We started day 2 with another sunrise, this time at Dead Horse Point State Park (about a 40 minute drive from Moab). Since we planned to visit Canyonlands after Dead Horse Point, the whole family had to be up early for this one (the advantage of winter is that sunrise was 7:30 am versus 6 am in the summer). It was a beautiful morning and we were basically by ourselves, so it was nice and quiet to watch the day come alive. After the sun had risen and we enjoyed the views, we continued down the road to the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands.

The Colorado and Green Rivers act as natural dividers in Canyonlands and the park is divided into three districts: Island in the Sky, the Needles, and the Maze. Although the districts are adjacent to each other, they can not be visited directly from one another. Island in the Sky is the easiest to visit from Moab and also the most accessible of the three districts. Island in the Sky is a high plateau bounded on either side by the Colorado and Green Rivers. There are many viewpoints to take in the scenery, as well as hiking trails of varying difficulty and some popular 4WD roads.

We made three stops in Island in the Sky: Grand View Point, Upheaval Dome, and Mesa Arch. Grand View Point is at the end of the road in the park and the overlook itself is nice, and it’s even nicer to make the two mile round trip walk out to the point and back. As we retraced our steps on the main road, we stopped at Upheaval Dome. Upheaval Dome is an anomaly in the Canyonlands landscape that geologists don’t completely understand how it originated. There are two overlooks and it’s one mile RT to the first and an extra mile RT to the second. Our last stop was Mesa Arch. It’s an easy 0.5 mile walk to see the arch. Another place with a lot of people trying to take pictures, so we didn’t stick around long.

There are other spots to visit in this section of Canyonlands, but we returned to Moab as Steve wanted to get in a long run at Poison Spider Mesa. We dropped him off, returned to the hotel room to clean up, and spent some time downtown browsing in the stores. I headed back to Potash Road to pick him up close to sunset and had to stop for the pretty views of the sun setting on the red rocks along the Colorado River. I wasn’t expecting that - nice little bonus!