Canyonlands - Island in the Sky (Oh and Deadhorse Point)

First of all, I REALLY wish I had left more time for this potion of our trip.  We hit this our last day in Moab, and were camping in Green River that night, so we had to leave in time to make it to our campsite in Green River. Bad mistake leave at least one full day to explore this area

 

As you can see, we only saw three points in this area.  and boy were they worth it.  the rest remained unexplored. so I can speak nothing of them, other than for the most part from what I understand most of this portion of the park is drive up to look out points, or small walks, so perfect for families with children.  I will address the three areas we made it to, before he had to rush out and make it to our campsite, a few hours away.

 

Dead Horse Point

This was a new adventure to me. I had never been to Dead Horse Point. It is so named because the Cowboys back in the day would heard all the wild horses in the area into this area, so they couldn't get out.  They would then choose the horses they wanted, take those, and then they left the rest all blocked in to die.  Seems like a waste to me, and I am not sure why they didn't let them go after they had chosen the ones they wanted.  However the history has very little to do with why you go visit. (At least not what we went and saw, maybe there is far more to this state park that what we saw But what we saw was AMAZING). Dead Horse Point is an Amazing overlook on to the Colorado River.  You are standing at the top of immense cliffs that drop into the most incredible Canyon, at the base is an Oasis that surrounds the Colorado River.  I am not sure if there are hikes, or ways to get to the bottom from this point, I didn't really have the desire to take four children down anything like that. But we enjoyed over looking down into the canyon.

 

Mesa Arch

I really debated if we should go to Mesa Arch, only because we had already seen so many arches over the last few days at Arches.  But ultimately it was a short hike so I thought what is the harm. Really you can't go wrong going to an arch because they are all so different.  This hike was super easy and my littlest liked to stop and "read" every sign on the trail.

 

 

Aztech Butte

There are two parts to this hike. The first I would recommend to anyone. It takes you right up to some ancient native American Graineries.

 

It was a relatively short hike.  there was a short spot that was fairly steep, but my kids did it with no problem. and what we found at the end was really cool.  Well worth the short jaunt.  After you return to the main trail my personal recommendation would be to return to the car and go see what else the northern part of the park has to offer,  but we decided to head on.  This was a long hike (I really have no idea how long.  But most of it was an extremely steep hike up slick rock.  I my kids did most of it with no problem. But I am amazing that none of us fell to our death. The below pictures kind of give an idea of how steep and difficult it was. (but I really don't think it gives it justice. It really was quite crazy of us to take our kids on this hike.

 

Unlike at other national parks there was no one at all on this trail.  I think had we fallen it might have been weeks before anyone found us. on the other note, at any other National Park there would have likely been enough people around to tell us we were insane and turn back, it only gets worse.   But we kept going.

 

and here we are happy as a clam up at the top.

 It had incredible views from the top.

 and there was one aztech house/room something left behind.

This is a picture of the butte from further away, I can't believe we hiked that thing!