After spending the night in Moab I drove to Dead Horsepoint State Park, payed seven bucks and was awarded with a great overview on Meander Canyon. Afterwards I proceeded to Canyonlands National Park, which is only a couple of miles away. Driving up there over the plateau is very scenic by itself, but of course the main attractions are the rock formations and canyons.
There are arches not only in Arches Nat'l Park. At Canyonlands there is Mesa Arch, where I took some pictures. Grand View Point at the White Rim also had plenty of nice photo motifs. In my opinion the Grand View Point has a much more spectacular view than Grand Canyon. One hint perhaps when visiting US National Parks: you really do get the best pictures from the trails, the easier the view points, the less interesting the place for photography. The short trail at Grand View Point along the rim is quite easy and rewards you with breathtaking views and perspectives.
The three mile hike at Upheaval Dome, mostly over slick rock, was a bit more tricky -- especially with a heavy backpack and photo gear. The view isn't that spectacular perhaps, but the different types of rock there, every type in different coulour, are still very interesting. Canyonlands too is worth a second visit.
For the way back to Provo I chose a scenic detour -- through Capitol Reef National Park. Though only few of the short trails exist, I spent more time in there than planned. I still was wearing my wandering shoes and went up to Hickman Bridge, yet another arch. Most of the park experience is the scenery when driving through the Fruita area. I skipped the Scenic Drive as I was running out of time, though, and rather took some pictures at Panorama Point. Capitol Reef is probably not worth spending a whole day yet, but I'm sure that larger parts of the area will become accessible in the future.
And finally, I drove along Highway 12, which is extremely scenic, but dangerous. Not only due to the small, but luckily two-lane. street on a mountain's fin (without any guard rails), but I also ran over a rabbit and almost crashed into a herd of deer. I was approaching a narrow curve, sun blinding and I somehow knew that there was deer on the street behind the curve, even though I absolutely couldn't see it, and slowed down almost to an halt. And indeed, there was. Whew!
The rest of the trip was uneventful, I took the US 89, the UT 20 and then the I 15 back to Provo, arrived there at 11 pm and went to bed. The next days I'll spend with my colleagues there and will fly back to Germany on Wednesday afternoon.
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