You may follow along in our journey by visiting Julie's Journal page. It will include photographs, suggestions, mishap adventures and our experiences on the road and back-country trails.

If you would like to know more about the history of our adventure click here for the history page. How we planned, saved money, chose our equipment and prepared for ten months on the road.

These are some other web sites we found useful and/or have recpical links with.

Canyonlands and Arches National Park, Utah

April 10, 1999 to April 18, 1999

written by Julie Hackler & David Fink

I think Atlantic City, NJ should revoke its claim as "America's Playground" and pass it over to the state of Utah. According to a Ranger of Canyonlands, "3/4 of the land in Utah is owned by the Bureau of Land Management." That means it's all public land to play, play and play. In the town of Moab between the two parks we saw hundreds of mountain bikers, off road vehicles such as 4-wheelers, dirt bikes and Jeeps. Along with playing in the dirt you can play in the water. The Colorado River and Green River run through Canyonlands and the surrounding area. You can kayak, canoe, raft and if you have a day or two you can reach some of the most challenging white water. Dave and I immediately fell in love with Utah. The thought of all this land for recreation made us want to run right out and buy a 4-wheeler and mountain bikes. But alas we're not the wealthy type that can do that sort of thing on a whim! We stayed in the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands. Camping was free at Willow Flat, and we sure needed it after our setback in Colorado. We decided to stay there so we could travel back and forth to Arches. It was about a 30-minute ride to and from the entrances to each park. But in choosing to stay at Island in the Sky we eliminated getting to the other two sections of Canyonlands. The Green and the Colorado Rivers divide the park so the Needles, Island in the Sky and the Maze sections are not connected by a road within the park. We would have had to drive about 50 miles or so around the park to get to the Needles section. And the Maze section is only accessible by 4x4 roads. So we opted for the easy access back and forth to Arches.

In Canyonlands we hiked the Spring Neck Trail. A nice easy one after all that time off in Colorado. A 5-mile loop brought you around the "neck" and into the canyon. I tell you what - the Grand Canyon has a run for its money. Canyonlands was every bit as beautiful and five times less crowed. Dave and I couldn't help but compare the two and we liked Canyonlands better. I'm not sure if the Canyon came close to the size of the Grand Canyon, but my eyes sure couldn't tell the difference. We hiked a few other trails such as the Upheaval Dome Loop Trail. We even got to catch the sunset at the overlook when we were done.

Arches was even more spectacular. On our first visit we decided to hike the Devil's Garden Loop. It brought you to about 11 arches in an 8 mile loop. It was really neat. Each arch had its own special characteristic. The one I like best was the Navjo Arch. You could see the whole park through it. It was like a big window into the center of all its beauty. On our second day there we did all the smaller hikes to the other Arches. We even got to see the famous Delicate Arch. The LaSal Mountains are a fantastic backdrop to the park, we both really enjoyed ourselves.

Well we saw everyone else going on the 4x4 roads so of course we couldn't be left out. We decided to take the Shafer Trail which brought you to the bottom of the canyon and met up with the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands. All I can say is that our limits were pushed and we survived. We wanted to make it all the way down to the Colorado River, which was a 21 mile one way journey. But our efforts were cut short when on the last 4 miles we stumbled across a huge rock cliff (at least it seemed like a cliff) which our truck could not get over safely. Luckily Dave had the wits to not try it and we had to find a way out of this vertical position we seemed to be stuck in without going over the small cliff. Needless to say we backed up carefully and struggled a bit to get to safer ground. As soon as the ordeal was over I cried and Dave laughed hysterically. You can read more on our 4x4 adventures in Titus Canyon in Death Valley and White Rim Trail in Canyonlands, Utahthat Dave wrote atricles about. As for me I've had about all I can take for now.

In the town of Moab we decided to take Route 128 NE and travel along the Colorado River a bit. The scenery was beautiful and again there were several mountain bikers and a few people heading for the river. We drove route 128 to the Fisher Towers and then back to Moab. A great ride for the day and plenty of scenic places to stop and have a picnic, like we did.

We didn't get to white water raft like I'd been hoping to do for sometime. They mainly only offered float trips for the day, if you want to reach white water you'd have to do it in 2 or 3 days. Which sounded fun but just cost too much. But when we come back next time we will be fully equipped with two mountain bikes a 4-wheeler for me and a dirt bike for Dave.