Wow, what a fun and beautiful day so far. We woke up early to catch the sunrise at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands. Its so hard to get out of bed while its still dark, but once we’re outside the fresh air and feeling of dawn is so energizing. Even though I felt like we got there early, we were not early enough to beat the 5 photographers that got there at 5am to get their shot. So no we didn’t have the place to ourselves but it was still super beautiful.
We didn’t realize until yesterday that there are 3 sections to Canyonlands and Island in the Sky and Needles are inaccessible to each other via the park. We would have to drive back out, through Moab, and enter the park from the South entrance. Or continue to Capital Reef back up through I-70. It kind of worked out because Edwin had wanted to go back into town to get an oil change on the RV so we decided to check out the southern part of Canyonlands and on the way into Moab, Edwin dropped off me, Isabella, Vera, and Daisy at the Moab Brands bike trails so we could ride bikes while Edwin went into town. What a great way to keep both me and Edwin happy. Edwin felt good about the RV maintenance and I had an amazing ride with the girls. We had ridden the trail a few days before, but it was getting dark so we had to cut the ride short. It was nice to return and finish the whole trail and the girls have improved so much even in the last week of actual mountain bike riding. Riding over obstacles and everything. It was really fun and it was also a very awesome proud mommy morning for me. It was a really satisfying ride and its so fun to ride behind them and watch them actually doing it.
Moab Brands is about 8 miles from Moab up a large hill with the Arches visitor center about halfway. I was happy when Edwin wasn’t answering his phone so we had time to ride down the hill instead of him picking us up at the trailhead. We knew we had to take it easy on Daisy running down hill (it was an 8% grade) so we didn’t go super fast and took 3 water breaks for her. Daisy is such a little rockstar dog and has been a great RV traveling dog as well. There is a giant sand dune right across from the Arches entrance so we stopped there and played on the hill and within 5 minutes of getting there Edwin was done and was on his way to pick us up. We couldn’t have scripted a better morning timing wise.
Giant dinosaur gumballs
We said goodbye to Moab and entered the Needles section of Canyonlands. It was such a pretty drive in. Climbing paradise. I kind of wish I realized the differences between the parts of park because I would’ve chosen to spend a full day down here and a 1/2 day up top instead of the other way around. Oh well, that’s why we are exploring it all.
In the Needles section of Canyonlands, you are down in the canyon around the needles or the eroded rock.
Oh and here’s more about Biological Soil Crust
We just did a mellow little hike around pothole point. How do potholes form you may ask? Weakly acidic rainwater collects and dissolves the rock’s material. Microbes in the water then produce a thin film that lines the rock surface that prevent the water from soaking into the sandstone. What are these potholes good for? They provide for a whole ecosystem. Even the oils from your fingers can change the chemical balance in the water and harm the algae, shrimp, and insects that live in these puddles. Some animals lay eggs in the water than can be dormant during dry periods and then come to life during the next wet period. As our climate gets warmer and drier…what will this mean for the life that depends on the potholes?
We had seen the Green River up in Island in the Sky, we can see the Colorado River down here in the Needles and we could’ve walked a 10 mile round trip to see the Green River / Colorado River confluence. We debated for awhile to do this hike tomorrow morning, but decided against and instead to drive down into Natural Bridges National Monument. We also decided that we would come back and camp down in the Needles part of the park. It had a nice campground, we liked it better than Island in the Sky, and I think it would be neat to go see the confluence.
Since we decided we weren’t going to do the hike we decided to drive south little bit and camp out in natural bridges national monument so we could be there first thing in the morning. The stars tonight were incredible. The moon is finally waning and there are more stars than you can imagine