This is a continuation of my Moab trip posts. See my Day 1 post for Fisher’s Towers and Delicate Arch sunset, and Day 2 for Arches National Park.

Day 3: Sunday, March 27 – Dead Horse Point Sunrise and Canyonlands

I decided to head to Dead Horse Point again for sunrise after the beautiful sunset the previous evening. I knew there was a huge area with a West and East Rim, and the East Rim meant watching the sun rise over the snowy La Sal mountains. It was a chilly morning and there was only one other car when I arrived. Even with a few more people arriving it was much less busy than sunset (no photo shoots this time!).

Once again, I brought my stove to make my oatmeal and coffee as I watched the sun’s progress.

The early morning light over the canyon is remarkable!

Next, I headed to nearby Canyonlands National Park, which is just a 15-minute drive away. It’s a huge park, and the easiest district to access from the Moab side is called “Island in the Sky,” so I focused my day on that area.

I had considered Mesa Arch instead of Dead Horse Point to start the day, which has a famous sunrise photographers gather for as the sunlight hits the arch in a perfect moment, but it looked like a smaller area that could be really crowded. I decided instead to make it my first destination in Canyonlands at around 8:30 am, which was perfect timing. The parking lot was not full (it was more than full the rest of the day when I drove by and some sunrise people were leaving. It is a short and easy hike down to the arch. Every single picture I took was magnificent with that early morning light.

After Mesa Arch, I decided to head to the Grand View Point. There is a Grand View Point Trail that runs along the canyon rim, so I took that for a while. It was not very crowded, and I really enjoyed the overlooks.

After this, it was around 10:30 am and the park was getting a lot busier. I decided to make my way to the visitor’s center for a water refill and bathroom break, and stopped at some quick overlooks on the way:

Buck Canyon Overlook

Candlestick Tower Overlook

The visitor’s center had some good suggest hike information and a ranger available for questions. I decided to go on the Upheaval Dome hike, which was less than two miles. On the way, I would stop at the Shafer Canyon Overlook, which is a must-see. It has great views of the 4×4 road into the canyon and 360 canyon and mountain views.

Next was Green River Overlook, which is some really alien-looking landscape with the way the river carved into the plateau.

Now it was about noon, prime park hours. I drove to the Upheaval Dome trailhead and the parking lot was full, with people doing some “make your own spot” type of parking. That is not my jam. I had seen that Whale Rock was a short one mile hike suggested by the rangers, so I headed there instead and found a spot. It turned out to be perfect! They recommend the hike for kids because the entire hike is on slick rock and there is fun, easy rock scrambling. Now, I don’t like rock scrambling so I was apprehensive. I also don’t like heights, and I don’t like scrambling on rocks where you can fall from heights. But even I could do this, so I think anyone could!

This is the view of the rock you eventually scramble up at the top of the rock. It’s really not bad scrambling. If all else fails, I support the sitting down and crawling up or down method.

You can keep going, as this family did, after the rock scramble.

360 views!

As you can see, it finally also warmed up enough for the tank top weather I had been awaiting. The park was really busy by now, I’d been at the parks busy nonstop for six hours, and I was hungry, so I drove back to Moab. As I left the park, there was a gigantic line of cars to get into the park. I finally got to see the drive in daylight, and it’s a very cool drive around the towering red rocks.

Back in Moab, I hit up food truck park again. Only a couple were open on Sunday but Moab was happening and lines were long! I had a delicious sandwich before heading back to my campsite for some relaxation and reading (The House in the Cerulean Sea is a must read by the way).

I was going to head to areas near the entrance of Arches, only 15 minutes away from Moab, so I enjoyed leisurely dinner at a Gloria’s Corner Cafe with some tasty pasta.

I headed to Courthouse Towers and walked around a bit, but it did not seem to be the best sunset spot, so I drove back to the La Sal Mountains viewpoint, which I had passed. There were only a couple of other people there, and it had a beautiful view of the park on one side and the mountains on the other. I settled in with my beer. It was quite peaceful watching the cars head out of the park.

I was watching the sunset, turned to look at the mountains, and gasped. The moon was coming up over the horizon. The photographer nearby ran to set up his tripod to capture the surprise moonrise.

The photos don’t capture how you could see the craters in the moon. It was absolutely amazing. Moonrise surprise in Moab! This just shows to go that there’s no way to plan the perfect trip moments; the unplanned moments are often the best.

After that, I headed back to camp for a much warmer night (40s instead of 30s) which definitely felt like a luxury. I needed some sleep; one more sunrise left on my last day in Moab!