Canyonlands National Park.

Today Paul, Mary, Sandy and John drove down to The Needles section of Canyonlands National Park. We had all visited the Island In The Sky area of the park so we decided to take the long drive to the southern entrance and make a few stops to see that portion of the park; we followed the suggestions printed in our National Geographic Guide To The National Parks.

 

Our first stop was the Roadside Ruin pullout where we walked the Nature Trail and viewed an ancient granary that was used by Indians about 700 years ago. We were also happy to see this cactus with a good display of flowers.

 

We continued on to the Wooden Shoe Overlook where Wooden Shoe Arch was perched on top of this ridge.

 

It’s easy to see why this is named Wooden Shoe Arch.

 

The views in this area of the park are just as spectacular as at Island In The Sky.

 

Pothole Point was our next stop, we walked the trail across the eroded sandstone that was covered with pothole depressions; we were looking for water filled potholes and Mary spotted a couple. Although these small depressions are atop solid sandstone when they fill with rainwater they teem with life including snails, fairy shrimp and horsehair worms that lay eggs which survive the hot summer months encased in dry mud waiting for the rains.

 

A few small snails are visible in this image, near the center is a brown Fairy Shrimp.

 

From Pothole Point we had a good view of the needles.

 

We proceeded to the end of the road near the Big Spring Canyon Overlook. We spent a few minutes enjoying the eroded rock formations at the edge of the canyon.

 

Sandy found a nice spot out of the sun.

 

 

We saved the best for last, and drove back to Elephant Hill Road. We drove a couple of miles on the unpaved road to a parking area where the road became to rugged for anything less than a high clearance vehicle. We parked and climbed up a trail and enjoyed the views during our short but enjoyable hike. After our walk we returned to the car and ate lunch at a picnic table in the parking area.

 

We had to climb on this trail…

 

but we were rewarded with a great view of the La Sal Mountains.

 

We all enjoyed the day.

 

We saw a few nice blooms, this one was close enough to the trail to get an image.

 

The view out into the Canyonlands.

 

The view up at the Needles.

 

 

After our tour we drove back to Moab where we cooled off and cleaned up for dinner. We joined Paul, Mary and new friends Mike and Susan at the Blu Pig Barbeque in Moab; like we’ve said before, good friends and good food equal a great day!