| Submitted by: Evelyn C. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 15 February 2005 |
|
 |
|
It was also true we hadn't eaten very much (breakfast had been rather
small), so we sat in the car and ate some dried fruit and drank lots of
water.
We had been planning to walk to Delicate Arch, which someone on the Net
described as, 'probably the best walk under one hour I've ever done.' That
sounded good, but then the trailhead and our books described it as a three-
mile round-trip which they estimated would take three hours. Given my
experience with the Net, I decided to trust the books and give it a miss.
There is a viewpoint accessible by walking a couple of hundred feet from the
parking lot from which you can see the arch, but only from a long distance
away. This is basically a level walk--it was either paved or packed dirt,
because I remember thinking it was probably even wheelchair-accessible (but
double-check before counting on this being true).
After this we took another short walk (a few hundred yards) out to
North and South Windows and Turret Arch, then returned to Moab. Arches
National Park was very impressive, but designed mostly for hikers. (Maybe
they're just applying Edward Abbey's philosophy that the right way to see
all this is by walking, although someone said that the viewpoint for
Delicate Arch was
constructed only a few years ago. Abbey also said that cars should be
banned from national parks.) There are nice rock formations that can be
seen from the car, but except for one or two, all the arches are visible
only after a hike.
We returned to Moab about 5:00 PM. I had wanted to eat at the
recommended Honest Ozzie's Cafe (a pun on Anasazi, I guess), but it was
closed, so we went to Fat City Pit House BBQ instead. Clearly this name is
not designed to attract the health food crowd, but after a long strenuous
day, it was pretty good.
We went back to the room to change clothes because we were taking a
'Canyonlands by Night' river cruise and it would be chilly. It started
about 8:00 PM (what time it starts depends on when sundown is), and was not
very crowded, The boat goes up the Colorado River about one hour (about five
miles, or eight kilometers) in the daylight while the guide tells you about
the history and geology of the area. By this point it's dark, and for the
return trip down, a truck on the road along the river paces the boat while
shining lights on the cliff walls, and there is a recorded narration with
music of history and legend. At least that's the plan, though tonight there
were problems in that the radio with which the boat talked to the truck was
not working and it took a half hour to get it fixed while we sat in the dark
at the upriver point. (It used to be that the coordination was done
entirely with light signals from the boat, but the new truck drivers don't
know them.) The whole thing took two-and-a-half hours (including the
unscheduled half-hour stop), and cost US$20 each. When you're doing most of
your traveling on your own, it's nice once in a while to get some
information from a local tour and this was a reasonably enjoyable way to
spend an evening.
Minimum elevation: 4000 ft (1219 m).
Maximum elevation: 5100 ft (1555 m).
Distance driven: 85 miles (137 kilometers).
|
We had figured on breakfast at 7:30 AM so we could get
an early start, but Sabrina's husband must not have realized this, because
he was cooking an elaborate burrito which seemed to take forty-five minutes
to prepare from scratch. It was very good, though, with a bean, egg, and
chorizo filling. We had decided to leave Moab today and stay in Monticello
after seeing both parts of Canyonlands. So we exchanged email addresses
with Sabrina--it's amazing how the Internet is everywhere.
We drove to the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park
(usual admission is US$4 per car for all three districts). This took about
an hour, and we arrived about 9:45 AM. On the way in, we passed the Monitor
and Merrimac Buttes, so name for their resemblance to the ships. However,
this is somewhat misleading, since when seen from the road and the view
point, they are really the Merrimac and the Monitor. (well, you wouldn't
want people to get the wrong idea of what the ships looked like, would you?)
We resolved to take it a bit easier this time, so we picked a few of
the short walks labeled 'easy' and decided to do those, rather than a single
longer, more strenuous walk. We started with a short walk (a quarter of a
mile, or four-tenths of a kilometer) to the Shafer Canyon Overlook. This
was the first of many impressive views of the day. Unfortunately, Mark
seems to think that the best pictures of scenery which goes for hundreds of
miles are taken only a few inches from the (unfenced) edge of the butte,
rather than another foot or so back.
We then drove on to our next short walk, up to Mesa Arch, which is on
the edge of the cliff and frames a beautiful panorama thousands of feet
below and extending for miles. Whether it's because it's earlier (and
cooler), or because I'm not carrying anything, or whatever, these walks are
a lot easier than those yesterday. (Maybe I'm getting used to the altitude
as well; it's up around 6000 feet [1800 meters] here.) This loop was a half
mile (eight-tenths kilometer).
After this (which took about a half-hour for the loop trail), we drove
out to Grandview Overlook for a panoramic view of the surrounding area,
including a view of the Needles District of Canyonlands to the south, only
twelve miles (twenty kilometers) away as the crow (or vulture) flies, but a
two-hour drive from this point. We could see just a bit of the Colorado in
the distance, a small brown ribbon winding which would have been all but
invisible except for the swathes of green along its banks.
