Canyonlands National Park: The Needles

The Needles section of Canyonlands is the area of the park that is south of Colorado River. (The Island in the Sky is north of the Colorado, and east of the Green River.) From Moab, it's about 75 miles (no gas stations, sorry) to the Needles Visitor's Center. This part of the park has very little plumbing -- there is potable water at the campground, and no sewerage (toilets are vault toilets).

I had originally intended to stay at the campground and make a few daytrips, but the campground was full. So I decided instead to go off into the backcountry and camp there. As a result, I probably got to see more than would have under the original plan. (For those keeping score, this was day 75 of my trip, and I was getting tired of travel logistics and being in the desert. This did not prevent me from enjoying what I experienced here in the slightest.)

This section of the park is so named because it houses a variety of hoodoo-like formations. The most attractive portion is an area called Chesler Park. This is basically a desert "meadow" surrounded by these needle-like formations which makes for some really nice pictures.

However, Chesler Park is by no means all there is to see. On my second day in the area, I hiked down to the Druid Arch, which is probably one of the most distinctive formations I saw anywhere in my travels. It's a 4 mile round-trip from the nearest trail junction, and was well worth the effort.

The higher elevations of the Needles made for quite spectacular hiking and views, made more exciting by the fact that there was rain clearly visible to the southwest, and threatening clouds overhead much of the time.

There were several spots where the trail was narrow -- in one place, it was so narrow that my water bottles (carried in the webbed side pockets) acquired memorial scrapes.

Canyonlands marked the end of my time in the desert. From there, I began the long eastward drive home.