Day 11: Canyonlands National Park - Needles District

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After leaving Mesa Verde, we arrived in Monticello around 7pm.  We quickly learned that Monticello is a small, entirely skippable town (at least in winter). Sorry, Monticello-ians! We had dinner at small diner, but there was nothing to do in town, so we watched TV at the oh-so-fancy Rodeway Inn. Basically, there is no reason to stay in Monticello, but we just wanted to save some time. In retrospect, it might have been a better idea to stay in Cortez, but hey, what can you do. We made up for our iffy decision by eating our weight in waffles at breakfast the next morning, and then we headed north to Canyonlands National Park - the Needles District.

Some things you should know about Canyonlands: It is a massive park that is divided into 4 districts: Island in the Sky (the most popular and accessible from Moab), The Needles, The Maze, and the rivers themselves. While Island in the Sky does receive a fair amount of visitors, the overall park is considered very primitive and many areas are not accessible unless you are a bonafide yeti/river trout. The Needles is not as popular due to its distance from Moab/Monticello, but since we would be "passing" it on our way north, we wanted to check out the famous, colorful spires (needles) of Cedar Mesa Sandstone.

The drive to the park was about 1 hour, and once we got off the main highway onto 211 and got closer  and closer to the park, it became one of our favorites. Perhaps it was because it was so isolated that we felt like we had it to ourselves, or perhaps because it was the first snowfall we had seen and it was new and exciting, but we pulled over many times to take fairly identical photos of the same views from various perspectives. Another major bonus to this drive was Newspaper Rock State Rock Monument, which is a petroglyph panel that records about 2,000 years of human activity. The sandstone wall has prehistoric markings from BC time to AD 1300, and historic markings from Navajo, Ute, and European Americans. No one fully knows what the markings mean - is it "storytelling, doodles, hunting magic, clan symbols, ancient graffiti or something else" (taken from the info panel)? I love a good mystery!


We had planned our trip to The Needles in advance because we read online that the park would be mostly unstaffed, that phone GPS' are not always accurate, and that the visitor centers would be closed. Consequently, there was no one to collect an entrance fee! (We had the annual pass anyway, but good to know.) By planning, I mean that I downloaded like 6 different websites about the hikes we were going to do (with photos), and we downloaded the park maps as well. We also planned to only be in the park from around 12-5, but we had food and extra clothes in the car just in case.

My research showed that the Chesler Park Loop Trail would be the best trail that would get us up close to the needles. A common complaint by tourists who are more car-dependent is that the needles are not that visible from the road; to see them, you gotta get out and on the trails, so if you aren't able to do much hiking, The Needles might not be the best option for you. The trail is technically an 11-mile stem and loop trail, but we were only going to the "stem" portion (2.6 miles each way) that would take us to Chesler Park, a large meadow enclosed by the needles. The loop portion of the trail takes you through the park, but you need a few more hours to complete it.

We started the trail around noon, and there were 4 other cars in the lot. We only saw two other couples hiking, so perhaps the other cars were doing the entire loop trail. I was a bit nervous starting the hike, as I was afraid of being lost in the middle of nowhere. David felt pretty confident in his eagle scout skills, and once we realized the trail was clearly marked with small cairns (piles of rocks), I felt much, much better. However, if there had been fresh snowfall on the ground that might have covered the cairns, I would have aborted mission right then and there. Luckily, snowfall was light and only in a few isolated parts of the trail.

We kept a decent pace on the trail, though we stopped often to take pictures. The earlier sections were relatively flat and across open canyon, but then we started to wind up and around various ravines, grottos and giant boulders. We reached Chesler Park and ventured down into it a couple hundred feet to take a few pictures. Then, we returned to the top of the trail where there was a great little nook for us to sit, eat our bagel sandwiches and enjoy the view. Here are some photos :)










One of my favorite things about The Needles was how quiet and peaceful it was. On our descent, we took a moment to just be still and listen. There wasn't much to hear: no wind, animals, noise pollution of any kind. It was slightly eerie, but overwhelmingly powerful. 




We completed the hike around 4:30, so we were able to enjoy the views on most of our drive to Moab, where we would stay for the next 3 nights. The first thing we did when we arrived to Moab was go to a local Mexican restaurant and EAT.

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