Island in the sky Acropolis & city views

Wow! Canyonland... They promise canyons they deliver canyons. An amazing place to hike and take in desert beauty and try to wrap your head around size and scale of what you are looking at. Stunning Canyon landscape from horizon to horizon.

The Island in the Sky is the northern section of Canyonlands National Park. The entrance is located 30 miles southwest of Moab, making a day trip and full day of hiking and sightseeing quite convenient. Here you will find impressive, deep canyon and crater impact areas and splendid desert scenery. There is a useful Visitor Centre shortly after entering the NP as well as a rewarding scenic drive south to the Grandview Point Overlook. Here visitors are treated to world class panorama views into the distance. Buttes, canyons, the famous White Rim Road in the lower canyon make up remarkably dramatic landscape. A handful of impressive stops await visitors along the Scenic Drive. These include the Shafor Road Overlook, where you can see a most impressive trail road scaling the side of the cliffs up to Canyonlands. There is a short stop and hike to see Mesa Arch that is a nice and picuresque land formation worth seeing. Driving south along Grandview Point Overlook Road, you can turn northwest after Mesa Arch and visit the Upheaval Dome area of the NP. Great short hikes and viewpoints await visits here as well. The landscape here is geologically very impressive. It is generally considered that the area is the result of meteorite impact. However, there is reason to believe it may have been the result of a salt dome uplift as well. Either way, drastic beauty awaits for those who visit. We spent 3/4 of a day in the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands, taking in the scenic drives, viewpoints as well as the short hikes at Grandview Point Overlook, Mesa Arch and Upheaval Dome. This was a brilliant day and gave us much reason to want to return for more time in Canyonlands in the future. Note: Deadhorse Point is within range of Island in the Sky and can be combined if you want to spend a bit of time in this State Park just outside Canyonlands National Park during a long day trip from Moab.