{"id":889,"date":"2016-08-22T18:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T18:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richerdesign.com\/backpacking\/?p=889"},"modified":"2017-06-02T21:05:23","modified_gmt":"2017-06-02T21:05:23","slug":"island-in-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richerdesign.com\/backpacking\/island-in-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2-3 Canyonlands \u2013 Island in the Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

See the start of this series in the blog:\u00a0Finding the Magic Number<\/a><\/p>\n

Hiking: 5.7 miles, Backpacking: 0 miles<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was thankful to arrive at our campground earlier than I had anticipated. Thanks to our long Day 1 drive. We found our campsite, a state park, nestled about 12 miles outside of Island in the Sky.<\/p>\n

Canyonlands<\/a> is so big and so vastly different in environments, it is broken up into 3 parts; Island in the Sky, Needles, and the Maze. We visited only two of the three districts. The Maze is just as it sounds, a series of canyons without trails that without a good wayfinding system you could get lost.<\/p>\n

Once settled into our camp, we drove the few miles to the ranger station and checked in for our future backpacking trip and planned a small 2-mile hike at sunset on the Grand View Trail. I\u2019m not sure I can describe the hike, but in a few sentences I would describe say: Think of having a bird\u2019s eye view looking into a huge canyon and seeing only a ledge of another huge canyon and not being able to see the bottom of the canyon inside. Now think of a bunch of those canyons interconnecting and all leading to the Green or Colorado river \u2026 which is so deep within a canyon that you can\u2019t see the water, but you know it\u2019s there somewhere.<\/p>\n

\"Kit<\/a>That night as we ate dinner, we saw a kit fox about 10 feet away from us. We found out later, that the ranger thinks he has a den near our campsite, since he doesn\u2019t bother campers, but is seen a lot around the site. As we climbed into bed, it started a light rain which was nice since the day had been hot. Little did we know it wasn\u2019t the last we would see of the rain.<\/p>\n

The next morning, we left camp early to visit, Arches National Park. Canyonlands and Arches are directly across from one another and I\u2019m still not quite sure why they don\u2019t combine the parks into one. Canyonlands get 1\/10 the visitors Arches gets, but Arches really could be considered a 4th<\/sup> district of Canyonlands.<\/p>\n

In preplanning I had wanted to visit 7 viewpoints\u2014Park Ave, Balanced Rock, North\/South Window, Double Arch, Delicate Arch, Sand Dune Arch, and Landscape Arch\u2014however after seeing the first 3, we were pretty much \u2018arched\u2019 out. The park has one road in and it\u2019s a bit like Disneyland, loads of people, hot sun, and trails guiding you in a single direction. None of which is our idea of a fun.<\/p>\n

\"Balancing<\/a>
Balancing Rock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We originally skipped Park Ave for the way out and started at Balanced Rock where we encountered our first bus of people, then we went to North\/South Window which was fun. We took the \u2018primitive\u2019 trail which is to say it went over some small rock areas with the trail outlined by rocks and cairns. By the time we had circled the Windows the people were coming in droves and we were feeling a bit claustrophobic so we skipped Double Arch and headed toward Delicate Arch. The sun was up and a 5+ mile walk to see what appeared to be identical to what we just saw didn\u2019t sound fun, so we went to the viewpoint instead.<\/p>\n

Along the way we passed Wolfe Ranch, we had high hopes it would be a lot like the homestead we saw in Texas at Guadalupe Mtns, but it was more of a cabin in the ground. What caught the kids was a bull frog we saw in the stream nearby and we spent maybe 20 minutes contemplating what the Petroglyphs nearby meant. Isabel was so interested in the glyphs she bought a small field guide book in the store. We used this guide for the rest of the trip to try and understand the people who lived here long ago.<\/p>\n

\"Look<\/a>Our next stop was the Sand Dune Arch. The rocks around what created this \u2018arch\u2019 had eroded enough to create beach sand and make you feel like you were playing at the beach. It was an intriguing to find this bundle of rocks and the wind that whipped through them created a beach like setting.<\/p>\n

It was sunny and hot and our last stop was Landscape Arch a 1+ mile hike in, with about 200 other interested people. Landscape Arch is the widest arch in the park and as recently as 1991 succumb to the perils of nature and been whittled away to a more and more delicate arch, until one day it will fall completely. Along the way we saw a few lizards and other dessert insects, but otherwise we only say loads of people.<\/p>\n

My parenting style I think is a lot like the French. Allow your children the freedom to find and explore their own boundaries and allow them the responsibility of not going past those boundaries. So, when Noah asked if he could climb on a few rocks while we waited for Isabel and Will, I said sure without thinking of asking which rocks or where\u2026\u00a0why would I. The next thing I know, some woman is a gasp, I look up to see what her commotion is to find Noah about 50\u2019, maybe 75\u2019, in the air climbing on these long rocks that are maybe 3 feet wide. I tell her, he\u2019s my child and not to worry and I\u2019ll never forget the look she gave me. She thought I was totally crazy and told me how kids shouldn\u2019t be trusted, how they are fragile, and how they could get hurt. I wonder what she would say if I told her, I believe kids shouldn\u2019t have limits put on them by others and:<\/p>\n