Needles in Canyonlands

Day 2

Needles in Canyonlands

hike

The lower east third of Canyonlands National Park is known as the Needles district because it is covered with rock pinnacles of red and white stone. It was incredible. The drive was really impressive, but then you get in the Needles and your jaw drops.

We took a 12 mile hike. It was really fun. The only other long hiking I've done has been mountains, where the first half is all uphill and the second is coming down. This was great because it had both throughout. My favorite parts were climbing on the rocks, or squeezing through the cracks. If you are ever in this area, this is such an awesome hike.

Usually they recommend you don't hike June-August because it gets so hot. We were so lucky, it was overcast and sprinkled throughout the day. It was perfect weather.

The above right photo was this cave tunnel thing where all the hikers had made tons of trail markers. The whole trail is marked with occasional piles of rocks, and these were pretty funny.

SLOT CANYON

A long narrow slit in the stone makes a cool part of the hiking trail. It was cool down there, so we chose to take a break and eat.

By the way, poor Rhett carried our backpack the whole way. He hauled all our water and food. I just held my Gatorade so I could indulge myself quite often. It's nice to travel with a husband.

RETURN TO OZ

This river bed reminded me of the scene where Dorothy and the chicken have to skip on the rocks to get to the grass, then they eat the bucket lunches off the tree. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Our hike:

Began at Elephant Hill where there is a 3 mile stretch through canyons. Then we chose to loop Chesler Park. The terrain opens up into meadows with clumps of needles randomly, then you hit slot canyon, and loop back to canyons of needles.

This is a pretty easy hike. We are both out of shape and finished it in 5.5 hours including all our breaks. Rhett had a hiking GPS and we ended up averages 2 mph. There is a ton of climbing over and on top of rock, so if you had bad knees or ankles this might be a bad choice. But it is awesome.