Canyonlands National Park
Jesse Reimink: [00:00:00] Welcome to planet geo the podcast where we talk about our amazing planet, how it works and why it matters to you. I'm recording
Chris Bolhuis: . are you laughing at?
Jesse Reimink: I'm always laughing at you, man. I don't know.
Chris Bolhuis: I know, but it hurts my heart.
Jesse Reimink: I'm laughing at, you know, how much smoother our setup has gotten since you have a, um, adopted son or whatever you're calling, whatever you call him now. Brandon
Chris Bolhuis: he's my bonus
Jesse Reimink: your technology. Uh, well literate bonus son. It's
Chris Bolhuis: I have, I have shit on my desk. I don't even know what it is. I'm serious. Like I have this thing in the corner of my desk and I don't know what it is. As soon as we're done, I'm gonna go ask him, Hey, what is this round thing? I don't know.
Jesse Reimink: Oh, it's so great. I am very happy. Thank him. When you, when you're asking him about the round thing, thank him for me. Will. Yeah.
Chris Bolhuis: No, he should thank me.
Jesse Reimink: yeah.
Chris Bolhuis: [00:01:00] He sh no, I will. He just needs to be
Chris Bolhuis: thankful to.
Jesse Reimink: thank him for me, for me, for me to Brandon. Thank you, Brandon. Okay. Chris, a couple announcements real quick. we just released arches national park. We're gonna follow it up today. This is kind of a shorter episode about can lines cuz the geology's really kind of similar, but before we do that, you can visit our. Planet geo cast.com. It's a new-ish website. You can support us there. You can also support us by leaving us a review and a rating. Both of those are really important for helping the algorithm on your podcast platform. So if you do that for us right now, we would really appreciate it. We are also gonna be at the geological Society of America meeting. Chris is coming. Chris is giving a talk on planet geo. I'm talking about some research there I'll have one of my graduate students is there as well. But, uh, look us up if you're gonna be there. If you're on the Denver area in early October, send us an email. We can hang out. That'd be fun.
Chris Bolhuis: Well, anyway, welcome to planet geo. We are your host. I am Chris Bolhuis and I'm sitting across the [00:02:00] desk from Dr. Jesse Reimink,
Jesse Reimink: That's
Chris Bolhuis: professor at Penn state university. And this week, like you just said, we're gonna be talking a little bit about Canyonlands. It's such a cool place. So Jesse, give us a little bit of rundown. what are we talking about today in this short.
Jesse Reimink: Yeah. So Canon. Kind of, I don't know, a sibling national park to arches and there's a
Chris Bolhuis: Oh, that that hurt me a little bit right there.
Jesse Reimink: why?
Chris Bolhuis: I think. Well, I don't know. Did you just downgrade it a little bit by calling it a sibling?
Jesse Reimink: Well, I don't think so. It
Chris Bolhuis: That's a little derogatory,
Jesse Reimink: it could be the big brother or the, the, big sister park.
Chris Bolhuis: There you go. That's better. I like that. I like that.
Jesse Reimink: Okay. All right. It's it's the big sister, big brother, big older sibling park to arches. It is much bigger. It's a lot less populated. I haven't been there. I went there a couple times when I was a kid, probably, but I went there most recently. Soon after I graduated college, I believe. And I mean, it's a really, really cool place. It [00:03:00] is expansive. There's so much to see and so much to do, and you could just kind of get away from everybody. It's really awesome, Chris, is that a good fair?
Chris Bolhuis: it is a huge park, especially when you compare it to arches. Um, I really like how remote certain parts of it are. You can get away from people very easily in canyon lands. , So given it a rundown, = we're gonna talk a little bit about the geology of it, but like you said, it's very similar to arches, but it looks a lot different. And I think we need to talk a little bit about that today. Canyon lands is divided into four districts. And we're gonna talk a little bit about those and just kind of a, a general rundown of Canyonlands national park. It
Jesse Reimink: where to go? What to see? So arches and Canyonlands, they're kind of, you're getting different perspective on the same geology, basically in arches. You know, there's a lot of looking up at the arches. You're on a road down low, looking up at the arches above [00:04:00] you. You're hiking up to 'em in Canyonlands. The roads are at the top. You're at the top and you're looking down onto the rocks and they're really similar sequence of rocks and erosion is a. Big prominent sort of dominating geological feature in Canyonlands because it's what creates the canyons and the canyon lands part of it. But you're looking down a lot. You're standing at high vistas. It's a really, really impressive park with a lot of sweeping vistas. I would say it's really, really beautiful.
