Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park

Continuing my backblips from our trip out west

September 23
Once again we were up early and in Arches National park for 9am. We just had the Windows area we wanted to explore this morning, then we headed into Canyonlands National Park for a few hours before returning to Salt Lake City. Today's Canyonlands landscape is one of erosion. As this area gradually rose, rivers that once deposited sediment on the lowlands began to remove it from the emerging plateau. The Green and Colorado rivers began carving into the geologic “layer cake”, exposing buried sediments and creating the canyons of Canyonlands. However, the rivers aren't the only force of erosion. Summer thunderstorms bring heavy rains that scour the landscape. Some layers erode more easily than others. As softer rock dissolves away, layers of harder rock form exposed shelves, giving the canyon walls their stair-step appearance. Occasionally, a slab of harder rock will protect a weaker layer under it, creating balanced rocks and towers. The rivers divide the park into four districts: Island in the Sky, The Needles, The Maze, and the rivers themselves. Island in the Sky is the only region you can explore on a tarmac road without 4 wheel drive and preferably high clearance. I wasn’t planning to blip another arch after all the choice we had yesterday, but the view through Mesa arch was so stunning, I couldn’t resist! My extra photograph shows the rather scary looking Shaffer trail from a viewpoint on a nice safe tarmac road! We did a few short trails from the road, including Whale Rock, see second extra. We arrived in Salt Lake City around 8pm, just in time to go and pick Jen up from work!