Photo By Elizabeth Perez.
The fifth National Park we saw on our five National Park Adventure with the Perez Family was Canyonlands National Park. This Park is located just 30 miles outside of Moab, Utah. The name of the Park says it all. It is a land of canyons. This was one of my favorite adventures on our trip. We rented Jeeps to go off-roading in this National Park. We took the Jeeps to Shafer trail. It is about 18 miles through Canyonlands. Much of the drive is around the very rim of the canyons with steep drop offs. It is a bit scary to be honest. I had Justin switch seats with me at one point so I could drive. I wanted us to go a little bit slower than he was taking us. I was literally going 10 miles an hour, and yes I was riding the brake even in first gear. Less scary when I was behind the wheel, but nevertheless it is white knuckle driving with crazy, amazing views! Here are some of the photos from that adventure.
It was a different sort of journey renting a Jeep versus traveling with the kids in our regular SUV. In our normal vehicle our kids sit far enough apart that they are not able to reach one another. This means no physical contact, thus much less arguing, bickering, and physical fighting. The day in the Jeep was another story. It was the first time in quite some time that the kids were seated right next to other in their car seats for the whole day. Let me just say there was some real life going on.
And then they were in better spirits after some rules were set, they all settled down, and they were no longer allowed to touch one another. I wasn’t able to get Charlie in this pic below as he was I was in the passenger seat and he was behind me, but he was smiling too. 
At the end of the trail as we headed back to Moab I noticed in the guide that we would be passing by cliffs that had Indian writings on the rock walls. These are officially called Petroglyph. These are made on the cliff walls by carving or engraving into the rock walls. There are a number of these ancient Indian writings on cliffs around Moab. You have to use guide/maps to find them, as they can blend into the walls pretty well. On scenic byway 279 (Potash Rd) we were driving back to Moab and looking to find these Indian writings. We were lucky that they had signage and a place to pull over and park right alongside the road to see these wall writings. It was on fairly busy road we didn’t let any of the kids get out, but all the adults got out and took photos. It was pretty cool to see these in person! Here is a website that lists all the Indian writings/rock wall art in the Moab area: http://www.discovermoab.com/rockart.htm.
