Canyonlands National Park is our playground for the day. We park at the visitor’s center for Tony to take a meeting then we pack as many of the hikes in as we can. My watch showed over 32,000 steps when we were done! This park was established in the early 60s and has evidence of the sheep and cattle ranching done previously as well as “better developed” roads due to the uranium mining from the 50s. Only the main road is navigable without an off-road vehicle.

Our first hike is at Murphy’s Point. There is a new parking lot that made it easier to access. You get beautiful vistas from both sides of this walk out to the tip of a plateau. We sat at the end and had a snack.

Our second hike was at the Grand View Point Overlook at the end of long “y” of the park road. The views were stunning all along this 2 mile round trip trail. Pictures just don’t do it justice, but we take and share them anyway:)

We stopped by Whale Rock just to see it, but then kept going…. That’s Tony on the side of the Whale, and I’m up on the rock pile you see in the distance – the blow hole, perhaps.

Our final hike for this day was the Upheaval Dome, with two competing theories about formation – unstable salt layer from an ancient drained inland sea (used to explain lots of formations around here) or a meteorite. There were two viewpoints to hike to and the rock scrabbling is required!