Island in the Sky

As I had mentioned previously, the park is sectioned off  by two rivers; the Green and Colorado. Our campground was located 30 miles from Island in the Sky and 69 Miles from The Needles. We knew we were never going to go to The Maze, as it is all back country with no maintained trails or cairns. A person who chooses to venture into this section is totally on their own. The brochure states, be prepared for “self-rescue.” First of all, what is self- rescue?  If you can get out on your own, is it considered a rescue or just a successful hike?  With such contradicting verbiage, we steered clear of The Maze.

Prior to even reaching the NP sign we stopped at an overlook. The rock looked like the surface of the moon:

Island in the Sky is a mesa that rest on sandstone cliffs over a thousand feet above the surrounding terrain. The scenic drive  has many overlooks and short hikes to see different perspectives of the terrain bellow.

At this overlook, Terri noticed two Jeeps descending the steep switchbacks. They appeared to be creeping down the trail.

We did do a hike to an Arch:

 Here’s the view through the Arch;

Additional photos from another hike:

Temperatures topped out at 103 degrees. We were going to do more of the bike path in  Moab, but opted to  rest up and plan to ride early in the morning.

As a side note, ever since Terri has seen the name Island in the  Sky, she has been singing Islands in the Stream –non stop. Even bringing up you tube performances.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP7Wb5r6DKU

Let it be in your head all day!