Canyonlands National Park Day 4

 Sunday 9/10/23

See part one here:  Colorado National Monument & Days 1-3

The drive to Canyonlands NP was about 50 minutes from our hotel.  We set out before sunrise knowing that by the time we got there it would be getting light out.  Before we even arrived, the views were knocked off out of our socks and we were pulling over for photo ops. Literally just off the side of the road, 20 miles outside the park! Utah is simply breathtaking.

It took us about 45 minutes to drive that 20 mile stretch because we kept stopping to take photos and just look around. 

Eventually we made it into the actual park and continued to be mind blown.  Canyonlands does not get a lot of hype and we could not understand why.  This place was INSANE!  We stopped at the visitor center and then walked across the street to a short hike.  From there we got views of the Shafer Trail. The Shafer trail is an 18-mile dirt trail for cars to travel.  Mark and I talked about going on it but once we saw it, Mark decided that maybe it was not right for our vehicle.  I had a different opinion, but I deferred to him.  Perhaps he knows more about driving than me, who knows.

Shafer Trail

We did a few hikes and stopped at most of the overlooks and just took in as much of the park as possible.  There was so much to see and do it was crazy.  One of the hikes I was so excited to do was the Upheaval Dome.  We got started going up, up, up and everything was going so well, until it wasn't.  Mark suddenly started not feeling well.  He was having a hard time catching his breath, he was yawning constantly and was complaining that his vision was "off".  He didn't look well.  We stood off the trail in the shade and rested for a little while and he just was acting strangely.  He wanted to try to start going back down as we knew he was not going to be able to finish the trail but when he stood up, he instantly lost all his color, pale as pale can be, lips went white, and he looked like a zombie.  I made him sit on the ground, he argued with me, but I didn't want him face planting in the rocks.  I knew he was suffering from altitude sickness, and I just needed to get him of that mountain.  After about minutes or so he started to feel better, so we were able to get him up, and get him back down the mountain. Sadly, after that he still felt terrible, so we ended our day and went back to the hotel. It was scary 40 minutes that I sure don't ever want to go through again.

We did go back to Canyonlands the next day after we were done at Arches to see the things we missed out on since we had to leave early.  I was so glad that we did because this park was top notch, and we absolutely gave it a 10/10.

Here are some shots from the park:

Umm, I'll hold it, thanks.

Susan's view in Canyonlands at Rainbow Point💖

Tomorrow we go to Arches NP!

Thanks for reading.

Love to all.