So we're at the Canyonlands National Park visitor center. We stopped to go to the restroom
and get a nice map. They were at the entry station today because we did arrive after 9am.
We're going to go check out most of the views. We did a lot of hiking yesterday at Arches National
Park (if you're interested in that national park be sure and check the link in the description
below for that video) and today we're going to take it easy and do a driving tour and check out
a lot of amazing scenic overlooks. Canyonlands is a very ,very large national park with
different zones with different activities. The one that's closest to Moab that's the most popular
is called the Island in the Sky district- and that's what we're going to be exploring today.
So here and at Arches, this is the first time I've ever seen
toilets with the hole in the ground squat station and I'm wondering if that's normal- Have you
seen that before? I've been to a lot of places and I've never seen that except for in China.
The first stop today is the Green River Overlook it's about six miles from the visitor center
and I recommend you come here in the morning because the lighting is absolutely perfect.
The Green River and the Colorado River meet at this overlook
and the canyon leads down to Lake Powell.
John Wesley Powell explored these unchartered canyons in Yay of 1869 -whom Lake Powell is named
The clouds have moved in today and it is quite
chilly there's a breeze it really makes a difference.
So this is Whale Rock you can hike- you can see all the people up there
that are hiking up to the top
We are not going to do that hike today- this is on the leg
to Upheaval Dome and there's several hiking trails that you can do in this general area
and from a distance it does look like a big whale
and this has a very small very small parking lot maybe 10 to 15 cars here.
This looks like a pretty cool trail,
we have little snow pellets coming down and it's quite a bit colder than we were expecting
so I'm not sure we're gonna hike this area today but this is the end of one of the legs
here in the in this section of the park. There's some picnic areas and a little loop parking lot
so when you're coming back from upheaval dome you want to be sure and stop at the Holman Spring
Canyon Overlook. It's not marked but you'll see a little pullout on the side of the road
-it is really pretty and I'm going to go out and show you.
We've made our way to the Grand View Overlook .This is kind of at the end of the road,
on this section of the park. The lighting is not ideal right now there's a storm that's kind of got
a little hazy a little rain coming down but I'll show you what we can see from here
so there's a one mile rim overlook trail here and so we've got several other stops that we'd like
to stop at today so we're not going to do the hike but it pretty much takes you along the rim
of this particular canyon. So everybody was over at the grand view, the parking was overflowing,
but right before you get there there's something called the Orange Cliffs lookout and it's just
as beautiful and depending on the lighting it might be a little more beautiful which is
what we're finding right now the way the sun is shining on the canyon it's really
beautiful
If you guys watch the show Westworld (I do not, but somebody just told us that this view behind me
is the opening shot of the show westworld. I didn't know that orange cliffs overlook
now you can see a river- do you know which river is in this canyon brian?
Do I know? Green River- Green River down there and the Colorado River on that side
I'm sure it's beautiful up here
so much depends on the lighting here on which views are the best
so you can you know pay attention to which way the sun is shining
and find the best views and time your visit accordingly as we were coming back from the
grand view overlook we could see these amazing canyon views on the right side of the road
and we found a place to pull over it is spectacular and especially because of the
way the sun is shining but it's not a defined pull out and there are some dangerous cliffs
here but if you see this see if you can find a place to stop it is well worth it but don't fall
Next stop buck canyon overlook it's just a little past where we pulled off the side of
the road i'm pretty sure it's about the same views but this time they actually have a nice paved path
to the overlook and probably some safety features so that you don't fall off the ledge
so next up is mesa arch- we saved this for the afternoon this is the most popular attraction
here at Canyonlands national park and the parking lot isn't huge and so we decided to
hit it up a little bit after lunch i think there's more parking available after lunch
so let's go see what's up here so far it's a nice pleasant walk after that initial steep hill
this part is a little slippery and not good for
so this is pretty amazing and as you can see there's a little bit of a crowd waiting
to get their photograph under the arch but I think there's some amazing views through there
the photo opportunities here are endless you just gotta be patient with the folks that are here
you basically can't come to Canyonlands without stopping
and taking your photograph here, this is awesome
So be persistent with this stop it's a small parking lot it's absolutely incredible if
you come by and you can't find a place to park go check out some of the sites nearby
and come back a little later do not miss mesa arch that was incredible almost rivals it does rival
the beauty of the arches national park because of the cliffs and the views behind the arch
there's some very aggressive crows that are hungry we saw these at arches as well
I don't know if you can see that but the bottom of those clouds in the sky
are pink so we came back to the green river overlook just to park and relax a little bit
and get some lunch the mesa arch is a crazy parking lot with tons of people and it just
there's no place to relax but what i wanted to let you know was that
these places are extremely crowded and this was also the same in moab every parking lot it's like
dog eat dog- like anywhere people will just park anywhere they can squeeze and it's very easy to
get stuck. Cars will come in and park so close to you that you might have a problem getting out
so just be careful and for those of you who have rvs i haven't seen a lot of rv accessible parking
so just keep that in mind at canyonlands and when they have rvs other people pick them up
i have also seen at arches national park when there is rv parking no i saw it here too when
there is rv parking sometimes you just have big giant trucks that go in or they double up like
groups of them will double up and park there so just because they have a designated rv parking lot
people need to park they're gonna park anywhere they can find a place
so um it can get really tight and we just got sandwiched in here
so we're gonna have to wait for these people to come back at the viewpoint before we can leave
so bring your patience with you my husband needs to work on his i got patience see
zen
gorgeous views here at shafer point overlook
this is right as you enter the park we were ending for the day so we are not going to walk out there
today but you can walk out to the end and get some amazing views it looks a lot like the grand canyon
we are wrapping up the video today we visited all the major spots of the island
in the sky district at canyonlands national park i hope you enjoyed it
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