Canyonlands National Park ~ Island in the Sky

Monday morning, after playing around for a bit and enjoying breakfast we headed into the Northern part of Canyonlands, Island in the Sky. We were super lucky to get a site at one of their 12 non-reservable sites. We were all excited to set up camp somewhere where we would stay a few nights. I was excited to spend some time cooking a good lunch!  I made morroccan turkey burgers on pita bread with a garlicy yogurt herb sauce and cucumber, tomato & feta salad. It was delicious!!!

After cleaning up lunch we headed to Mesa Arch. The short hike was a great introduction to the area. We ended up talking to another family from Folsom as we took pictures for one another!

Carl and Ryan both have this thing, where when we pull into a campsite, if there is a large hill, mountain, rock outcropping, or such nearby, they declare that they must climb it! You can see them as specks on top the rocks pictured below. So, Ella and I took quick outdoor showers and started dinner. I outdid myself again with an amazing beef, veggie and barley stew made in the dutch oven in our fire pit. It’s funny that Ryan doesn’t really like this soup at home, but as he ate several portions he said that I can make it every week camping!

 We hiked directly from our campsite out to the Green River Overview for sunset. It was spectacular. We decided to end our day of great food with a camping dessert that rivals smores, bananas stuffed with good chocolate, wrapped in foil and cooked in the coals until they are deliciously oooey-gooey. I didn’t get a picture of them, darn- guess we will have to do it again soon!

On Tuesday we hiked the Grandview Trail. It was so amazing that we all took tons of picture and the first mile took us over an hour!

 As you can see, we are thoroughly exhausting the children!!

 After our hike we had a quick lunch of leftovers and went into Moab. We hit a grocery store to pick up a few things and then took Ruby to the Moab Bark Park. It wasn’t a great park, the ground was covered in large shredded bark which stuck to her fur and our clothes.

That night we had reservations for the Canyonlands at Night Boat Tour.  It included a dutch oven dinner, which was good. The boat ride on the Colorado River was too long and slow. The kids got bored, but were respectful. Some of the stories were good, but most were religious. It was too bad that it was extremely overcast and we couldn’t enjoy the full moon or night sky. Next time we will plan a rafting adventure instead.