Day 3 of our Utah Mighty 5 Trip took us to Canyonlands
Starting off your morning at Canyonlands National Park is a must. Canyonlands was my favorite Utah park we visited.
This day started off early to catch the Mesa Arch sunrise. We stayed at the same campground the night before that we had been at for Arches since Canyonlands was only around 27 min away from it. We left the campground at 4:15 am. This gave us drive time and hiking time to get set up in a good spot to watch the sunrise through the Mesa Arch.
Mesa Arch
The Mesa Arch trail is .60 miles roundtrip, so it is a short trek getting to the arch. This is a popular sunrise spot, so there will be a lot of people hanging out in the area. This is a must see sunrise.
After watching the sunrise, we hiked back out to the car and had some breakfast before heading to Murphy Point trail.
Murphy Point Trail
Murphy Point trail is one of my favorite hikes we did. The trail is 3.4 miles roundtrip. I would consider this an easy trail as it is mostly level. The panoramic view at the end of this trail is beautiful.
One thing to note about this trail is that the parking lot is a small rectangle dirt lot, so parking may become an issue at certain times of the day. I do not know how full it gets throughout the day as we started and ended earlier in the day.
Upheavel Dome
This is a short trail, but steep. We only went to the first overlook and it was about . 6 miles round trip. Very cool to see.
Want to take a break from hiking?
Canyonlands has many great overlooks to check out:
- Buck Canyon Overlook
- Grand View Point Overlook
- Orange Cliffs Overlook
- Green River Overlook
- Shafer Canyon Overlook
