Canyonlands – Island in the Sky

We pulled into Horsethief Campground early Sunday afternoon (4/16) and quickly found a nice spot to call home for the next three days. For a BLM campground, Horsethief is large (over 50 sites) and they are exceptionally roomy, with lots of space between sites. Although there aren’t any amenities besides pit toilets and garbage service, we loved the campground. Lovely views and better yet, hiking and mountain biking trails galore, with many leaving right from the campground. Rog is itching to try out the bike trails. 😊

Love it here and Rog's mountain bike trail runs right by our site.

In addition to the mountain biking, we’re here to see the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. So after setting up camp, we drove over to the park to check it out. The scenery here is a bit different from the Needles section, which you can see off in the distance. This part of the park has stunning chasms carved by the Colorado and Green Rivers. Most of the developed area of the park is on the mesa top. There is a 34-mile scenic drive with lots of spectacular overlooks.

Wow. The view from the visitor's center.

Below the mesa top is the “white rim.” A layer of harder, white sandstone outlines the deeper chasms descending to the rivers. If you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle you can drive the 100-mile White Rim Road that loops around and below the mesa top. Hikers have a choice of staying on the mesa top or hiking down to the white rim.  The problem with the hikes down to the white rim is that that eventually you have to hike back up to the mesa top. Lol. All the hikes are classified as strenuous with elevation changes of 1400-1600 feet. The tootsies rebelled and we opted for some of the shorter, easier mesa top hikes. Besides, we felt like we got far more bang for our buck on the shorter trails around the overlooks.

Most of the park is on the upper "mesa top" area.

Over a 1000 feet below the mesa top is the "white rim."
The Colorado and Green Rivers are still far below that at the bottom of the canyons.

Sunday afternoon, we did part of the scenic drive and hit the visitor center, Buck Canyon Overlook, Grand View, and Mesa Arch. Grand View is at the tip of the mesa so you can look into the valleys on either side. 

Grand View Overlook is aptly named. :) 

It does really look like an Island in the Sky. 

Looking west toward the Green River and the Maze.

Looking east toward Monument Basin and the Needles.
You can see the White Rim Road around the edge.

Monument Basin.

La Sal Mountains.

Talk about bang for your buck. Mesa Arch is a short 1/4 mile jaunt from the parking area. Lovely arch and spectacular views. This is a popular spot for sunrise pics, but I never managed to drag my dead butt out of bed early enough for that. Maybe next time. :) 

Mesa Arch.

View through the arch. 

Washer Woman Arch. Can you see her??

Happy campers under the arch.

Monday was Rog’s day to hit the mountain bike trails. I opted to hang out at camp, work on the blog, catch up on campground reviews, and do a short hiking trail close to our campsite. Rog left about 10am taking the Chisholm Trail from the campground to the Navajo Rocks loop and then back to camp, putting in about 29 miles (with the last several uphill and into a head wind, ain't it always that way? Lol). This time he took a camera and got some awesome shots! One of the great things about biking is that he can go farther and cover way more territory than is feasible in a day hike. 

The trail wound around Big Mesa, over slickrock, down winding single track, and along some steep drop offs. The day started off cloudy, but the sun came out and he had blue skies and perfect weather. He made it back to camp around 4pm, exhausted and smiling. 😊

Big Mesa.

The trail is marked with color-coded paint on the slickrock.

Single track - Rog's favorite.

The Monitor and Merrimac formations. 

That's a long drop off the edge to the right. Gulp. 

Tired, happy puppy.

Awesome pano of the trail.

Our last day at Horsethief, we went back to Island in the Sky to finish the scenic drive and do a few more of the shorter hikes. We were interested in Upheaval Dome, a 2-mile wide crater whose origins are somewhat controversial. Scientists are leaning toward the theory that it was caused by a violent meteorite impact. Whatever its origins, it’s awesomely cool.  

Upheaval Dome.

Regardless of its origins - very cool! :)

This sign was posted in the pit toilets at the trailhead.
I don't even want to know why it was necessary. Ick!

We also hiked onto Whale Rock and enjoyed the views from the Green River Overlook. Whale Rock was a fun climb up a huge slickrock formation, our only problem was the winds were howling so fiercely I could barely hold the camera steady to get a picture! Lol.

Rog climbing up the back of the Whale. :)

Look! There's a whole pod behind us. 

A whale of a view. Ok, bad pun. Sorry. Lol.

Mini Half-Dome at Green River Overlook. 

Green river winding below the white rim. 

Our next stop won’t be nearly as scenic, but I need an address for a med delivery so we’ll be staying for a week in Montrose, CO at a private RV park. The good news is that we’re only about 15 miles away from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The really good news is that we’ll pick Rian up at the Grand Junction airport on Friday evening!  She’ll hang out with us until Wednesday, 4/26 and we’ll get to explore the national park together. Looking forward to that!!