10/14/02:
Camped at Newspaper Rock last night. Down in the 30's. Moved up to the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park only to find road construction going on. No big deal to me. Nothing much of interest to me down that way. The important things, namely Squaw Flats and Elephant Hill, are open. That's where most of the trailheads are.
10/15/02 Hiking Big Spring Canyon Trail (7.5 miles round trip):
Didn't want to jump in with one of the longer hikes so chose Big Spring Canyon Trail. Nice and easy for the first hour or so, just a walk along the bottom of Squaw Canyon through a juniper forest. After that you enter an amphitheater type area and climb up slick rock to the top to wonderful views of Big Spring Canyon. Then it's back down again to the bottom of that canyon and on back to the trailhead.
10/16/02 Hiking Lost Canyon Trail (8.7 miles round trip):
The Lost Canyon Trail is similar to the Big Spring Canyon Trail in that it leads through a nice canyon with sandy floor and with beige colored walls and formations rising up several hundred feet. Lost Canyon also ends with a large amphitheater that has to be scaled to get over to the next canyon.
The first 2.6 miles is the same trail as the Peek-A-Boo Trail and the last 2.7 miles are the same as the Big Spring Canyon Tail. I hadn't done Lost Canyon Trail before so this was a first for me.
10/17/02 Hiking Druid Arch Trail (11 miles round trip):
This is one of my favorite trails in one of my favorite places. The first 2 miles is across a slick rock mesa with fantastic views all around. This ends at Elephant Canyon. Hanging a left here you follow this canyon 1 mile with pretty good views the whole way. The last 2.5 miles has great views of red and white sandstone pillars and formation. The last 1/4 mile is a scramble up between large boulders... and there is Druid Arch. Lunch there and then back. My butt was dragging after 5.5 hours.
10/18/02 Hiking Chesler Park Trail (11 miles round trip):
Another of the Canyonlands great hikes. The first 2 miles are the same as the Druid Arch Trail. When reaching Elephant Canyon you go up the other side rather than turning left. This is followed by a fairly moderate climb of 1 mile to Chesler Park. This is really an overlook of a fairly large basin covered with mesquite type brush. Surrounding the basin however are continuous spires and pinnacles of red and white.
The Joint Trail continues past Chesler Park. I guess its called this because it joins a jeep trail for a while. Before that it descends into a long crack only a couple of feet wide that goes on for several hundred yards and seems to keep dropping longer. After wondering if you've made a wrong turn somewhere the trail leads you back to sunshine.
3/4 of a mile along a jeep trail and the trail loops back the Chesler Park. This is up and over a slick rock table and between the spires and pinnacles. And then on back to the Elephant Hill trailhead.
10/19/02 Hiking Peek-A-Boo Trail (10 miles round trip):
Southern Utah is my favorite part of the country. The Needles section of Canyonlands National Park is my favorite part of southern Utah. The Peek-A-Boo Trail is my favorite trail in the Needles.
I got started at 8:30am, temperatures in the 60's, bright sunshine. The first 2.6 miles is the same as Lost Canyon Trail and includes the pretty slick rock section dropping into Squaw Canyon. At the fork of the Lost Canyon Trail, I continued straight and soon came to a moderate climb up broken rock. Then I was in my favorite section of my favorite trail.
Red and white slick rock follows the rim of 3 different canyons for a total of 2 miles. Then a steep drop down to Peek-A-Boo Spring Valley and some pictographs and then back up again. Steep walls, pinnacles and other formations up close and far away. A great trail.