Chris Bolhuis: It is And the other thing about it too, like I said, it's divided into four districts, which we're gonna talk a little bit about each one, but you can't get from one district to another without leaving the park. So it's not easy to get from one place to another. You're talking about. A lot of drive time. If you wanna leave island in the sky and go to the needles, or you want to go from the needles into the maze, you have it's, it's not a quick jot. It's a long drawn out process and it's very remote too.
Jesse Reimink: That's right. So chris, let's, , go through the four [00:05:00] districts. We're gonna cover them and kind of order needles. And this is gonna be carried by you, cuz I haven't been there in a long time and I haven't been there nearly as much as you have, but we're gonna go through the needles island and the sky, the maze and the rivers. And those are the four districts in Canyonlands. They were kind of briefly touch on each. So the
Chris Bolhuis: yeah. Before we do that, though, can I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you Jesse, but before we do that, let's just talk about the two places a little bit and why they're similar and a little bit about why they're different. Then we'll get into some of the districts and talk specifics about that. They involve the same basic rock formations, arches and Canyonlands. Arches is on one side of Moab, which is a, Moab is such a cool little town can lands is on the other side of it. So they're very close together. But they involved a paradox basin. Both of them, they involved the Intrada, the caramel and the Navajo sandstone. So they, the geology [00:06:00] is very similar yet. They look very different.
Jesse Reimink: And canyon lands has arches too. They're just not as numerous because the same geological processes that are forming arches in arches, national park are forming arches outside of arches national park in the same way. So there are arches there. You can see them in canyon lands. and it's the same reason. The salt exploited, the easiest paths towards the surface. They exist a lot under arches national park, not so much in Canyonlands but they're definitely there. The same processes are happening in Canyonlands as.
Chris Bolhuis: that's right. They're not as concentrated as they are in arches, but there's a reason for that. Like you said, . The salt exploits, the easiest path of the surface. And we talked about how it doms up the, these sandstones. We didn't say this before, but these salt domes, which are called diapers. These salt diapers. It's a word that is D I a P I R it's kind of like diaper, but different.
Jesse Reimink: Die
Chris Bolhuis: Um, these are structural domes, [00:07:00] just like the black Hills. If you've listened to our earlier, , episode on the black Hills, it's a structural dome. The black Hills was formed by this magma that doomed the rocks upward. Arches is formed by salt that domed the rocks upward. but it's still a structural thing going on here. just a little bit different in terms of what did the doming so cannons doesn't have as many arches because there wasn't as much salt that bulged upward beneath Canyonlands as it did in arches. It just takes the path of least resistance and that just didn't happen to be super common beneath Canyonlands. The other reason is that you have two major rivers that run right through. Canyonlands national park. You have the green river, you have the Colorado river. And then they come together at the confluence in the middle of the park. And so the geology is a little bit different from that too. The rivers kind of dominate the landscape and what's going on and [00:08:00] you don't have that in arches. So those are the two main differences in terms of why they look so d.
