Road Trip Day 23 – Moab, UT to Canyonlands National Park

We awoke and excitedly got on the road headed back south towards the Needles section of Canyonlands. Canyonlands, much like Zion, does not have a road that goes all the way through it. It is broken down into roughly three sections, Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze. All are supposed to be great, but The Needles was recommended and is a lot more accessible, especially from the direction we were coming from, than the maze was. Island in the Sky is supposed to be awesome, and is in all honesty a little closer to Moab, but The Needles sounded like something we couldn’t pass up so we headed there. Just before entering the park we stopped at Newspaper Rock, a panel full of Petroglyphs.


  This was awesome to see. It was behind chain linked fence and had signs everywhere for the penalties of vandalism and graffiti. This made us both appreciate even more what we had been able to see and do down in Bluff, where we didn’t have to view the ancient art from behind barricaded fences with warnings of being prosecuted if we were dumb enough to add our own graffiti. The panel was amazing; again look at pictures.

We quickly hopped back in the car and were in Canyonlands in a matter of minutes.

After checking in at the ranger station and being assured that we would not have any problem gaining a campsite, and that we would be able to pick out any one we liked we were given some hiking recommendations and on our way to select our site. With only about 2 or 3 other cars in the entire campground we made our way through each and every campsite to check out the conditions were to our liking. We based our decision upon a rigorous checklist. Wind blockage capabilities, View, Hammock spot, flat tent area, water spigot distance from tent area, bathroom distance from tent site, and finally proximity to other neighbors.



We found one to our liking that checked off the most points from our criteria list and quickly set up camp and took a nap in the hammock with our beautiful view.

The needles gets its name from the rock formation that are very present in the area. Small spires jutting up towards the sky in concentrated areas out of large former plateau like rock formations. Check pictures. After a nice afternoon nap we went down to check out a slick rock trail loop that had been pointed out by the ranger. This was a really cool loop with 4 viewpoints for different canyons and other points overlooking different types of rock formations.





A short 2.5 mile hike, just long enough to stretch our legs and get back to prepare dinner and get a fire going before dark.





We made a great dish of macaroni and cheese with sausage and tomato, and arugula. This is quickly becoming our favorite car camping meal. It was delicious. The fire was warm. And much to our surprise the low forecasted temperature felt quite warm and manageable after all. We were both legitimately excited to be camping again and out of a hotel. And definitely excited to be out of Moab. No offense to anyone from Moab. I’m definitely up to check it out again with anyone that knows the ins. We hung out by the fire as we ate and then put it out and climbed into the tent to do some reading before nodding off.