Canyonlands National Park

We left Arches early on the 25th and visited the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands first, named so because it is a very large mesa that appears as an island from the canyons below. It was cold and windy and spirits were low. We hiked a short distance to Upheaval Dome – either a deposit of sand that uplifted OR a meteor strike. The sign said geologists are now leaning towards meteor strike. It was a large round depression with a domed area in the middle. Apparently, this is where most park rescues occur!

We also stopped at the Green River Overlook, which was spectacular!

We continued on to the Grand View Point Trail which walked along a spit of the mesa to beautiful views. Very entertainingly, a small child was adding rocks to the cairns and a man who took this personally kept kicking the rocks over. Finally, we stopped at Mesa Arch which was small, but framed a beautiful view. Vitali was surprised to find arches outside of Arches.

We left the area and drove the 2 hours it would take to get to the Needles district and our campsite for the next four nights.

We arrived at Needles Outpost around 4pm – this campground was “inside” park boundaries but outside of the park – on privately owned property. It was 5 minutes to the gate so it worked out perfectly. I actually forgot to cancel our reservation here for last year until the day of but they very kindly refunded me the cost of the reservation on a gift certificate.

While we had a reservation the sites were still first come first served – since we were late there weren’t many sites left, just a few on the interior portion of the drives – away from the sandstone formation that the campsite backed up against. We found a pretty good site though – it had two junipers and some shrubbery that provided some privacy. I was hoping to get one of the ‘outside’ sites, towards the sandstone, but we found out the next morning that our site got sun earlier, so it was actually better! The best part though – a fantastic view of the Needles.

There was a cute little general store with (overpriced) critical items (Mexican coke, kettle chips, sugary drinks) and inexplicably a 5 mph speed limit throughout. Got it. There was also a bathhouse which we were wanting after three days of being dirtbags. Once again, out of soap!

The second day was a taper day for the final hike here – we only hiked the 3.5 mile Slickrock trail -- which was excellent – views abound. We also stopped at a small loop hike (Cave Spring) that had petroglyphs (that we couldn’t find?) and a historic cowboy camp. I asked Vitali if he would ever be a rancher and he said heck no.

The third day we actually hiked between the rock formations we’d been looking at all the while -- through the Needles on the Chesler Park Loop / The Joint Trail.

We awoke before sunrise to start the hike.

Wow!! We both agreed this is a can’t-miss hike. Spectacular views everywhere you look.

There was an approach to the plateau that these needles surround and then once you were up the loop went around a fairly flat open area – except for a short portion – The Joint Trail – that traversed a fissure between rocks – sometimes no more than 20” apart.

We got very lucky with the weather which was much improved from Arches -- and also was treated with viewing some precipitation in the distance.

The Needles district was much less busy than the Island in the Sky district and Arches, which we were thankful for, but also astounded -- the views were amazing there but here you could actually interact with the landscape. The sheer variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and patterns of the different layers of rocks was a delight. The Entrada Formation sandstone was always tall and slender, ranging from deep red to clay, while the Navajo sandstone was generally bulbous and buff. Because the physical properties of the layers are generally consistent in an area, the formations created are all of the same 'language', and we are finding this language gradually changes as the Colorado Plateau travels across Utah -- and can be used to easily identify which park you are in.

Stay tuned for the next stop, Capitol Reef!