Jesse Reimink: And those rivers. That's the reason that erosion dominates the landscape in canyon lands. I mean, erosion makes arches too, but when you're at Canyonlands, when you're standing or driving on top, you're looking down, you're looking down into canyons. I have this distinct memory. We were there. We were out camping on, uh, it's best described as like a peninsula that goes out onto a cliff, right? Like you've got this cliff that's, you're kind of surrounded by this really steep cliff on all sides. I remember at. This crazy phenomenon that happens a lot in Canyonlands as. Weather cools. You start to get these winds that sweep up the canyons. And when they're sweeping up the canyons, they'll hit those cliff walls and they'll the wind will blast straight up. So we're at this kind of plateau we're out of this really flat campground. It's very flat. There's very few trees. There's [00:09:00] like one other tent on the other side of this campground, there's maybe like, you know, 20 camp sites. We could see them all. There's one tent, several hundred yards. Then we've got ours and we're 10 to 20 meters away from this cliff. So we walk over to the cliff and we hear this whooshing sound and it's completely still at the top. We're like, wow, what is that whooshing sound go to the cliff. And there is wind blasting up this cliff and it's blasting vertically straight up. And so this little campground area is completely quiet and still, and you can't hear anything, but on the cliff, this wind is blasting up. It was so much that you could. Fairly big sticks, like sticks that a dog would love to play fetch with. Chuck got out there and the wind would just blast it straight up in the air. UE did this with rocks, like flat rocks. You toss it out into this wind. That's flowing up into this canyon, but I, I say all this because you're looking down into this huge cavernous canyon that's sort of miles across. And it's all because of the river system there, because erosion is such a dominant feature of the landscape because those big rivers flow through that is an [00:10:00] avenue for sediment to get. Quickly, which makes erosion happen a bit faster in canyon lands?
Chris Bolhuis: I'm curious. Do you know why the wind it happened when it happened? Do you know why
Jesse Reimink: Um, I don't
Jesse Reimink: know why It happened. It was in the evening. Yeah. We were kind of making our fire and, um, I don't remember why it happened. Yeah.
Chris Bolhuis: Very cool. That must have been in, uh, the island in the sky district
Jesse Reimink: it was. That's right. That's right. The second one will kind of cover here. So Chris, is it time to
Chris Bolhuis: Yeah,
Jesse Reimink: districts?
Chris Bolhuis: I think so. Let's do it.
Jesse Reimink: So we're gonna go through four districts, the needles island and the sky, the maze and the rivers. And we're gonna go through them in that order. So we're gonna start out with needles, which is in the Southeast part of Canyonlands national park, and there's a lot to do here
Chris Bolhuis: There is. It's a huge part of the park. Um, tons to do . Lots of great hiking. , so. My favorite hike in the needles district is a hike called DRD. Arch Dred is D R U I D about a 15 mile out and back hike. I love [00:11:00] it. The arch is spectacular in and of itself. It's the destination. We went there. We ate lunch, took our time, let the kids kind of climb around there while Jenny and I just laid back and relaxed. It was amazing. I'll tell you, this is I'll never forget this
Jesse Reimink: I have a quick question. I wanna interrupt here quickly. Were there any teenagers that were, you know, competing with you on the trail that you had to kick their ass in a hiking competition on the trail or not?
Chris Bolhuis: no.
Jesse Reimink: Okay.
Chris Bolhuis: no. Like I said, I've never taken any students here before, so it was just with my, my own family and, and they don't, they don't have that. Like, they don't have to compete with me. , they kicked my ass anyway. So look, I'll never forget this. We are. Just sitting there. Drew would, arch is maybe a hundred, 150 yards in the background, in the distance and a guy. You don't see many people. I mean, it's a, it's a long hike. Uh, it's hot, at least when I was there. So not a lot of people. And this guy comes walking up with hiking poles and so on. And he [00:12:00] walks maybe 15 feet from us, takes his hiking poles, kind of bangs them on the ground. And the ground was kind of hollow because there was this jointing in the sandstone there that made it sound very hollow. And, uh, it was just an interesting kind of sound. And he looks at the arch. He's like, are you kidding me? I hiked all this way to see. And he turned around and left. I was absolutely blown away. It was a good opportunity to have a conversation with my kids. Like I could not believe it. I'm sitting there in awe and somebody else comes up and has a completely opposite reaction. I don't know. It was very interesting
Jesse Reimink: Yeah, that that is a bit disappointing. Well, you know, if you're gonna be cranky about beautiful arches, then you just there's no fixing you. You're just gonna be cranky.
