, with views of the many canyons leading to the Colorado River and the Green River.  After entering the park, we passed this view of Shafer Canyon Road, the slow way back to Moab:

A quick scan of the warning sign at the beginning of the road disavowed me of any interest in driving down it a little ways.  Thankfully there are many easily accessible views from the paved road.  At Grandview Point we could see the White Rim level, the 100+ mile White Rim 4WD Road, and the Colorado River - many geologic levels below us in the distance:

The great expanse of canyons was simply mind-boggling.  From our perch atop the mesa, the sandstone cliffs below looked impenetrable.  There are very view places where a trail (or road) is able to descend to the White Rim, the next major plateau.

We stopped on the road to Upheaval Dome to admire this massive side canyon leading to the Green River:

Canyonlands is broken into 3 unconnected districts by the two major rivers that flow together in the park.  Island in the Sky is the northern part of the park, bordered by the Colorado River to the south and the Green River to the west.  The Needles district is south of the Colorado, and The Maze is east of the Green River and north of the Colorado (after the confluence of the rivers).  Most of the park is inacessible except for on foot.  The majority of paved road is in the Island in the Sky area.  There are no paved roads in The Maze.

Further along the road to Upheaval Dome, Laura and I stopped for a quick hike to the top of Whale Rock.  Whale Rock is a nice smooth inviting rock that kind of looks like a whale!  What an appropriate name!  After a fun race to the top and some photos, we returned to the car, and a couple of minutes later were at the end of the road.

After a quick hike to the Upheaval Dome overlook, we zipped back down the road.  I caught this lizard a short while later at another viewpoint.

Our last stop was the Green River Overlook before heading out of the park.  We could see the expansive White Rim clearly, the Green River far below, and the very distant Maze.  We stopped for a quick lunch before heading back to Moab and then south to Arizona.

We still had over 300 miles to drive before we got to Flagstaff.  We would be staying with our friends Greg and Ingrid for a few nights while we explored the Grand Canyon and checked out northern Arizona.  On the way south we passed through the Monument Valley area:

I wish we had more time on this part of the drive, as we took a few quick photos and continued on.

We got to Flagstaff just in time for dinner with Greg at the very interesting Mountainaire Tavern.  Tomorrow would be our rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon, the most anticipated part of our trip.

Arches - Day 2

On Monday morning we woke up before sunrise and drove back into the park to hopefully see some arches at first light.  The moon was close to full and provided plenty of light as we started our hike at Devils Garden.  After checking out Tunnel Arch, we walked over to Pine Tree Arch:

The sun was beginning to rise as we made our way to Landscape Arch.  Just before the arch we ran into a herd of surprised mule deer.  The light was poor because of all the low clouds, so we continued towards more distant arches on a fun trail through the sandstone formations.  We passed this melted ice cream... I mean eroded sandstone on the way to Partition Arch:

After exploring Navajo Arch and scrambling on the nearby rock, we continued on the trail to Double O Arch.

The sunlight had finally broken through the clouds when we got to the Double O, cleverly named for the two arches on top each other.  A closeup view of bottom arch:

We decided to skip the side trail to Dark Angel spire, and continued on the 'primitive trail' towards Private Arch.  The primitive trail was even more fun than the civilized one!!  It wound its way through towering sandstone fins, over sections of slickrock, and through some dry washes.  Did I mention we hadn't seen anyone all morning except for a couple of photographers near Landscape Arch?  We passed a number of flowering cacti on the hike:

After a little while, we took the side trail to Private Arch:

Private Arch is deep inside a labyrinth of sandstone fins, and I imagine it gets its name from the remote location and the fact that you can't see it until you're practically right next to it.  After exploring it from all angles, we returned to the primitive loop and passed some more photogenic cacti:

This lizard briefly posed for a photo before scurrying away:

As we got near Landscape Arch, we finally ran into some other hikers.  Once at the arch, my ultrawide lens came in handy to frame the 290 foot long span.  This is probably the second most iconic arch after Delicate Arch.  Since 1991, a number of slabs have fallen from the arch making it thinner and thinner.  Of the visible arches in the park, I imagine this one will collapse in spectacular fashion first.

Done with our morning hike, we ate a late breakfast (or early lunch) before driving to the Double Arch.

The Double Arch maybe the most impressive in the park.  An awesome amphitheater has formed below the two arches; it's a perfect place to admire the contradiction that is the arch.  It's seemingly massive and robust, but also delicate and airy.  Like a number of other people, we climbed into the window briefly to admire the view in the other direction:

On the way back, we realized we had seen most of Arches in a 24-hour period.  While there is definitely backcountry we didn't explore, and you could climb through the areas of sandstone fins for quite along time, we had seen almost all the major sights and hiked the major trails.  We stopped by the Courthouse Towers on our way out of the park:

After scoping the Three Gossips, Sheep Rock, and then Park Avenue, we found ourselves looking for something else to do.

We decided to go for a drive into the La Sal Mountains.  On the way out of Moab we passed some range beef in the road, and then spotted this cactus after pulling over to take some photos:

We were driving on the La Sal Loop, a 60 mile route from south of Moab to the Colorado River east of town.  Hungry again, we drove up a narrow twisting road to the empty Oowah Lake campground, looking for a place to eat.  After a little picnic, we took a short steep hike to Clarks Lake.  Right before the lake, we saw a large herd of elk that quickly vanished into the forest.  I think this was the first time I've ever seen elk in broad daylight that weren't in a National Park!

After our little excursion to 9000 feet, we drove on under increasingly cloudy skies.  In a perfect confluence of fashion and place, we passed the Hazzard County Trail while I was wearing my Hazzard County Jail t-shirt:

After that high point, we descended back to the Colorado River under stormy skies.  The canyon felt menacing and foreboding now as the storms made everything dark and dreary.

