June 25, 2012

June 25, 2012

The confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers divides Canyonlands National Park into three distinct and separate areas. On our first visit, we explored the “Island in the Sky” section. We are excited to see what the more remote “Needles” section has to offer. Despite getting little sleep last night we are up at dawn. In this heat we have to hike early or not at all. We start from the campground trailhead. A quarter mile in we realize that this starting point is going to add three miles to the journey. Too long at this temperature. We punt, return to the RV, and drive three miles down a dirt road to the Elephant Hill trailhead.

The hike to Chesler Park is stunning. This section of the park is almost all rock. Rock that has been eroded and weathered for eons. We climb up and down and around almost every imaginable rock formation. I am glad there are lots of cairns marking the trail, otherwise we would have been lost almost immediately. We are heading to the center of the “Needles”, a cluster of vertical pointed shafts of red rock. After climbing up and over the first Needle, we arrive at Chesler Park. It surprisingly turns out to really look like a park, a green rock-free patch of sage-brush desert surrounded by tall Needles.

Once back at the RV, we drive the scenic loop, do a couple roadside hikes (including the Anasazi Roadside Ruin), and then head out of the park. We make brief stops at the impressive Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument and Wilson Arch. We end in Moab, UT. We are still hot, so after plugging in the AC, we head to the bathhouse and take the coldest shower possible. Aaaahhhh!