FRIDAY, 7 NOVEMBER 2025

(Grand Junction, CO – Moab, UT)

One last morning in Grand Junction to wake up and look at the view across the Grand Valley. Will certainly miss that view from the window. The usual routine – coffee, breakfast, showers – complete, we packed up and loaded up the car, and drove westwards past the Colorado National Monument and Fruita, and headed back towards Utah.

We left “colorful Colorado”, arrived in Utah, passed the Book Cliffs, and drove down US-191 towards the La Sal mountains.

We took the turning for Canyonlands National  Park and drive up to the Island in the Sky mesa.

Our first hiking route was the Grand View Trail. This one mile each way trail offers…well… grand views over Monument Basin, towards the Abajo mountains to the south, the La Sals to the east, as well as across the Green River and the white rim road to the north and even to the Henry Mountains to the west.  The trail was quite busy, which is not unusual as it is one of the main trails in the Park.

After returning to the car, we drive a short way to the White Rim trail, which we have never done (as far as I can recall) ask the way to the end. So we did. And, possibly more by luck, but with a little bit of judgment, we arrived at the perfect time for the late afternoon sun to make the canyon orange, and for the shadows to make the rock patterns stand out. As an added bonus, it was also relatively quiet on the trail. Definitely a beautiful trail.

After that, we drove towards Moab, as the sun set over the mesa.

We checked in to the Best Western in the centre of town. We’ve not stayed here before (in 20 years of visiting!), but it has been refurbished and the room is lovely and spacious. It is also, fortuitously for tired legs, very close to Zax’s, where we headed for dinner. There was a queue for the main restaurant, but a booth for two was available in the bar area, so we happily took that. Not much time left after that to do anything other than rest and sleep. 

Videos from today are here:

Grand View: https://vimeo.com/1134800249

White Rim: https://vimeo.com/1134800258