Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Some big canyons - not Grand


     Canyonlands was quite different than Arches even though they are only 30 miles apart. The views were mostly of some amazing canyons of the Colorado and the Green Rivers. The air was cooler in Canyonlands and there were even a few drops of rain.
     Moab is a good place to stay to see both of these parks. In addition, there are literally dozens of areas to do off-road biking and dune buggy riding. The town seems to be full of folks with Jeeps and souped up little 4-wheel drive vehicles. You can take a 100 mile road through the park and camp along the way - really into the wild. None of the campgrounds have water, however, so you need carry water and gas as well as all of your camping supplies and food. I could really see Kim having fun here.
     There were a few short hikes that we took to get closer to some of the views, but the alititude is still over 5000' and we both get winded pretty quickly. We had a nice picnic at Canyonlands for lunch and then headed back to look at more of the "Arches." On our drive we came across an old ranch that was there in the 1800's. Wow, it certainly would have been a hard place to live - hot, then cold, high and mostly dry. The ranch was next to the only stream we saw in the park aside from the major rivers. I am not up for moving to this sort of wilderness.
     Tomorrow we head back to the freeway system and go north. Hopefully to cooler weather.

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