After an incredibly long wait for the water to boil (thanks to a merciless wind), we ate our second mediocre dinner in the past two nights.  We would travel to Flagstaff tomorrow before visiting the Grand Canyon on Wednesday.

Arches - Day 1

After our Bighorn Mountain hike, things got real busy.  The next weekend we climbed all the Boulder mountains from South Boulder Peak to Mt. Sanitas in one long death march - as preparation for our rim to rim hike of the Grand Canyon.  The next day we moved to a new apartment.  Perhaps not the best planning.  The next Sunday we left Boulder for Moab, Utah.  We had decided to visit Arches National Park for a few days on our way to the Grand Canyon.  After entering Utah on I-70, we took the shortcut along the Colorado River:

The drive along the river was awesome.  Each view seemed better than the last.  I had never been in this area before, and the rock formations were mesmerizing.

It was going to take awhile to get to Moab if I kept stopping every few minutes.
We could see the La Sal Mountains as we drove further along:

At some point I decided I had taken enough pictures of the river, and we pressed on towards Moab.  After stopping to reserve a campsite along the river, we wasted no time checking out Arches NP.  After walking around Balanced Rock, we drove towards the Window Arches.  Along the road we passed the Cove of Caves:

A little further along, we got to the end of the road and the parking lot for the nearby arches.

There were a ton of people huffing and puffing on the short trail to The North Window.  This is apparently one of the tour bus stops.  Once under the arch, we climbed up a little ways for a better view.  My ultrawide angle lens really came in handy on this trip.

The South Window Arch is right next door, and the Turret Arch a short distance away.  A little further down the path we got this view of the two windows:

We decided to skip the nearby Double Arch for the time being, and instead drove towards the Sand Dune Arch.

The Sand Dune Arch was at the end of a short trail that squeezed through a set of towering sandstone fins.  All the eroded sand was trapped between the walls, and a couple of young kids were playing with little shovels and buckets as if it were the beach.  We left the trail and climbed higher through the fins to do some exploring:

After climbing back down, we hiked over to the Broken Arch, before making our way back to the car.  The next arch we came to was the Skyline Arch:

This arch was especially awesome, because despite its proximity to the road, there were very few people that bothered to walk down the quarter mile path.  The afternoon light was sublime, and we even found this blooming cactus nearby:

After a quick stop at the Fiery Furnace, we drove to the trailhead for the Delicate Arch - along with apparently everybody else in the park.  The Delicate Arch is probably the most iconic arch in the park, and photos of it are widely reproduced.  I figured the light would be good in the late afternoon, and it would be less crowded.  Well, so did everyone else.  Apparently this is a recommended sunset hike and this information is prominently displayed in park literature.  After passing a bazillion people in the mile and half from the parking lot, we finally made it to the arch:

It was incredibly hard to take a picture without getting a whole bunch of people in it, as a disorganized line formed near the base of the arch full of people hoping to take all manner of inane photos underneath.  After soaking in the arch for awhile (with at least a hundred other people), we decided to head back and eat some dinner before it got dark.

On the way back out of the park, we drove past Balanced Rock again.  In seeing it from a different angle, Laura remarked that it was a "way better balancing rock" than the actual one, before realizing her mistake.  The late afternoon light plus the dark storm clouds made for a much better photo than earlier in the day:

Back at our campsite, we discovered our tent had blown on its side.  Had it been any less secure, it would have been floating down the Colorado River.

After staking it a little better, we ate a mediocre dinner of gnocchi and bad pesto.  After redeeming the meal with chocolate covered pretzels and other snacks, we went to bed just after sunset in preparation for an early departure the next morning.

Bighorn Mountain

Back in late April, Laura, Juanma, and I made our way to RMNP to climb Bighorn Mountain.  Bighorn rises above the Lawn Lake trailhead and can be seen prominently from Horseshoe Park and Deer Ridge Junction.  While it's only about 4 miles and 3000 vertical feet to the top, there is no trail to the summit and the bushwhacking makes it a more arduous hike.  Bighorn Mountain in the fall:

Bighorn is supposed to be a good place to see sheep, and I had climbed it back in September with our friend Aaron and his buddy Lucas in hopes of viewing sheep mating or some other awesome behavior.  The elk rut had us all excited to see some Marty Stouffer style ram action.  We hiked about 3 miles up the Lawn Lake Trail, before bushwhacking east up the mountain.  It was a relatively straightforward hike, but we didn't see any sheep mating nor did we see any sheep at all.  Perhaps it would have helped if it was actually mating season...

Laura and I had attempted the same route in mid-March, but the snowshoeing proved too difficult once we left the trail, and we gave up after a little while.  This time I decided we should climb straight up the steep cliff-filled south slopes of the mountain, since they would have little snow.

While steep, it was a perfectly good route, and we reached the top of the first major cliff about an hour after we started.  We had a great view to the south of Horseshoe Park, Trail Ridge Road, and Longs Peak:

We had come down a similar way back in September when it was much less dry in the valley:

We continued up the ridge, and some fun scrambling opportunities soon arose.

The climb alternated between rocky cliffs and hiking through the woods until we reached treeline.  After some more unnecessary scrambling, we passed a false summit and finally got this view of our objective, the 11,463 foot summit:

It was an easy tundra climb now, and we quickly made our way to the top.

Again no sheep, but I was surprised to see another group of hikers!  Apparently they had come via the other route, as there was little snow anywhere on the mountain.

We ate lunch at the summit with the impressive Mummy Mountain in the background.  After the wind began to pick up, we retraced our route back to the Lawn Lake trailhead, and returned back to the low country of Boulder.