Chris Bolhuis: I, I guess anyway, just a little bit about the hike out there too, you have some scrambling to do up some of the sandstone, cliff faces and so on, there [00:13:00] are small ladders built into the rock. So you walk through also this one kind of slot canyon. It's very cool. It's very, it's a very diverse hike. I love it. It's my favorite in the needles district.
Jesse Reimink: So that brings us into the next district, which is the island in the sky. And this is the one where I just described this, you know, wind gushing up the canyon walls. This is where we spent most of the time. We were only there for about a day, but, um, this is closest to Moab. Closest to arches, and this is. the part of the park where you're gonna get all these amazing views. Like this is the one that's probably plastered on the front page of the Canyonlands national park website, because you get stunning vistas that you're looking out across these beautiful canyons. I mean, it's not grand canyon level deep, but it's very wide and it's very, very pretty. and so these are a great secrets. You could kind of wind your way down. Some of these smaller canyons as well. You can do kind of. Hour hikes are even shorter than that down. See some rocks come back up. So there's a lot to do here [00:14:00] and lots of little trails in the island of the sky district, but what are some good ones, Chris?
Chris Bolhuis: Well, like you said, it's very diverse in terms of hikes out to arches and actually out to domes. Uh, there is a dome there that's called upheaval dome, which is kind of debated. Have you looked into that at all? Upheaval dome? I would figure this is like right up your alley.
Jesse Reimink: I haven't. No, I haven't.
Chris Bolhuis: Okay, well, you should, um, upheaval dome is it's kind of, the literature is pretty debated about it, but I think most consensus settles on the fact that this is a media impact, , which created this kind of upheaval dome. So when the impact happens, you know, it. Blast the hole in the rock at the surface, but then it melts that kind of stuff. And it comes back together in this kind of upheaval dome in the center of it. So that's a, very, very like prominent feature that you can get to in the Island in the sky. there's just a ton to do. And there are short hikes, there are long hikes there's stuff in between. This one [00:15:00] really has something for everyone. And like you said, too great vistas, because this is basically a Mesa that's been dissected by the rivers. You're standing down this relatively flat Mesa. The rivers are about a thousand feet below you. It is like a little mini grand canyon. That's right. It is it's spectacular.
Jesse Reimink: It's so cool. I mean, it's just stunning views and it's, it's very easily accessible. Even if you don't want to go on a 15 mile hike, you can drive, you can pull off, you can do the little boardwalk. There's probably not even boardwalks at most of 'em, but you can see the views from your car. It's really, really stunning place. Yeah, absolutely.
Chris Bolhuis: arch is a really popular one
Jesse Reimink: Sure.
Chris Bolhuis: a great hike. So mesa arch.
Jesse Reimink: So the third district, the maze, I don't think I've ever been to the maze. Chris. There's probably a reason for that because we were short on time and we were driving a little tiny Ford tourists. I believe that was
Chris Bolhuis: there you go. It won't make it. [00:16:00] The, uh, the maze is very remote. You really do need a four by four to get anywhere. You need it to access the trailheads. If you don't have a four by four, then you can plan on a hike to get to the Trailhead to start your hike. So when you're in the maze and you see somebody else, they're probably doing exactly what you are, which is back country, hiking. people don't day hike in the maze, it's just too hard to get to. Isn't that awesome that we have that, you know, that we have these places where you can just. Do adventurous things and not see anybody now in the maze, you really have to plan because water's pretty scarce, obviously. so if you're gonna backpack and do that kind of thing, this overnight extended stay, there's a different dimension to doing it in a place like this
Jesse Reimink: Yeah. And I, you know, this is the great beauty of many of the national parks is that you have.[00:17:00] Great diversity in what you can do. You can do the driving tour and the day hikes and even the short little walks, or you can do the fairly intense back country stuff and get away from people and spend a lot of time planning for it. So I've never been out to the maze. Sounds like it's gotta go on the to-do list though, because it's just such a beautiful place and it'd be great to. Spend some time out there, actually in the back country, which then brings us to the last one, which is aptly named the rivers. And you could probably guess why it's called the rivers part of the park, but Chris, why is it called the rivers?
