Unexpected rain held Stefan and I in Moab for longer than planned, leaving us little time to explore this national park. Nevertheless, Canyonlands provided me with the most challenging and rewarding hiking day so far, a great chance to test my endurance on rough terrain. Island in the Sky, the north part of the park, is a broad mesa at the heart of the Colorado Plateau, split from the Maze and the Needles by two canyons carved by the Green and Colorado rivers. The view from here stretches across canyon after canyon to the horizon 100 miles distant. This is an area of arid soil where water and gravity have been the prime architects cutting flat layers of sedimentary rock into hundreds of canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches and spires. I had an action-packed day starting
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