The weather forecast for the Moab (UT) area: sunny, 93d by noon. The plan: backtrack most of yesterday’s drive on US 191 for 40 miles to UT211, turn west, and drive to the Needles area (south east) of Canyonlands National Park (which we were sure we’d missed the last time we were here), look around for an hour, then drive home in time for lunch and to hole up for the heat of the day.
Enter the first miscalculation. As we were driving down the road, we saw a sign for an overlook of the Needles area. Cool, we thought, lets do that first—another hour won’t mess us up too much. Away we went across the mesa—for several miles,
to a y in the road. We turned left to the outlook, a total of about 25 miles.
Hmmm we say, we didn’t realize it was this far off the road. Oh well, how long does it take to look around from a viewpoint—15,20 minutes? We oohed and ahhed and wowed for about an hour as it turned out. The “viewpoint consisted of several vista views from three different directions, and required some walking, and clambering around rocks to see everything.
North we could see part of the Island In The Sky area of the Park. Those green spots on the right and the left are bends of the Colorado River. Beyond them, not visible at the foot of the mesa (which is the east boundary of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area) is the Green River. To the left is the area of the park called The Maze.
South we could barely see the line of pointed rock spires that are The Needles.
East we could see three little bumps called Six Shooter Peaks and Lavender Butte, the gray hump of the Abajo Mountains and an open area to the left of the mesa that was/still is a ranch.
Close-up of the peaks and the butte. That faint white line is the road we will be driving next.
Looking straight down about 1000’ to the canyon floor, we guestimated.
Back we drove across the mesa top and rejoined US 191 to the turnoff to Canyonlands National Park to view those places up close. When we turned on US 211 (about 12;30) and saw that we had 27 miles to access the Park, we scrapped the plan and just went with the flow.
From the cool mesa top (low 80’s, cool breeze), we gradually descended into the hot bowl (upper 90’s, no hot breeze) that is The Needles. (Good thing we brought the nice cool truck, a bottle full of water and our bag of snack mix!)
The first 12 miles were relatively cool, winding through a lush green canyon watered by Indian Creek. As we drove, we thought this place seemed familiar.
When we stopped for a look at Newspaper Rock, we finally remembered stopping here on the bike. We revisited the rock, with the earliest messages pecked into the stone about 3000 years ago, and the latest scratches dated 1956.
We didn’t linger here too long. With 27 miles to the park gate, we drove on, ,
catching a glimpse of Indian Creek, which has water all year around
As we neared the Park we saw North and South Six Shooter Peaks.
As I noted in yesterday’s blog (Seeing Red), things are usually not what they seem in this area of Utah.
The peaks are actually mesas with eroded points, and there are wide spaces between them and
Lavender Butte.
Just after these landmarks, we finally entered the Park, stopped at the Visitors Center and stamped my Passport. When we stopped a few miles later to view this window rock and discovered that was the Wooden Shoe Arch, we finally remembered biking through this part of the park a few years ago.
On we drove, enjoying the ever-changing rock formations and colors, like these white sandstone
and red sandstone ‘mushrooms’.
The paved road culminated in this area. There is a short walk down to the left where a bit of the Green River is visible. The Colorado River enters the area on the right. There is a longer path around the rocks in the middle. On the other side is a view of the united rivers as they flow on southwest.
On the way in as well as out we caught some good views of the Needles.
Also on the way out we got a better view of the ranchlands.
Just past the ranch we started our climb back up to the cool mesa top,
and rejoined US 191 headed north (and down) toward home.
By the time we reached the road to the RV park, we were hungry and decided to treat ourselves to an early supper.
Revised plan for the day: jump in the truck at 9:30 am, drive south looking at bunches of red/white weird and wonderful rock formations, drive back home, stop for lunch/supper at 3:30, go home to hole up for the heat of the afternoon and evening.
Mission accomplished!
Louise and Duane
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