Our campsite, just outside Moab, Utah is in the middle of the Colorado Plateau. The plateau varies between three to twelve thousand feet above sea level and stretches over four states. Consisting of high, sparsely populated and arid desert land it’s home to no less than nine National Parks, including the Grand Canyon. Even if you’ve never visited you will have seen the plains, canyons, red rock towers and buttes of the Colorado Plateau in countless movies about the ‘Wild West’ from The Searchers to Forrest Gump. In fact, the opening scene from Mission Impossible II was filmed on the trail we will be walking today.
We’re stopping at Archview RV park for a few days whilst we visit the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. It’s baking hot in the day and freezing at night and tumbleweed rolls across the prairie. There’s a covered wagon and an old chapel in the grounds, used as a film set apparently and a huge Stars and Stripes flies over the entrance. If there’s anywhere more ‘Wild West’ than this I’d like to see it.
I’ve spied out a walk I’d like to do in Canyonlands and on the way we stop at Dead Horse Point where we get our first sight of the Colorado River and our first sensory overload trying to take in the vastness of the panorama that is laid out before our eyes. The Colorado River snakes along the valley floor two thousand feet below us and the canyon, created over millennia by the forces of nature drops away in a series of rock pinnacles, towers and terraces.
We stop again at Mesa Arch where a short trail takes us from the road to the twenty seven foot long arch. We’ve already visited Arches National Park so have seen larger, more impressive examples but Mesa Arch is one of the few in Canyonlands and its location right on the rim of the canyon provides some nice natural framing, particularly at sunrise.
After Mesa Arch we drive on to the end of the road and Grand View Point Overlook trailhead. We’re 6,000ft above sea level here and the trail roughly maintains that height as it tracks across the high desert scrubland close to the canyon rim.
The high ground of the plateau was not originally higher but the sandstone it’s made of has made it a survivor of the relentless forces of water and weather erosion which, over millions of years of storms and freeze/thaw have worn away the surrounding land carving out vast canyons and making the plateau an ‘Island in the Sky’, which is indeed the name of this section of Canyonlands National Park.
Immediately, we are blown away by the endless views across desert and canyon. Towers of rich red sandstone intermingle with ledges of harder rock and smaller spires and pinnacles, all inside a canyon whose sides plummet in step terraces down to the river two thousand feet below us. It’s easy to see why the Colorado Plateau’s nickname is ‘Red Rock Country’.
It is a sight to behold, a gorgeous visual feast, made all the more special because of its monumental scale and the fact that it’s a landscape that is completely new to me, there being nothing comparable to this in the the U.K.
After a mile walking along the canyon rim, being careful not to get too close to its vertical drops, the plateau gradually narrows until we arrive at Grand View Point Overlook.
As the name suggests, the overlook is the southern tip of the Island in The Sky plateau with the ground surrounding us dropping away into the rock towers and canyons below. And the view is…… well, Grand.
Junction Butte is the prominent feature across the huge chasm and as far as the eye can see, all the way to the horizon, there is red rock natural beauty. It is a huge, wild, empty landscape and simply awesome.
It’s late afternoon and the sun is starting to lower so we contemplate staying for the sunset but the clouds are thickening and I’m worried about the terrain and walking near the canyon rim in the dark so we meander back to the RV for tea with a view.
As walks go, it’s a short one, barely two miles there and back but the joy of a walk is not in how long it takes or how many miles it is but what it gives to you, and the walk to Grand View Point Overlook demanded little but delivered in spades.
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Route Map, Walk Stats, Geolocated Pictures and 3D Flyover Video Below.
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Stunning views – what memories you are creating…
Thanks Tricia 😀
I agree there’s just nothing quite like it. Utah was one of my favourite holidays ever. Mindblowing views.
Thanks Ruth, I think living on our small island with no real wilderness the sight of vast areas of emptiness is unbelievable. I read somewhere (the danger of reading 😂) that half of America is empty!
Even without Tom Cruise, this is one of the world’s great views!
Agreed! 😀
Absolutely stunning views and as you say, so different from anything we get to see in the UK. This is the US West I love and I remember Canyonlands with great fondness. I’d love to go back now I have a decent camera and (I hope) a better eye for a good photo!
Thanks Sarah, as I’ve just said to someone else I think it’s the vast emptiness that is fascinating for a Brit as we just don’t have that kind of landscape here. In some ways I preferred Canyonlands to the Grand Canyon, I’d certainly like to go back one day and I’ve got a growing list of places to visit!
Who’d be Tom Cruise? I hadn’t seen the film and my heart was in my mouth. Incredible scenery. Jim. Your wife looked pretty cold and looking at that 3D flyover, I don’t know if I could cope with those drops, but what a reward!
Thanks Jo, some of those 3D videos are pretty bland but this one certainly showed off the plateau and the drops pretty well. It wasn’t too cold as I remember but anything below 25°c is cold for Mish, living in Spain/Portugal would suit her just fine!
Fantastic scenery. There is a Utah trail in my 100 Hikes of a Lifetime book, so I will definitely be paying it a visit. I wonder if you can hike through all the iconic sights or whether you need to drive and hike, given the scale?
I think a hike through all the sights would be a long one Tony! And I don’t think there is much infrastructure around to buy food, water etc, depends how long the trail is in your book I suppose
What an amazing experience for you both and your imagery makes it all come alive. It is so similar to the Australian Outback and I remember driving there for hours on very straight roads unlike NZ and feeling very insufficient. You’re right America like Australia has so much land that is inhabited.
Thank you Suzanne, I’ve not been to Australia (not counting two hours on the ground to refuel on route to NZ!) but did contemplate getting a campervan and doing the ‘Big Lap’ once!
What amazing views from such a short walk. The scenery is so otherworldly from a British perspective.
Thanks, it certainly is 😀
Beautiful scenery in Utah Jim. Did you feel like Tom Cruise? I thought it funny that after exploring the Wild West, you did the very typical British, and very un-American, routine of having a cup of tea 😊 Maggie
Ha! And I never even thought it unusual 😀 typical Brit! I did feel a bit like Tom Cruise but he has many more dollars and I have a few more lbs !
Fantastic scenery in these photos and videos, its all a bit vast for Brits to comprehend, the sheer scale of it all looks like its on another level
Cheers Steve, yes it’s vast. I’m sure you’d appreciate some of the rock architecture, not dissimilar to the tors, except sandstone not granite