Day 23: Canyonlands
Time to mark off another National Park! Today it was Canyonlands. Located just 30 minutes from our campground, we were able to make a day trip of it. “Island in the Sky” is the closest and most accessible of the three park districts, that’s where we went.
We tackled three hikes today: Mesa Arch (half mile), Grand View Point (2 miles), and White Rim Canyon (2 miles). There is a haze in the air, but they were all beautiful. We even saw a fox run across the road.
After the hikes, we hit the visitor center. The kids scored again, getting a ranger that gave me the badges so they could complete their booklets later. The other ranger on duty wasn’t giving that option, so it was just luck of the draw. We enjoyed our picnic lunch in a shaded spot while there too.
Once our bellies were full, we headed out to explore the other part of the park. We hit the Green River overlook and then headed out to Upheavel Dome. I missed in my planning that this was pretty steep, and at this point it was over 100 degrees, so we opted to skip it. Nicholas really wanted to do Whale Rock, which involved lots of scrambling (his favorite) and was only a mile long. With the temperature at 108 degrees, we made it only a half mile before we were back at the car, due to the heat.
Next we headed to get some ice cream in town to celebrate the hot day of hiking. It was delicious! We walked down the main street in pursuit of a hooded sweatshirt souvenir for me, but no luck. On our way home we played a guessing game of how hot the RV would be with the A/C running all day, no one home, but also no extra fans or turning the truck on for the extra cooling power. The answer was 92, which didn’t seem bad considering the 108 it was outside.
After that we headed home for showers and the much anticipated dinner out at a restaurant. The food at Trailhead Public House was pretty good, though the beer selection was lacking. We all left with full and happy bellies, and once home, played a game of SkipBo and then headed to bed.
