{"id":57547,"date":"2021-06-28T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T11:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/?p=57547"},"modified":"2021-06-28T07:16:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T11:16:16","slug":"one-day-at-canyonlands-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/one-day-at-canyonlands-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"One Day at Canyonlands National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We got off the river after our five day family rafting adventure<\/a> on a Wednesday. We purposely stretched out our time in Moab because we couldn’t imagine being there and not seeing the National Parks. Even if it meant only one day at Canyonlands (Island in the Sky)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve wanted to begin exploring national parks for sometime now, and Canyonlands National Park provided us with our first opportunity to really see what national parks have to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While in an ideal world, I’d love an entire month to take our time exploring the parks in Utah, we had to do our best to fit the best parts of Canyonlands into a single day. We chose to visit the Island in the Sky<\/a> portion for its proximity to Moab and the hikes and sites it offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucky for me, a good friend of mine had just returned from a trip to Utah and had visited the parks. She had been there many times before as well, so I picked her brain about the must see spots we needed to have on our list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our One Day at Canyonlands National Park<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our adventure began later than we anticipated because we wanted to enjoy as much time as we could with our nieces and nephews before they flew home. So it was 11:30 by the time we drove into the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a short line at the entry, but since Canyonlands does not close its gates when it hits a certain capacity, like Arches does, we simply waited in line in our car to enter. We efficiently spent our 30 minute wait eating lunch. I simply climbed into the back of the truck and made sandwiches for us. The timing worked out perfectly!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once inside the park, we listened to the advice of my friend and drove right to the Visitor Center. Here the girls picked up their Junior Ranger Booklets… and they about lost their minds. Especially Hailey. She took right to getting her park stamp and filling out the booklet, helping her sister along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Between the junior ranger booklets and the Gypsy tour guide app<\/a> (highly recommend!), simply driving around the park was incredibly enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first stop was at an overlook where I quickly realized the magnitude of the landscape. My knees shook as we walked onto Schafer Canyon Overlook. Holy moly y’all! The edges are straight vertical cliffs and my kids are just allowed to walk around wherever?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I barely got to soak in the view because of my hovering around the kids to ensure they didn’t get close to the ledges, especially because huge gusts of wind would randomly blow through. We decided to take a family picture and that’s when a strong gust of wind burst through, whipping Hailey’s hat (with drawstring) off her head and sending it over a steep ledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She instinctively turned to reach for is as I started screeching “LEAVE IT! IT’s JUST A HAT! I’LL BUY YOU A NEW ONE!” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was never in any danger and David looked at my like I had lost my mind. It was then that I wondered if I was really a National Park kind of gal. We snapped a family picture, headed back to the truck, and I nervously decided we’d continue on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n