On Sunday, February 12, 2023, Sean and I concluded our first afternoon in Canyonlands National Park with a visit to a giant hole in the earth. In a landscape rich with dramatic topography, Upheaval Dome in the northwest portion of the Island in the Sky, is a unique mystery. Scientists are unsure how this two-mile wide, basically round hole formed.

It was after 3:30pm when we arrived in the Upheaval Dome parking area. This would be a fairly short stop both because the sun was setting and because we had a 5:30pm anniversary dinner reservation back at our hotel.

The trail from the parking area to the first overlook is short (0.3 miles) and steep.

Up at the top, we were perched on the rim of the crater.

There are two primary hypotheses about how this great big hole formed. The terrestrial hypothesis is that a thick layer of salt was left after the shallow sea that once covered the region evaporated. Sedimentary rock layers were gradually deposited over the salt layer. Over eons, these rock layers, heavier than the salt, caused the salt to bubble up into a huge dome that eroded away leaving the hole.

The salt-is-lighter-than-stone dynamic is basically what caused the tilting and eroding of sandstone into the fins and arches at nearby Arches National Park.

The extraterrestrial hypothesis is that Upheaval Dome is the crater left by a metorite slamming into the earth here on the Island in the Sky portion of the Colorado Plateau. That it doesn’t look like other large craters still left on the planet is explained by rebounding layers of rock, followed by the same erosional forces that carved the surrounding landscape. In other words, this is what a huge meteorite crater on this part of the Colorado Plateau would look like.

The National Park Service signage at the overlook coyly says, “Recent findings support the meteorite hypothesis, but questions remain.”

Either way, it certainly reminded me of Ubehebe Crater at Death Valley National Park, a steam volcano with a similar layer of tuff inside it.

Off in the distance, we could see hikers at the second overlook, so we decided to head that way.

Unfortunately, the trail was pretty icy. We met the hikers we’d seen in the distance, and they warned us that they’d slipped twice. Sean and I decided not to risk it. Plus we needed to get back to clean up before dinner.

We had already experienced mystery, drama, and huge views and we were only starting our time on the Colorado Plateau.

We got back to the Radcliffe a little after 5pm, quickly freshened and changed, and headed down to Il Posto Rosso for dinner. It’s a lovely, intimate Italian restaurant in the hotel lobby. We had the winter pre fixe menu with a pork stew and a lasagna as its centerpiece courses. Delicious and relaxing.

We went back to our room early and got ready for the next day’s adventure: Capitol Reef National Park.

I fell asleep before I could even crack open my book.