PART THREE:

Canyonlands National Park

   Island-in-the-Sky C:

Grand View Point Overlook

The Grand View Point Overlook has a helpful sign for locating and naming what you are seeing:



So what does the overview look like?  It was too big for one photo, but parts of it looked like this:  the white rim lies 1,000 feet below us here, and the river bottom lies almost a thousand feet below the white rim:





So, where is the Colorado River in this view?  A zoomed photo will show it, poorly, it is that tiny sliver of green water in the upper center-right of the next photo (the deep cut above some dark rock below and to the left and right of it):



But there is more to this fascinating terrain than the river that contributed to its formation, so the next few photos show some more detail of this Grand View Point overlook area (the canyon with the sliver of river visible in it is right here  |  (go down from the vertical line).









We have already been on a trail, but you know how it is, if a trail disappears around a bend, we are duty bound to follow it, so here we go off to the very southern end of the Island in the Sky:



As the trail followed the upper rim, Aubree insisted I take several pictures to prove to the world she was here, on the edge.  In this photo she sits on a trail marker suggesting one stay on THIS side of the marker (Abajo mountains in the distance):



In this next photo she got as close as I dared (she wanted to get closer) to this thriving little Utah juniper tree, about 2 feet tall:



Let's get back off the edge now, Utah junipers and pinyon pines were the trees that dotted this area, sparsely.  Here is a pine on the very edge, and in the background is another "island," alas one without a trail to it:



I won't leave you in suspense, as we moved southward along the trail there continually opened up more views of the vistas we have already seen from another angle:



After a considerable but delightful walk, vistas finally opened on the western side of this southern tip of the Island in the Sky, but these vistas will have to wait for the next page.

Go to Fourth Canyonlands Page: more of the Grand View Point Overlook

Go Back to First Canyonlands Page: Upheaval Dome

Go Back to Second Canyonlands Page: the Shafer Canyon and Green River Overlooks

Go to Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim (Arizona)

Go to Arches National Park, Utah

Go to Goblin Valley State Park, Utah

Go to Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

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