Island in the Sky - Canyonlands National Park - Part 1

Thursday, September 17, 2015

The Canyonlands National Park is divided into four parts, Island in the Sky, Needles, The Maze, and the Rivers.  Access is different for each part of the park.  We chose to take a back entrance into the Island in the Sky, which would start out along the Colorado River and include a Jeep trail into the park.  I am separating this into two parts, one to show the Jeep Road, and the other, the views.

This part will principally show the road.

 We leave Moab, taking highway 279 towards Potash.  We will drive along the Colorado River for some time. 

 The cars parked on the right are taking a hiking trail to Bowtie Arch.  You will see that in the next posting.

 Now this is representative of the road, but was actually a short detour up a canyon. Our map showed us "Pucker Pass" but we were not sure where it would take us.

 We are back on the road to Potash.

 We think this is where the Jeep Trail must begin.

 Road is a little bumpy, but not bad really.  Unbelievable views.

 The road starts to get a bit narrower.  Good thing traffic is light!

 Really, a two-wheel drive vehicle could do this road.

 Looking back, we see that we have someone coming along from behind.

 Now this looks interesting.  We are going to drive to the top of the cliff you see ahead.

 We are part way up the cliff, looking back to where we started.

 This and the next six photos are to show you the switchbacks we drove up.  We met vehicles coming down.
It was snug in places.

Near the top left the road goes around to the left and then enters the park.

 

We have reached the top and we are now in Canyonlands National Park. If you look closely, you can see the road leading into this cliff.  Wow, we had fun!  Some of the views from this trip will be in the next post.