Travels of The Mercury: Canyon Lands, Island in the Sky, Sept. 18-21, 2013

Island in the Sky.

Canyon Lands, Island in the Sky

We leave Moab to camp for four nights in Canyon Lands Island in the Sky. Our first night is spent at Horse Thief Campground, a BLM campground just outside the Park entrance. It’s a nice campground on top of the mesa with lots of sites but bring your own water. It's a good place for large rigs since the only campground within the park has length limitations and few sites.

The next day we entered Canyon Lands and got a site at their only campground, Willow Flat. No services are available. We got water in Moab at Gear Heads, a big outdoor recreation gear and clothing store. The owner and employees are very cordial and informative. Since the water is free I highly recommend you buy something as well. You can’t help but find something you need. We did.

Moon over Willow Flat campground.

Willow Flat CG. We spent three nights at Willow Flat. There are no willows and it’s not flat, just sand and Pinion/Juniper. The sites have great picnic shades, nice views and very peacefull.

Neck Spring hike. The 1^st day we hiked the Neck Springs Trail that took us just below the rim of the mesa on an easy 6 mile loop. It’s a nice introduction to Island in the Sky.

Our camp site at Willow Flat.

Whale Rock hike. That night there was a full moon and it was recommended in the trail guide to hike Whale Rock by moon light. The trail was a little hard to follow at times as it wasn’t always well carined. After a few missed turns in the shadows we got to the rock and walked up the back of the “whale” in the creamy moon light. We sat on top for a while watching moon light fill up the canyon below us. It was so quiet and we were the only people there. A light up-draft carries the warmth from the rock, cricket song and sweet smell of juniper. This is one of those magic times when nothing’s happening but you don’t want it to end.

Bike riding on Island in the Sky. The 2^nd day we rode our bikes on all the roads on Island in the Sky and stopped at every view point. It’s all on the mesa top so the riding is easy and traffic is considerate. The Park encourages bicycling. We get to see a lot more scenery from a bike than motorists have a chance to see.

That night we attended a ranger talk at our campground. She told us about animal and plant survival techniques. Did you know Desert Big Horn can lose about 20% of their body weight in water between drinks without being adversely affected by dehydration? Nice trick.

On the Syncline Loop Trail around Upheaval Dome.

Along the Syncline Loop.

Upheaval Dome, Syncline Loop Trail. On our last day we took an 8-mile hike on the Syncline Loop Trail around Upheaval Dome. This is a difficult hike with a lot of decent, climbing and route finding. The Park performs the most hiker rescues on this trail and a lot of night rescues because people start out too late in the day and aren’t prepared. The hike takes 6 to 7 hours and we made it in 6 with a little time spent route finding. We started at 8:15 am when no one else was in the parking lot. More than half way around we met some people going the opposite direction who hadn’t started hiking until 11. See how it is? Get your bottoms out of bed a little earlier.

The route around the pour-off.

On the south leg of the loop is a stone stairway up a steep, south facing, rubble slope. It goes up hundreds of feet and gets hot in the afternoon. It’s either a stairway to heaven or decent to hell depending on which way you’re going. If you like hiking and are good at route finding you'll love this trail. It has some beautiful, unexpected scenery and an up-close experience of Canyon Lands.