Canyonlands National Park

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Day 13 - August 17, 2006

Today we headed to Canyonlands National Park. We passed Horsethief Campgrounds, don't know why. It had a dirt road, and we're not trying any of those.

Traveling in a RV is not exactly what I thought it would be. The noise from the road and stuff inside rattling make it too hard to read aloud to the kids or even to Scott in the front seat. I grew hoarse everyday trying to do it, and basically have given it up. Same goes for listening to books on CD. It's also hard for the kids to read in the RV because of all the swaying (or is it Scott's crazy driving, he does a good imitation of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride sometimes!) Most of the storage is unavailable while the RV is in motion, so it is hard to eat. It is almost impossible to write legibly as well.

On the way, we have met many people from many places. The license plates have been from all over: MO, NM, UT, AR, CO, CA, NE, TX, IL, MD, MA, NV, NY...

A lot of people visiting the parks have even been from out of the country, such as: Germany, Japan, England, France, Australia (work crew), Spain, and a bunch of Italians joined us on our hike thru the Fiery Furnance.

According to Karen (one of the park rangers in Canyonlands National Park Visitor Center), out here in the Canyonlands, a lot of things are named after horses, horse body parts, or something else to do with horses. Hence, the names: Dead Horse State Park, Horsethief Campground, etc...

Horses were very important in a place where one could easily die from exposure both at night and during the day.

Canyonlands is another park in which one needs to hike to truly appreciate it. However, we had a long drive of approximately 250 miles ahead of us, so here are the highlights. Even though Canyonlands NP is very similar to Arches, it is also very different in several ways. You can't skip this one.

After about 175 miles, we stopped for a rest break, and the kids all threw and pitched with Scott. It was a nice break. On the way we saw a block M (definitely U of M style) formed out of white stones or something in the hills. It looked very out of place, but at least it wasn't blue and gold. (Actually, it identified the town - lots of towns have similar hillside letters).

We finally arrived late in Bryce Canyon. Apparently the founding family (1800s) still owns everything in town, so a lot of things are named Ruby this or that (including the campground). We pulled in after dark and got lost in the campground and drove around for awhile looking for our site (164). We ate quickly and went to bed in anticipation of an early morning.

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Photos

Canyonlands Grand View
Not the Grand Canyon - but a grand view nonetheless

Lizard
This little guy posed for a picture while I was capturing the park sign

White Rim Road
Hard to make out in this photograph, but there's a dirt road that runs around the rim of the canyon for nearly 100 miles. Definitely off our itinerary

Taking a break - Part 1
Austin practicing his pitching

Taking a break - Part 2
Krysten working on her softball pitching