Day 9 - 7.8.17

Day 9

From the National Park Service: Canyonlands National Park preserves 337,598 acres of colorful canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches, and spires in the heart of southeast Utah's high desert. Water and gravity have been the prime architects of this land, sculpting layers of rock into the rugged landscape you see today.

Canyonlands preserves the natural beauty and human history throughout its four districts, which are divided by the Green and Colorado rivers. While the districts share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character and offers different opportunities for exploration and adventure.

We chose to explore the Island in the Sky section of the park, which is the north entrance. The Colorado River is the root cause of the developed canyons, but so is the Green River. 

Green River Overlook- the Green & Colorado Rivers meet up 25-ish miles downstream from this point.

One of the hikes that we took in this park was to Mesa Arch. The rock formation that you see through the arch is named Woman Washing Clothes.

Upon leaving Canyonlands NP, we were officially heading south. We wanted to drive through Monument Valley on this route home. Monument Valley spreads across Utah and Arizona along their border. It is on Navajo Land. The collection of sandstone buttes spread throughout this drive are just beautiful. One of our favorite scenes from FOrrest Gump has Forrest running through Monument Valley. He realizes at a particular spot on the highway here that his running days are over. We (along with numerous others) had to stop and capture some pictures and video of this infamous spot. Here is a quick video of the movie clip.

Forrest Gump Point

There was still daylight to burn so we headed towards Four Corners Monument. Dean visited this same spot some 50 years ago with his folks and it has definitely developed since that time. It is the only spot in the US that four states share the same point. Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico are accessible in this one spot.

It was now late in the day and we needed to find a place to rest for the night. We decided upon Farmington, New Mexico. The landscape on the drive there still amazed us.

Day 9 pics