Canyonlands has 2 distinct areas located 3 hours drive from one another, so we focused our visit on the Island in the Sky section. Again, anxiety about parking drove an early wakeup to see the mesa arch… and again, my neuroses proved unwarranted… plenty of spots. The Mesa arch is awesome primarily due to the view of the canyons through the arch. The Mesa arch is accessible by a short walk from the parking lot so we had to aggressively move into position to prevent the hoards or tourists from clogging the archway and preventing pictures. Our next stop was the White Rim Trail. A lesser know trail that the internet told me about. This trail was amazing and possible the highlight of Moab. The sparsely populated trail wound along the cliff with views off the plateau from multiple angles culminating at an astounding panorama of the white rim canyon and the other canyons below. We also scored the only RV parking spot with a private picnic area. Bryce ran around playing in the sand and rock while I broke out the grill. This relaxing lunch with sensational views was a definite highlight. We then couldn’t get a parking spot at whale rock or upheaval dome and decided to move on.
