Our second day at Canyonlands began at the Grandview Overlook. The size and diversity of Canyonlands is laid out before you. The idea of a canyon within a canyon is even clearer from this overview.
From this second viewpoint, you can see the Colorado River in the far background.
After the overlook, we began our hike to Grandview Point. The steps built into the rock hint at the elevation changes we will be making. The total elevation change is only 160 feet, but it comes in short quick sections.
On the trail to the point, you can see even further into the distance in the canyon. This is in part a prelude to the Grand Canyon as we will be tracing the path of the Colorado River over the next few days as we head to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
In some ways the vistas are similar to the Grand Canyon. They are also different because both the Colorado River and the Green River flow through this area.
Our next stop was White Rim. As you look out over the canyon, you can see the La Sal Mountains that dominated the horizon at Arches National Park.
Here are two different views of the Green River carving through the canyon. near the Buck Canyon overlook. In some parts, there are straight edges and hoodoos.
In other parts, the canyon walls are very layered. Both views are incredible in their own way.
A third view from Buck Canyon shows mesas from near by all the way to the horizon.
After we left Buck Canyon, the storm clouds began to gather. We drove to our next hike and decided the weather and the time of day said it was about time to go home.
A quick jaunt part way down the trail proved that was a wise decision, If you looked to the south, it was a beautiful day. The prairie reaches out to a gorgeous blue sky.
A view to the north tells a very different story. The very same prairie shows a foreboding thunderstorm approaching. There were only a few drops of rain on the quick return to the safety of the Highlander
We then began our drive to Bicknell Utah. We had a few surprises along the way. The first surprise was an 80 mph speed limit on Utah Interstate highways. The second surprise was strong winds that buffeted the car and made driving more challenging. The third surprise was a different afternoon storm. We left the Colorado rainclouds behind, but ran into another kind of storm, a sand storm.
Over about 15 minutes, the winds began getting even stronger and the sky took on a brown hue. For a short time, we were within the cloud of sand. Then it was over as soon as it started.
We saw lots of wonderful scenery during our drive. Utah has much stark landscape as represented by this one photo.