Meas Arch

For our third hike this morning in the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park, walked to Mesa Arch, a 1/2 mile loop trail. We had to be patient to get a full photo of the arch as this is a very popular destination. 

Wide Angele view of Mesa Arch

View of the arch from the west end of the arch.

View of the arch from the east end of the arch.

And from the east side of the arch is this fabulous view to the south.

 

Aztec Bute

For our second hike this morning in the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands, we did Aztec Butte. A short and gorgeous hike! The trail goes around these two rock domes on the way to Aztec Butte.

Aztec Butte rises 200 ft above the mesa floor.

There is a path going around the top of the butte with fabulous views!

a granary on top of the Butte

There were a couple of steep sections on the side of the butte where we had to scramble both up and on the way down.

An easier section of the trail on the butte.

We saw these wildflowers along the lower part of the trail:

  

 

Murphy's Point

Today we drove up to the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park to hike the Murphy's Point Trail, 3.5 miles round trip with about 200 ft of loss/gain. The trail goes across the mesa towards the west. We started the trail at sunrise.

We saw several bunches of purple asters in bloom.

View to the southwest along the trail as we neared the point.

View to the northwest as we neared the point.

Here we could look down and see the white rim.

View to the west from Murphy's Point.

More views from Murphy's Point

On the way back we looked at this old ranching remnant.

 

Horseshoe Canyon Canyonlands

We drove out to a remote section of Canyonlands National Park: Horseshoe Canyon. This section of the park was added to preserve the Rock Art located in Horseshoe Canyon. To see all 4 galleries, is a 7 mile round trip hike with a 780 ft descent into the canyon.

We saw several kinds of wildflowers, including these paintbrush, as we descended down to the canyon

view into the canyon

lovely rock formations along the trail

Before reaching the canyon floor, there is a gate with a sign, reminding hikers not to touch the rock art

Trail continuing down into the canyon

Trail along the floor of Horseshoe Canyon

lovely canyon walls

Some of the many animal prints we saw in the sand. We saw a couple of harmless snakes, and lots of lizards

Several areas in the canyon were green and cool in the shade, here we are approaching High Gallery

rock art in High Gallery

There was some water flowing in the canyon today

rock art in Horseshoe Gallery

an area where ancient native Americans sharpened their tools

a snake petroglyph

continuing up the canyon

Rock art in Alcove Gallery, it was sad to see that this area had been vandalized over time.

we continued to hike further up the canyon

a fossilized 3 toe dinosaur print

an area with lots of purple asters in bloom

a volunteer park ranger showed us some chirt, which was used to make arrowheads

The Great Gallery

Part of the rock art in the Great Gallery

 There are sheep petroglyphs in the lower left corner

 this pictograph is 10 ft tall













some views returning back down the canyon

 one of the many lizards we saw along the trail today

 views heading back up to the top of the canyon

 some of the wildflowers we saw in bloom along the trail today: