couple of days visiting Island in the Sky in Canyonlands
Island in the Sky has a lot to offer to just tourists and day hikers. If you are a tourist that love to take pictures but not hike, you can drive from viewpoint to viewpoint. If you are a day hiker, there are two trails that take you from the top down to the white rim road below.
I had a one day itinerary to keep me on the top. I started at Mesa Arch (gets very congested at dawn in order to get the sun reflection on the red rocks), went to Aztec Butte to see some ruins, Whale Rock. I skipped Syncline Trail; instead I visited False Kiva.
By the time I arrive to Mesa Arch, the masses have already left. I didn’t know at the time that sunrise was the busiest time of the day at that location. You can google images of all the people with tripods pointing to the arch at sunrise.
ruins at Aztec Butte
The viewpoints have views for miles and miles …….
I then visited False Kiva and that has a magnificent view. It is not really a Kiva since it is not underground.
The hikes down to the white rim road are Murphy Point and the Gooseberry trail. Murphy point can be done as a loop (from some tracks that I found on the internet), but you always return to the place where you entered the white rim road in.
Gooseberry is another trail similar to Murphy, with views of the area at white rim road level.
a cloudy day presented these great clouds
next to Island in the Sky you can drive to Deadhorse park. It is a local park ($10), but it offers this beautiful view. I recommend doing this late in the day when the sun hits the red rocks below fully.