Island in the Sky

Bill had visited Canyonlands in the past and hiked extensively in the Needles District so we decided to see something new. Island in the Sky is a mesa cut off from the rest of the geography by a forty foot wide land bridge. We managed to get the last of only twelve campsites in the park and had a gorgeous view of the slick rock desert. It was rumored that big horned sheep lived in the area and we were lucky enough to see one from our campsite in the evening. We hiked most of the short trails in the area including one that circled a mesa and let you get up to some ancient native American granaries. We also saw our third snake of the trip, a cute little bull snake. Bill just had to point it out to a bunch of Russian tourist who went crazy trying to get photos of it and asking Bill about whether it was poisonous or not.
Bill hiked the Gooseberry trail. The trail went down 1,400 feet and then along along the canyon floor and of course, back up. In the heat of day with the temps around 85, Bill drank two litres of water and said "...it was a butt kicker hike".