We drove further along the road and came to Whale Rock about 12:15 PM,
which Mark decided he wanted to climb in spite of the fact that it involved
a 100-ft (30-m) change in elevation. (Later we discovered that this was
labeled a 'moderate' trail. I'm glad we skipped the other moderate trails.)
I climbed most of the way to the top, but the last ten feet (three meters)
in elevation, while they didn't look too bad to climb up, looked trickier to
get down, so I waited there while Mark went ahead. Going back was a lot
easier, of course--it was downhill. The round-trip took about forty-five
minutes.
(Actually, the other two walks we took had the same elevation change,
but his one certainly seemed steeper.)
After we finished the scenic drive (skipping the climb to Upheaval
Dome, which looked difficult, but was labeled only 'moderate'), we returned
to the ranger station, hoping to get some water there. However, while there
was a water fountain, they asked people not to fill water bottles. So we
decided to wait until we got back to Moab and pick up some water there.
But first we drove to Dead Horse State Park, also off Route 313. It
also provides a view of the surrounding area and Colorado River--in fact, a
better view than the one at Grandview in Canyonlands. Dead Horse Point
State Park doesn't have much for the non-hiker besides the one view, but it
is spectacular. It's not a 360-degree view, but probably close to a 270-
degree one, and is probably the most impressive sight of the trip (at least
so far).
The drive to the Needles District of Canyonlands took two hours (from
2:30 PM to 4:30 PM, so we missed the hottest part of the day). This
included a stop for water, Gatorade, and more fruit newtons. On the way to
Needles on Route 191 we passed Hole in the Rock and Wilson's Arch, before
turning off onto Route 211. Hole in the Rock is a tourist shop and house
carved into the solid sandstone. It's kitsch from before everything was
kitsch, complete with huge sign painted on the other side of the rock
letting you know it's coming up. People stop here for the same reason they
stop at the Hard Rock Cafe, I suppose. We didn't stop.
Wilson's Arch is a nice-looking arch along the road, but after we had
been through Arches National Park, it didn't seem as remarkable to us as it
did to the people who were stopping to take pictures.
By the side of Route 211 into the Needles District was Newspaper Rock,
a rock covered with petroglyphs from 1500 years ago. This reminded me of El
Morro in New Mexico, except the latter had graffiti from a much longer (and
more recent) period of times.
The Needles District is so named because of rock formations resembling
needles sticking up from the ground, but the entrance to it is through even
more dramatic scenery. At Island in the Sky, you are at the top of the mesa
looking down; here you are on the floor of the canyon looking up. (Although
it's not really a canyon--it's too big and wide for that. I'm not really
sure what to call it.)
You drive in past huge mesas, lined up along the right hand side of the
road, with some buttes and other formations on the left. It's like driving
down a giant avenue of massive buildings, and some do indeed look like
fortresses or cathedrals. Driving past such magnificent scenery, so unlike
anywhere else, I was again reminded of a story Lawrence Watt-Evans wrote in
which a boy is offered, in effect, a trip in a spaceship, but with the catch
that he can never return to earth. Someone who had taken that offer
elsewhere tries to talk him out of it, saying, '='You want to see wonders
and marvels, huh? ... You want to see buildings a hundred stories high?
Cities of strange temples? Oceans thousands of miles wide? Mountains miles
high? Prairies, and cities, and strange animals and stranger people? ...
But kid, you can see those buildings a thousand feet high in New York, or in
Chicago. You've got oceans here on your own world as good as you'll find
anywhere. You've got the mountains, and the sea, and the prairies, and all
the rest of it. ... You want to see spaceships? You go to Florida and
watch a shuttle launch. Man, that's a spaceship. It may not go to other
worlds, but that *is* a spaceship. You want strange animals? You go to
Australia or Brazil. You want strange people? Go to New York or Los
Angeles, or almost anywhere. You want a city carved out of a mountaintop?
It's called Machu Picchu, in Peru, I think. You want ancient, mysterious
ruins? They're all over Greece and Italy and North Africa. Strange
temples? Visit India: there are supposed to be over a thousand temples in
Benares alone. See Angkor Wat, or the pyramids--not just the Egyptian ones,
but the Mayan ones, too. And the great thing about all those places, kid,
is that afterwards, if you want to, you can come home. You don't *have* to,
but you *can*. Who knows? You might get homesick some day. Most people
do. *I* did. I wish to hell I'd seen more of my own world before I
volunteered to try any others.''
Because we had arrived somewhat late in the day, we hiked only one
trail, the Cave Spring Trail, which leads past a series of caves (or rather
overhangs of the rock) and then up and across the top of the rock. One of
the caves still contained various objects used by cowboys who used to tend
their animals near there; another had the spring that they used for water.
Either the spring had dried up since then, or they didn't used very much
water, because it seemed to be merely a wet spot on the rock wall. It was
not the bubbling fount of water most people picture when they hear the word
'spring.' The trail wasn't always easy to follow, though there were rock
cairns pointing the way. |
|
| Copyright © - "Evelyn C. Leeper" |
|
 |
| Other travelogues by the same author: |
|
|
|
