Our last day at a National Park this trip will be spent at Canyonlands, about 30 minutes southwest of Moab……..Jutta invariably pronounces it May-ob, but we are working on that……..and we have no idea what to expect……..some people have told us it is their absolute favourite, while others have said yeah it’s great but Grand Canyon is better…….they all agree on one thing though, and that is that it is a beautiful totally unique place. Keeping with tradition and in an effort to avoid any crowds, we are up and on the road by 6:45, arriving at the “unattended” park gate at 7:25, but there is a sign saying just stop in and pay at the visitor centre (center) down the road……….we go to the VC, doesn’t open until 8:00am……rangers getting their beauty sleep, but one does come out the front door, answers 50 rapid fire questions from everyone who is waiting, passes out some maps and says see you at 8. Good enough, we pay via a QR code on the wall outside and we are off.
First stop as always is the most popular attraction at the park…….at Canyonlands that would be Mesa Arch…….like we didn’t see enough arches yesterday!! This one though is not so much about the arch, as what you see through it………we are up quite high above the canyon floor……..in some places 2,000ft. From there we are going to scoot down to Grand View Overlook, down at the end of the road, and will do a stop and shop at the other viewpoints all the way back. The views are incredible, and looking down on the canyon floor you can see the intricate carving done by both the Colorado and Green Rivers. The Green flows into the Colorado a handful of miles from the viewpoint, but you only get glimpses of the rivers as they are just so deep into the canyon.
We can see a road down in the canyon……..called White Rim Road…….100 miles long…..4WD required, and a lot of nerve……..next time we are doing this for sure, but didn’t get it together this time out…….the views from down there looking up must be incredible.
There is a place in downtown Moab that we have passed a few times called Doughbird. It’s billed as having the best doughnuts (donuts) in Moab (May-ob)……..we plan to grab a couple of tacos down the road, and then hit them up for some sweeties to take home. Hold on a minute……..passing by, we see on their sign that they have chicken?!? Who knows, I have never had doughnuts and fried chicken before……..U-turn…….just became a one stop shop……lunch and dessert. I leave Jutta there to wait for the two chicken sandwiches we ordered and I am off to the only liquor store in town a few blocks down the road…………I pick up my scotch and go to the checkout with drivers license ID in hand, but if you are out of state, or country, you need a passport to buy a bottle…….I’m not kidding…..lucky I happen to have my passport in the truck.
Dinner tonight is spaghetti with roasted pepper meat sauce, prepared outside in the electric pan on the picnic table…….nicely done and good team work………early start tomorrow with Denver as the target.
THE ROAD HOME STARTS TOMORROW
HUGEBLOGSITE 
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