Canyonlands

May 1, 2009

We left Capitol Reef at around 8:30 this morning, wearing a sweater and my down jacket. It’s been really cold in the parks for the past few days…and windy, too. I’m just bone-chilled that I haven’t showered for the past 2 days for fear that I might get sick ;).

The drive to the Canyonlands National Park was very scenic but quite different from the bright reds and oranges of the parks we’ve visited. The colors of the landscape were now gravel gray, with a few yellows and shades of purple. Really weird looking. It struck me that this is the perfect backdrop for an alien abduction movie. But it has its own stark beauty just the same.

We spent a couple of hours at the John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River. Powell was one of the most influential pioneers of the Colorado and Green River. This is a great, little museum worth visiting. It’s a great stop on the way to Canyonlands. We had a restful and pleasant lunch at the Tamarisk restaurant across the museum. The restaurant is located right along the Green River. No peanut butter sandwiches this time. To be safe, I ordered soup and salad. Dek ordered a Reuben sandwich.

We then proceeded to the Dead Horse Point State Park which, based on my research, was highly recommended. The place was named such because horses were left here to die. The view, again, was truly astounding. I wish we came driving a 4x4 so that we could travel the dirt trails in the parks. Would have been a more fascinating trip. I told Dek the next time we get a chance to be in this area again, we should either drive a 4x4 or join some of the jeep tours that really go to the interior of the parks.

From the Dead Horse park we went to Canyonlands, another fascinating park with its deep canyons thru which the Colorado River flows. The only hike we did was a half mile walk to the Mesa Arch, a natural bridge formed by water eons ago. We would have done other hikes had we had more time.

It was a busy day. We finally arrived in Moab, Utah at 6:30 pm. and checked in at the Ramada Inn. Moab is a destination city by the looks of the crowd here. People come here for all kinds of activity - river rafting, hiking, etc. Hotels are fully booked and downtown is full of restaurants, art stores, and tourist shops. This is the first town in Utah I’ve been to this vacation where there are Indians, Ukranians, Chinese, and Vietnamese as residents of the place. In other words, we were not the only non-whites.

We had a good dinner at the Szechuan Restaurant. Then had Dreyers ice cream. A small scoop of ice cream is $1.99 which in Los Angeles would cost about $3 to $4.

On to the Arches National Park tomorrow. Hope it doesn’t rain though weather report says 80% chance of rain.