A Visit To Canyonland, Part II: The Needles

I got to Canyonlands around noon so first found my campsite and set up my tent. At the back of my site, I discovered two cedar trees a hammock's width apart, so also set up my hammock and spent a few hours reading and enjoying the warm air.

My accessible campsite

Soon the light was getting prettier and I wanted to see more of this amazing place up close.  So I went off on the auto tour and took a short hike to Pothole Point.  This is an area where the slickrock holds ephemeral pools that hold whole ecosystems of plants and animals.  They were all dry when I was there.  You can go on this hike with me in my next post.

This area consists of widely spaced slick rock  formations,  almost looking like huge, fantastic buildings, scattered across a relatively flat ground.

Children playing on the slickrock formation behind the Visitor Center

These rocks were at the beginning of a four-wheel drive road to the Colorado River

When I stopped at the end of the auto tour to check out the scenery and trails, I was approached by this begging raven.  I spent a lot of time with him and his friend. When I got out my snack bar, he immediately flew up to me and begged. Then when I got back to the car, he was sitting here BUT my jacket, which had been stuffed behind the front seat, was on the ground by the car.

After coming back and grabbing a quick bite to eat, I went up the part of the Squaw Canyon Trail, that climbs the huge slickrock hill between the two camping loops, to watch the sunset. There weren't enough clouds in the wes go make a good sunset, but the clouds in the east turned color.

Rock cairns mark the trail

The trail went up through this crack in the rock. 

View looking east as the sun set

Then I immediately hiked back to the evening program which was held on top of a rock formation in my camping loop.  The ranger was from this area, of Mormon stock, and told how her great grandfather was part of a group of Mormons that colonized this region.  She also gave us information on the geological and political history of the area and wished that the park could be extended to the mountains on each side of it.  She was an interesting speaker and I enjoyed the program.  I walked back to my camp under a sky full of brilliant stars.

Getting ready for the evening's program

It was a very enjoyable, albeit long day.  After I left here, I had two more days of driving of around 1300 miles to join up with some of my friends at another favorite place, Caddo Lake in East Texas. 

On the personal front, I've had my first carpal tunnel surgery and will have the second November  20.  Then I'll have my left rotator cuff surgery December 4.  So I probably will be putting out blogs only sporadically, although I'm trying to get the pictures edited and blogs up  in advance of my surgeries.

For the rest of my pictures, if you are in the mood, visit by album. 

A Visit to Canyonlands, Part I: Getting There

I suffered either a blond fart or a senior moment, which cost me a visit to one part of what turned out to be my favorite stop on the way home, Canyonlands.

Canyonlands is divided into four sections by the Green and Colorado Rivers. The two most visited sections are Island in the Sky and The Needles. I saw signs for Canyonlands on the way to my BLM campsite on Hwy 313.  I was probably less than ten miles away when I decided to follow the directions on my GPS, even though they took me in the opposite direction for more than two hours, finally taking me south and west of Moab.  So I'll have to go back to see Island in the Sky.

But the Needles turned out to be my favorite stop of the places I visited in Utah: Dinosaur NP, Arches NP and Canyonlands. The only problem I had was that I really wanted an off road vehicle to be able to visit even more of it.  I was limited to a 5 mile auto tour and some hikes.

But I accidently gave myself a lovely treat when I missed the first road to the park and ended up taking a much more indirect and interesting route through  part of the  Manti-La Sal National Forest.  As soon as I left the town of Monticello, I started a rapid climb. The road was so steep, I set my GPS to tell me the altitude. My altimeter told me I was climbing about four feet per second from an altitude of about 6000 feet to almost 9000 feet.  The trees and shrubs were turning colors in great swatches of golds and reds, within a matrix of dark green conifers. I had to stop a lot just to take the magnificent views in.

Then I came through a pass and started back down.  I stopped at an overlook and saw Canyonlands below me with awesome rock formations (small mountains) of various shapes and colors below me.  I wound back down another twisting road that gave me closer and closer views of Canyonlands.

Then I turned onto a smaller road that went  through an awesome canyon with gorgeous slick rock and magnificent trees in bright fall colors. The road was narrow with few places to pull off.  I was reduced to taking pictures through the windshield,  a very bad practice taught to me my friend, Bob.

When I got to the entrance to Canyonlands, I asked the Ranger if there were any campsites left. She told me I could have the handicapped site since I would be the last camper.

To be continued.