A wilderness of rock

That’s how a brochure describes Canyonlands, a national park in southeastern Utah which occupies a large and gorgeous chunk of land at the heart of the Colorado Plateau. You don’t have to be a geologist to enjoy the myriad plateaus and rock formations or a botanist to marvel at the abundance — and diversity — of plant life, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt. And the colors are spectacular. Canyonlands is reachable from Route 191, via Monticello from the south or Moab from the north, the latter enjoying a relatively short boom period when uranium was discovered in the area back in the 1950s. If you camp in Canyonlands (and some do), you have to take care of your own water. I settled for a nice three-mile hike and, given the temperature of 105 when I started, was quite happy with that.