Epic Summer Adventure: Canyonlands National Park

What an adventure this park was.

Probably my favorite of all hikes was in this park.

I want to go back and backpack it some day, instead of just a long day hike.

We did half a day (June 15) at Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands, where we viewed the sites and took short little hikes. We reserved most of our hiking for The Needles District.

This is Mesa Arch. Short hike - .5 miles round trip easy trail, 100 ft elevation change.

The other hike we did was Upheaval Dome which was a moderate trail, 0.8 mile round trip and a 100 foot elevation change.

Total Hike Island in the sky: ~ 1.3 miles, probably about 1.5.

June 17

After our adventure in Arches we drove down to the Needles District
We camped inside the park this time.

We started our hike at the Elephant Hill Trailhead. This park was the most backcountry park that we had been to. Driving out to the trail head in our rental car was slow and steady since a lot of it was on unpaved and tiny one lane roads with sharp curves and dropoffs. It wasn't too bad unless you met a car coming the opposite direction.

This is a park known for Four Wheel Drives. We saw a lot of jeeps. Elephant Hill is also the beginning of a treacherous Four-Wheel Drive Road. Before we started on the trail up we saw a suburban start to go up and I thought to myself, you are crazy you won't fit. JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE A FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE DOESN'T MEAN IT IS A SMART IDEA TO GO UP ELEPHANT HILL. Lesson learned make sure you are in a jeep. They got stuck because there suburban was too big.

Here is the description for the drive: "One of the most technical four-wheel-drive roads in Utah, Elephant Hill presents drivers with steep grades, loose rock, stair step drops, tight turns, and backing." Again may I say, "What were you thinking?"

Chesler Park Loop / Joint Trail 11 mile (oops we made a wrong turn and made it 12 miles) ~ 6 hours.

Here is the reason it is called Elephant Hill, do you see the head with the trunk. Luckily we had someone we met on the trail point it out to us. Otherwise we probably would have walked on by without noticing.

The next pictures was my favorite part of all the hikes!

This is what our friend we met on the trail named the Cairn graveyard. :)

The other hike we went on was Pothole Point ~ .6 mile ~ 30 minutes. easy short hike.

That night we went to hear a ranger talk, which was fun and educational. In the process we learned that the birds out there were quick to grab food left alone for only a minute. Too bad we didn't get a picture of Elizabeth and I running back to our campfire where we had left our dinner briefly. Luckily the birds hadn't found it yet.

Total Day Hike ~ 12.6

Total Park Hike ~ 14.1

Off to Mesa Verde on my birthday!!