{"id":3552,"date":"2015-01-01T17:43:51","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T22:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=3552"},"modified":"2015-01-01T20:02:21","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T01:02:21","slug":"utah-canyonlands-np","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/01\/utah-canyonlands-np.html","title":{"rendered":"Utah Discoveries 5: Canyonlands National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Canyonlands<\/a>

Canyonlands National Park is incredibly underrated. Much of the park is accessible only via hiking, biking, rafting\/kayaking, or 4-wheel drive.<\/p><\/div>\n

Just a few miles up the road from Arches National Park<\/a> is a turnoff that takes you about 25 miles to the northern entrance of Canyonlands National Park<\/a>\u00a0(the Island in the Sky District). This park offers a completely different look at Utah’s wilderness, with the Green and Colorado Rivers traversing throughout.<\/p>\n

This park is very underrated, in that it’s not well-advertised so their visitorship is lower. Many of the park’s visitors are the more adventurous types who enjoy the backcountry exploration. There are many other national parks in Utah that get more attention, such as Zion<\/a> and Bryce Canyon<\/a>, but this one is close enough to Arches that we were able to drive over there easily.<\/p>\n

The park is divided into several distinct portions. The Island in the Sky District<\/a> is further north and more easily accessible from the city of Moab. The Needles District<\/a> part of the park is accessed further south, and you cannot connect with the Island in the Sky area with a regular motorized vehicle (you can hike or 4WD between the two). Finally, the Maze District<\/a> is to the west of Island in the Sky and the Needles, west of the Green and Colorado Rivers. We took an afternoon drive through the park; Dave and I enjoyed the views immensely, while the boys were admittedly growing tired of the continued views of western geology. We took advantage of numerous scenic overlooks, but the weather was quite warm.<\/p>\n

We started at the Island in the Sky Visitors Center:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9816\"<\/a>

Timmy was happy to learn something new at the Visitor Center, Jacob was not. Jacob was ready to go home.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_9817\"<\/a>

This Visitor Center isn’t nearly as glamorous at the one at the Grand Canyon, or even Arches. Nonetheless, the rangers were still friendly, knowledge, and held many programs for the kids.<\/p><\/div>\n

After the Visitor Center, we took a drive around the park. We enjoyed the numerous views of the Colorado\u00a0River and the White Rim Road<\/a>, although we were lamenting that there was no graceful way for us to see the other districts on our last day in Utah.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0733\"<\/a>

Our view of the Colorado River (which is nearly dry.) The White Rim Road is visible at the bottom edge of this photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"DSC_0742\"<\/a>

Can you see the rainshowers way off towards the horizon?<\/p><\/div>\n

\"DSC_0750\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_0729\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_9823\"<\/a>

We found a (very) short trail to enjoy some more views of the White Rim Road. Way off in the distance are the La Sal Mountains, near the Utah\/Colorado border.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_9827\"<\/a>

Proof positive that Jacob is our “careful” kid. He slowly crept towards the edge of the cliff.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a few miles up the road from Arches National Park is a turnoff that takes you about 25 miles to the northern entrance of Canyonlands National Park\u00a0(the Island in the Sky District). This park offers a completely different look at Utah’s wilderness, with the Green and Colorado Rivers traversing throughout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[568,569,559,563],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-Vi","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3567,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/01\/june-july-vacation-summary.html","url_meta":{"origin":3552,"position":0},"title":"June\/July 2014 Vacation Summary","date":"01 January 15","format":false,"excerpt":"Our June\/July 2014 summer vacation to the American southwest was fun and filled with National Park goodness. We are grateful for\u00a0the National Park Service's \"Military Annual Pass\" program which saved us nearly $80 in entrance fees on this trip. Here's the summary of everything we did: Drive to Durango Durango\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"arizona\"","img":{"alt_text":"IMG_9830","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_9830-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3528,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/01\/utah-arches-np.html","url_meta":{"origin":3552,"position":1},"title":"Utah Discoveries 4: More of Arches National Park","date":"01 January 15","format":false,"excerpt":"After our morning hike to Delicate Arch, we elected to drive through the rest of the park because it got very warm in a hurry. It took us\u00a0about two hours to drive through the park enjoying the additional arches and geology. Here are some photos from our drive.","rel":"","context":"In \"arches\"","img":{"alt_text":"My awesome boys!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_9812-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3647,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/04\/utah-discoveries-6-spring-break-in-utah-driving-westward.html","url_meta":{"origin":3552,"position":2},"title":"Utah Discoveries 6: Spring Break in Utah, Driving Westward","date":"18 April 15","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to some last minute planning on my part, we were unable to get lodging\u00a0for some Spring Break skiing within Colorado, but we were able to get a condo in Park City, Utah. While it may seem strange that we travelled all the way to Utah for skiing that might\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/sl8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3930,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/08\/utah-discoveries-11-alta-ski-area.html","url_meta":{"origin":3552,"position":3},"title":"Utah Discoveries 11: Alta Ski Area","date":"24 August 15","format":false,"excerpt":"For our last day in Utah, we decided to make the trek over to Alta Ski Area, which is one canyon south of Park City. It seems so simple, but in reality, what we had to do was take a route that was a\u00a0270 degree loop that was ~40 miles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"alta\"","img":{"alt_text":"This was a shot I took in between snow showers at the top of the one of the numerous mountain peaks at Alta Ski Area.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1096-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3725,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/05\/utah-discoveries-8-alpine-coaster.html","url_meta":{"origin":3552,"position":4},"title":"Utah Discoveries 8: Park City Resort Alpine Coaster","date":"06 May 15","format":false,"excerpt":"On such a warm day at Park City Resort, the kids had grown weary of the icy skiing by early afternoon. Many of the trails that were open took us right past the\u00a0track\u00a0of the Park City Alpine Coaster, and Timmy was very interested in giving it a spin. Timmy and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"alpine coaster\"","img":{"alt_text":"The Alpine Coaster at Park City Resort is a unique experience.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_1060-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3717,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/05\/utah-discoveries-7-park-city.html","url_meta":{"origin":3552,"position":5},"title":"Utah Discoveries 7: Skiing at Park City Resort","date":"05 May 15","format":false,"excerpt":"On our first full day in Park City, we decided to check out the Park City Ski Resort, which was just a couple blocks from our condo. We took advantage of a military deal for the resort, although being one of the Vail Resorts, it was still pretty costly, even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"park city\"","img":{"alt_text":"It was so warm, Dave could ski in shorts!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_1043-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3570,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions\/3570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}