If you ever visit this part of Utah, I highly recommend you visit Canyonlands National Park. We visited the “Island in the Sky” area, which is the area most accessible to Moab. We only saw one arch. But we saw a lot of amazing scenery. We had more fun in Canyonlands than I had at Arches. Canyonlands is less popular and has a lower capacity for visitors. It was less overwhelming, and every bit as interesting as Arches.

Desert Zen garden, designed by The Master Gardner

We thought we would spend less time in Canyonlands. We ended up spending almost as much time as we did in Arches.

We have extra time to relax today. We are staying two nights in a row in Moab. They aren’t both in the same hotel. When we decided to extend our stay in Moab I went on the Interhet to get a second room. I had the reservation. But I came up with an error — somebody else had taken the room while I was entering the credit card number. We’re getting pretty good at packing and unpacking. And it’s nice to have a couple of extra hours down time plus much less driving than usual.

How would you like to eat lunch here? With the amazing garden. The promise of many interesting things inside. The original, humorous, and friendly super-sized cup of coffee steaming so invitingly? We couldn’t resist eating lunch there today. We both had Ruben sandwiches. The staff were very efficient and very friendly. The food was very good. The prices were reasonable — especially considering Moab is a tourist trap town.

Here are a few more pics I can’t resist posting, all from Canyonlands.