Canyonlands National Park - The Needles

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For my second visit to Canyonlands National Park, I headed to The Needles district, about an hour and a half drive south of Moab. From the north-south Route 191, the Visitor Center is another 34 miles west. The Needles forms the southeast corner of Canyonlands and was named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that dominate the area.

After a short orientation stop at the Visitor Center, I hiked three of the shorter, less strenuous trails - Roadside Ruin, Cave Spring, and Pothole Point. Cave Spring was interesting as there were remnants of an old cowboy camp and a water spring inside a rock overhang. (Cattle ranching occurred in the park from the late 1800s to 1975, and cowboys made their camps where there was shade and a source of water.)

From the start, that was the plan - short hikes given that the heat was blazing at nearly 100 degrees. But when the park road ended there was Slickrock Foot Trail calling my name. So I hiked it. The trail was more strenuous and longer than the others (about 2.5 miles), but the views from the points along the trail were spectacular. In the distance you could see the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands and you could see why it was named Island in the Sky - the large plateaus look like islands in the sky! By the way, slickrock, a general term for any bare rock surface, dominates the landscape in Canyonlands.

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