Island in the Sky

Yesterday, with our third and last day in Moab, we considered our options. We hadn’t driven into Canyonlands National Park yet; we had only seen it by boat. We had two options: drive to the Needles district of the Park or Island in the Sky. We had to be in a spot with cell coverage by 1:30 pm. So Jeff could do a conference call so we chose Islands in the Sky since it was north of Arches National Park and Jeff could get a good cell signal at the Visitors Center there.


As we learned in the Visitors Center, the area that is Canyonlands National Park was formed millions of years ago when plates of the earth rose up and formed the Colorado Plateau. As the earth rose the Colorado and Green rivers formed and carved canyons out of areas that were once underwater. It’s the same Colorado River that continues to carve its way through the Grand Canyon.


The Island in the Sky section is a large mesa that rises about 5,200 feet above sea level. We looked up at some of this area when we were on the jet boat ride. The road out to Island the Sky splits at one point, and you can also drive out to Dead Horse Point which has a view of all of the canyons and the Colorado River.

We stopped at the Visitors’ Center so the kids could get their Junior Ranger booklets. We didn’t have much time since we needed to get back for Jeff’s conference call, but the kids are pros at this and can do the booklets pretty quickly. We drove out to the Mesa Arch trail and took a hike. It’s a short hike out to the canyon rim that has an arch at the end with a beautiful view.

The Mesa Arch is whiter than the arches in Arches National Park but it’s huge. There were some people who walked up on top of the arch and stood looking out in to the canyon. Considering that after the arch it’s a 500 foot straight drop below, none of us thought it was a wise move. It also made picture taking challenging, because who wants a bunch of crazy people standing on the arch in your picture?

View through the Mesa Arch

After our hike we headed back to the visitors Center and the kids turned their books in and got their Junior Ranger badges. Ruth picked out a magnet that’s a copy of a big horn sheep rock art carving.



We packed lunch in the cooler so we made sandwiches at the Arches Visitor Center parking lot. While Jeff was on his conference call, we went to watch the park orientation video which was required for the Junior Ranger badge there. It’s a discovery Channel video and tells the story of both Canyonlands and Arches. Then the kids turned their Junior Ranger booklets in and got their third Junior Ranger badge of the trip.

We did a little shopping in the park store and then met Jeff at the car. It’s a nice gift shop with copies of the Native American rock art, prints and watercolors of the park and books. We picked up stickers for our national park passports, some post cards and a few pens. Henry got a “Utah Rocks” t-shirt with icons for all of the Utah National Parks on it. He thought that was a great bargain instead of getting a t-shirt from all five parks.