Quick Hitter Travel Guide - Denver *TODAY*

[Steve of phpBB]

You know, great question. We have been following a couple of YouTube vloggers and they have given us great advice. I really hadn't focused much on Canyonlands and was going to spend some time tonight watching and taking notes.

We are in OK shape, but my wife has some issues related to a couple of discectomies, so I like to hike one day and then do more of a drive day the next, so... Tomorrow I'm looking for the scenic drives and overlooks. Bryce was PERFECT for that.

Open to any suggestions!

My all-time favorite is Mesa Arch. It's a heavily used overlook where you park and walk maybe a half mile, with only slight ups and downs.

But really, all of the overlooks and scenic points in Island in the Sky are great.

The Needles district of the park is cool, but if you've already seen Arches and Capitol Reef, that area wouldn't add much.

Did you happen to make it to Yovimpa or Rainbow Point in Bryce? Those are also among my favorites.

[Nonlinear FC]

You know, great question. We have been following a couple of YouTube vloggers and they have given us great advice. I really hadn't focused much on Canyonlands and was going to spend some time tonight watching and taking notes.

We are in OK shape, but my wife has some issues related to a couple of discectomies, so I like to hike one day and then do more of a drive day the next, so... Tomorrow I'm looking for the scenic drives and overlooks. Bryce was PERFECT for that.

Open to any suggestions!

My all-time favorite is Mesa Arch. It's a heavily used overlook where you park and walk maybe a half mile, with only slight ups and downs.

But really, all of the overlooks and scenic points in Island in the Sky are great.

The Needles district of the park is cool, but if you've already seen Arches and Capitol Reef, that area wouldn't add much.

Did you happen to make it to Yovimpa or Rainbow Point in Bryce? Those are also among my favorites.

Nice, thanks for that advice!

For Bryce, really for all the parks, we have downloaded the NPS app and the self-guided tour was AWESOME. Started up at the top of the Scenic Drive at Rainbow and Yovimpa and took you all the way down to Sunset/Sunrise Points. I think it was 16 turnoffs? Anyways, it's something like 9100 feet up there and it was sunny but chilly (40s). Day ended down at the Visitor Center and it was in the 70s. We are nerds and listening to the tour, in addition to the 20 minute video at the VC to start the day... we learned a lot about hoodoos and the history of the area. Very cool.

[wlu_lax6]

You know, great question. We have been following a couple of YouTube vloggers and they have given us great advice. I really hadn't focused much on Canyonlands and was going to spend some time tonight watching and taking notes.

We are in OK shape, but my wife has some issues related to a couple of discectomies, so I like to hike one day and then do more of a drive day the next, so... Tomorrow I'm looking for the scenic drives and overlooks. Bryce was PERFECT for that.

Open to any suggestions!

Island in the Sky...no if ands or butts...and if you get there at sun rise or sunset...magical

[wlu_lax6]

You know, great question. We have been following a couple of YouTube vloggers and they have given us great advice. I really hadn't focused much on Canyonlands and was going to spend some time tonight watching and taking notes.

We are in OK shape, but my wife has some issues related to a couple of discectomies, so I like to hike one day and then do more of a drive day the next, so... Tomorrow I'm looking for the scenic drives and overlooks. Bryce was PERFECT for that.

Open to any suggestions!

Island in the Sky...no if ands or butts...and if you get there at sun rise or sunset...magical

https://www.destinationdaydreamer.com/i ... nyonlands/

Also dead horse state park is up there too. We looked at dead horse because it some great mountain biking

[wlu_lax6]

You know, great question. We have been following a couple of YouTube vloggers and they have given us great advice. I really hadn't focused much on Canyonlands and was going to spend some time tonight watching and taking notes.

We are in OK shape, but my wife has some issues related to a couple of discectomies, so I like to hike one day and then do more of a drive day the next, so... Tomorrow I'm looking for the scenic drives and overlooks. Bryce was PERFECT for that.

Open to any suggestions!

Island in the Sky...no if ands or butts...and if you get there at sun rise or sunset...magical

https://www.destinationdaydreamer.com/i ... nyonlands/

Also dead horse state park is up there too. We looked at dead horse because it some great mountain biking

Whale rock, upheaval dome are easy short hikes but fun
We did a few miles of Gooseberry. That was good and hard.
https://planningaway.com/canyonlands-is ... nyonlands/

[Steve of phpBB]

And if you're up for death-defying drives down cliffs on gravel roads, you can take the Shafer Trail to the White Rim Road. Definitely need 4WD and high clearance (and skill) to drive the White Rim though.

[Nonlinear FC]

Thanks fellas! As I mentioned, we were a little tired from hiking yesterday, but we still managed to hit Upheaval Dome, Grand View Point and Aztec Butte. We kind of truncated a few, but still... Some fun hikes.

The weather... One of those days with a very high, thin layer of slate gray cover. So, not the most picturesque views, but still jaw dropping... The drop offs at some of these spots is dizzying.

I REALLLLYYYY want to do Shafer RD and White Rim, but driving our sturdy little Rav 4 and I still need to drive it back to MD fully loaded so... Wasn't going to take a chance, even on Shafer.

Finishing things up with another day in Arches tomorrow. We botched the sunrise aspect yesterday, so we're not messing around with timing tomorrow. Gonna head to Windows overlook at let things get golden.

Headed out on Friday and we're gonna do the La Sal loop, head over to Black Canyons at Gunnison River NP before spending the night in Crusted Butte. Kinda just made that up, so hope it is fun as it looks. Back "home" to Denver on Saturday.

It's been a surreal time. Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Steamboat Springs and now this trip. Almost input overload, but we are having a blast.

ETA - Found this site, which has all sorts of time/weather related layers you can play with. It has been bang on in terms of timing of sunrises and associated cloud coverage and temperatures. Not sure how I've missed this when searching these subjects in the past. It's money: https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/moab/hourly

[Nonlinear FC]

And just to let you both know you're not just wasting your time, throwing advice down into an empty well...

Hit up Arches today to "finish up" with a sunrise at the Windows (sunrise was kind of a bust, but we still enjoy being in the park that early). Did a FANTASTIC hike over on the Broken Arch loop. I did the Park Avenue up the wash trail and my wife picked me up at the top... that was a lot of fun, because while I love taking her on these hikes, she has trouble and this time I got to kind of hike-jog... This week is getting me in shape!

Anyways, then we went over to Dead Horse and... WOW was that overlook something. We had overcast weather for Canyonland, so it was awesome seeing the Colorado and the canyons in such great light.

[Steve of phpBB]

I think you've now seen more of that area in the past week than I have in the past ten years.

[Nonlinear FC]

Yeah, this feels a lot like when we did Yellowstone back in the day.

There's just so much to do right here, and that's not accounting for Capitol Reef and Bryce, which we didn't realize were in such relatively easy striking distance. Bryce was never in the plans and then I looked at the map and... yeah.

My wife is an incredible planner and booker. I'm the map guy and I never really engaged until we got here.