UTAH – Tikal discovering Arches and Canyonlands

by | 29 Nov 2016 | On the Panamerican road, United States | 0 comments

Date de dernière mise à jour : le 30 July 2018

We left Jackson Hole under the snow (here) and we arrive in Salt Lake City, 350 km away, with 25 degrees.

And it is so good!

It is 10PM. No time to search a free bivouac… we are in a city, and it will be complicated again!

So we will stay in a campground (showers, wifi and laundry tonight).

The morning after, our home tasks done, we go to the city. Not so funky Salt Lake City… we just do some food shopping and we leave. The dry landscapes are calling us, so we come!

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The landscapes on the road quickly change from green to desert.

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We find a little spot at the end of a dirt road and near a geyser. We stay here for the night then take the road again.

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And Arches is here. More beautiful than we expected.

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The early afternoon is already here but we decide to discover the park for the first time.

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We spend the night just at the border of the park, on an overlander spot, that seems to be well known! And the day after, after a breakfast full of good advices, we enter the park again. It is clear and warm, we are pleased!

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After some visits on the paved roads, Tikal tires are calling for wild, so we decide to take a 4×4 dedicated road. This one seems to be very steep, so we go back to the main road… we will avoid finishing like a turtle on his back, stuck on the roof!

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We finally take a second one on which the pavement is replaced by the sand, then the sand by the rocks… we finally finish the road with honor! We go back to our spot in the desert for the night.

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We almost visited all Arches park… so in the morning we decide to see Canyonlands, the neighbor of Arches but completely different.

And then, it is amazing!! We stay speechless in front of Dead Horse Point’s view. It is unreal.

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We continue to Canyonlands, just behind Dead Horse Point. The views are amazing. Some roads even seem to pass thru impossible parts.

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After discovering every inch of the park (in fact, there are only two roads in the northern part that we visited…) we stop to see the sunset.

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After a night near the park, we decide to try this little road to Moab. The one which was charming us and calling for sensations. The first part is the canyon descent on a trail just wide enough for one car, with the cliff on one side, and the hole on the other…

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After been hanged to the armrest during all the descent, we discover the canyon from the bottom. And it is huge!

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On our way to Moab, the cliffs are filed with cave paintings already few hundred years old.

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We follow the Colorado river before reaching Moab.

Le Colorado

After some hesitations, we decide not to make the detour to Mesa Verde, but to go directly to Bluff and Monument Valley.

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