Day 13: Canyonlands (Island in the Sky) and Capitol Reef

It was rainy and cold in the morning. I spent the morning deliberating our Rocky Mountain National Park accommodations (we currently have a campsite and hotel reserved and I need to cancel at least one soon. The weather looks cold and rainy for our trip, so I was trying to find a cheaper indoor alternative to a hotel where I could still have access to at least a microwave, but couldn’t). By 10:30 or 11 am there was a pause in the rain and we went out to pack up the wet tent. The new tent kept us warm and dry, which was so great. As we packed it up we saw that rain had gotten underneath it, but hadn’t leaked through to the inside. We were grateful for that. I didn’t rush the morning because I thought we were just heading to our new campsite 2.5 hours away. Then, as we finally got into the car around lunchtime I realized I had an entire National Park stop planned for the day that i had overlooked! Now a bit stressed, we headed to Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky side). When we arrived at the park there was an ominous grey sky, strong cold winds, and temperatures fluctuating from the mid-30s to about 50 degrees F. Our first stop was just across from the very busy Visitor Center. It was an overlook of Shafer Canyon. As we left and headed to our next destination we noticed that the actual overlook was slightly past the Visitor Center on the left.
Every place we tried to visit in this park had overly crowded parking areas, despite the terrible weather. I can’t imagine what it would be like trying to find parking on a beautiful day.
We made our way along the very short trail to the famously photogenic Mesa Arch. It was crowded, but the views were excellent and we managed to get a few pictures.
We made a quick stop at the Green River Overlook, which was quite impressive.
From there we went to Upheaval Dome. This trail climbs to the rim of a huge crater. It was less than 1 mile to the second overlook, but before we made it there the threatening storm clouds caught up with us. We have had storms almost everyday of our trip, but this one was different because there was lightning and thunder. At the time the storm opened up we were at the top of a giant and bare rock. As we tried to don our raincoats the frigid rain whipped around and it started hailing. We tried to move down from the top of the rock but couldn’t get far because of the intensity of the wind. We leaned against the side of a rock and the lightning and thunder seemed closer. Quite a lot of hail was piling up on the ground. As the worst of the wind and hail passed, we started heading back along the trail. The lightning and thunder were frightening, but didn’t seem too close so we kept moving toward the car. The storm continued lessening in intensity and we arrived wet and cold, but safely back at the car.
Since the weather was so bad we decided to do just one more overlook, the Buck Canyon Overlook, before heading out of the park.
It continued to rain as we drove the 3 hours to Capitol Reef National Park. The rain finally subsided when we arrived at our campsite at Fruita Campground in the park. We put the tent out to dry, made dinner, then made up the tent and had a fire.
I went to the amphitheater adjacent to the campground for a talk by a park ranger on the Fremont people that had lived in this area from about 300 to 1300 CE. It was an informative and interesting talk and put many of the things we had been seeing around the Utah parks into context.
It was in the 30s when we went to bed.