Current location: Green River, UT, N 38 59.549', W 110 08.199', elev. 4069 ft.

Tuesday I woke up with an ambitious day ahead. A visit to two separate national parks with a lot of driving on each end. Southern Utah has a stunning 5 national parks (Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion), 3 national monuments (Natural Bridges, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Rainbow Bridge) and 1 national recreation area (Glen Canyon). I drove west from Fruita, CO on I-70 for about an hour until I reached US 191 in eastern Utah. I took US 191 south until I reached the resort town of Moab, the gateway to both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Moab seemed like a pretty cool little resort town. I was impressed that it wasn't too much of a tourist trap, and that there seemed to be a cluster of bars in the downtown area which would make for interesting night life.

My first stop after checking out Moab was two miles back north on US 191, to Arches. Arches has hundreds of sandstone arch formations, as well as sandstone pillars, towers and other formations, the result of erosion over time due to wind, rain and sand and other forces. Arches was simply an incredible place, home to some of the most jaw dropping sights I have yet seen on the trip. The park drive takes you through many sites, some which can be seen from the road, some requiring short or long hikes for optimal viewing.



Park features had charming or appropriate nicknames, such as Three Gossips, Tower of Babel, Balanced Rock, and Window Arch.



Most of the arch formations are deeper in the park, and only a few had hikes of a mile or less, so these are the only ones I got photos of.



North Window Arch



Turret Arch

Near the very end of the park road, you get to the most famous of the arches, Delicate Arch, the unofficial symbol of Utah. It's image appears on license plates, travel brochures, and other items. The hike to the arch is a good 4 miles, which I wasn't going to venture that day, but there is a view point where you can see the arch pretty well from three and a half miles.



From there, I pretty much had my fill of arches (view rest of photos here), so I drove out of the park, and north about 15 more miles on US 191 to reach the main entrance for Canyonlands. It was getting pretty late, and for me, Canyonlands was just a throw in destination, I wasn't expecting much. Low expectations were something I shouldn't have had, because Canyonlands proved to be even more beautiful and amazing than Arches. Maybe it was just the lighting or the time of day, but what I saw was absolutely incredible. The main area of the park is called Island in the Sky. I wasn't sure why at first, because the first few lookout stops were not all that spectacular, certainly not as cool as Black Canyon of the Gunnison the previous day. To me, it looked like a lot of mesas, buttes and open areas, and not much of a canyon at all.



However, I then arrived at the Green River overlook point, and I was totally blown away. I was standing at the top of a huge, beautiful canyon, but I was actually only looking down onto a plateau, on which was carved another immense canyon. I was standing atop a canyon within a canyon. It was incredible.







I've seen a lot of great stuff on this trip, a lot of varied, natural beauty, but this site ranks right up at the top with the best of them, and I only ended up at this park because I had extra time after Arches! A bit of a distance down the road, I came to a similar stop point called the Grand View overlook. This was actually a totally separate canyon from the Green River Overlook, and was just as spectacular, again, another canyon within a canyon. Incredible. It was very near the end of the day, and I got some very good light for photos, but unfortunately, my camera batteries ran out so I was only able to get a few here.



I got a lot of incredible shots for the day, the rest of which can be viewed here. As I was leaving Canyonlands, night had set in, and the incredible darkness compelled me to drive. There were often no lights for miles on long stretches as I headed back north on US 191. I got back to I-70 and headed west to the town of Green River, UT. It was almost 9 PM, and I could have kept driving, except I saw a sign that read "Next services 106 miles". I could have driven, but I wasn't willing to drive a guaranteed two more hours, so I exited the interstate in Green River and found a place for the night. Moab is an excellent spot for a long weekend or a week's vacation, even in the summer. The resort town is cool, has a good vibe and is not overly touristy. There are 2 beautiful national parks within 30 miles, where you can do plenty of hiking and camping. I'll go back again, and I highly recommend it to everyone.