Chris Bolhuis: Uh, well, you have these two massive rivers. You have the green river and the Colorado river. Those are the two rivers and then there's the confluence these rivers merge in the park.
Jesse Reimink: That confluence overlook that place, where the rivers come together and the confluence, you have definitely seen that on Instagram or in textbooks. I mean, this is an extremely photogenic place and it's stunningly beautiful. = In my [00:18:00] opinion, most physical geology textbooks, like most introduction to geology textbooks have a photo of this, either on the front cover or somewhere in the introduction, cuz it's a really stunning view of, of geology.
Chris Bolhuis: yeah. It'll either be this, the confluence of these two rivers or it'll be grand charismatic spring in Yellowstone national park adds a front cover of any physical geology book. It's a, it's a requirement. Have to have those, upstream from the confluence. So before they merge the water's calm, uh, not a lot of rapids at all. Just kind of maybe ripples and so on. Like this downstream from the confluence, you have world class whitewater, so it dramatically upstream versus downstream from one of these two rivers merge.
Jesse Reimink: Yeah. And those two rivers, they have very. Well, they have very different histories, upstream, different lengths, different drainage, basins, different rocks eroding into them. So they're different colors. Typically, most often they're different colors. And so when they merge, you can [00:19:00] kind of see that these two colors sort of remain separate for a long time. And then they eventually mix together the colors, as well. They're usually brown, various shades of brown , but you know, uh, it depends what time of year you go there, but the colors are usually some brownish type stuff.
Chris Bolhuis: Different turbidity leads to different densities, which means they don't mix well, when they come together, it takes a while for them to kind of together.
Jesse Reimink: exactly. Exactly.
Jesse Reimink: So that's
Jesse Reimink: the, the confluence region.
Chris Bolhuis: The other thing that I wanna just say about this is that it's unexpected.
Chris Bolhuis: This is a very arid region and you don't expect this kind of lush green foliage, but that's exactly what you get down along the rivers. It's just this very unexpected Oasis. I had the same experience, , at the bottom of the grand canyon. I went to this place called ribbon falls. And here you are at the bottom of the grand canyon, super hot, very dry, all this kind of stuff. And then [00:20:00] you have green everywhere you look. It was very exotic and very unexpected in the, you get the same thing in the rivers district in Canyonlands national park. It's amazing.
Jesse Reimink: And so that's kind of a nice summary, short summary of canyon. Ann's national park, the four districts there, and I think it's important to. Reiterate that the geology is broadly the same between arches and Canyonlands. The rock types are broadly the same. You're very close by, but you have this extremely different experience in the park because of the two rivers that are there. And because of really where the road is in relation to the geology, you're up high looking down, or you're down below looking up at the cliffs in front of you. And it actually provides a very different sort of feel to the place. I think it. No better or worse, just very different. So it actually be, even though they're the same rock, it's a totally different experience between the two parks. So you gotta kind of do both if you're there.
Chris Bolhuis: That's right. I think now arches has [00:21:00] a timed entry system. Is do you, is that correct? I I I, don't know. I, I, they either have it or they were talking about it. I don't know, but there's no such talk right now about canning lens having this because it is much less traveled. It's it's harder to get to it's more remote. And so people just don't go there as. People go to arches instead.
Jesse Reimink: Yeah. I mean, it's a great place to go. You gotta go. I actually have some friends who are just in arches, I think. And I'll ask them about the timed entry. We can, you know, provide an update about that, but. Chris. I, you know, that's about it. I think we're gonna cover today. You can follow us on social media. We are at planet geo cast, that's Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and give us, like we said before, a review and a rating, both of those do them both very important for the algorithm and we really appreciate it. And share planet geo with anybody you think would appreci.
Chris Bolhuis: That's right. We really like that. It helps us out a lot when you share this and just helps our growth. It's just, uh, it's a good thing, [00:22:00]
Jesse Reimink: Yeah,
Jesse Reimink: exactly. All right. Take care.
Chris Bolhuis: Cheers.
