Day 641: Exploring Canyonlands National Park, Needles District

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Ben

Shabbos dispersed camping just outside of Canyonlands National Park was pleasant. Today we drove into the park and visited the Needles District visitor center:

The park is divided into three districts by impassible canyons channeling the Colorado River (right), and the Green River (left). The Maze has no paved roads and takes hours to reach, so we decided not to try to get there. Later this week, we will drive North to Moab and visit the Island in the Sky district:

Leaving the visitor center, we drove to the Elephant Hill trailhead and hiked towards Chesler Park, where the needle formations for which the park is named can be viewed:

There was a narrow canyon to walk through:

The kids spotted ancient hand print pictographs on this rock. B is looking for more:

All along the trail we saw mature cryptobiotic soil. We were careful not to “bust the crust”:

Cactus in bloom:

At last we reached Chesler Park and could look out over the needles in the distance:

There was also a nice arch here:

We went back the way we came back through the narrow canyon:

Returning to the visitor center, the kids handed in their workbooks and received their Junior Ranger badges:

Agave in bloom:

Here we only have tenuous Verizon voice connection with our backup phone, so we decided to drive up to Moab this afternoon. On the way back to the highway, we stopped to visit Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, where Native Americans have been fashioning pictographs for over 2,000 years:

Continuing north, we stopped in Moab for groceries, diesel, water, and dumping sewer tanks. BLM lands in the Moab area for the most part do not allow dispersed camping due to the amount of use the area receives, so we continued north on highway 191 for 12 miles to a dispersed camping location on Utah state SITLA land. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 639: North to Canyonlands

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Ben

Today we stopped at the tourist information center in Blanding on the way our of town. We refilled the RV’s water tank and checked out the museum in the visitor center:

Driving north, we passed Church Rock:

We found a dispersed camping spot on BLM land a few miles from the visitor center at the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park:

Good Shabbos from near Canyonlands National Park! See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 638: Fun times in the Big City

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Ben

Today we drove into the greater Blanding metro area, also known as Blanding, and did grocery shopping and laundry, as well as filling up the truck and having an RV tire replaced. Tomorrow we will leave our dispersed camping location here and head North to Canyonlands National Park:

Day 637: Crossing the Colorado, Arches and Grottos, House on Fire

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Ben

We left Hanksville this morning and drove east and south to an overlook on the Colorado River:

We crossed the Colorado River using the bridge at Hite (as opposed to the ferry crossing at Lees Ferry), and pulled off the road a few miles to hike up to a pair of arches I had read about:

We walked across the road and saw that we it would be easiest to get down to the river through the vehicle culvert under the road, so we went back:

Walking through the culvert under the road:

Trish took off her shoes and waded across the river. The kids and I went downstream 50 feet and found a place to cross:

One of B’s flower photos:

Eventually, the trail ended and we were forced to walk in the river:

We found Ducket Arch along the river bank:

Farther upstream we reached Big Arrowhead Arch:

We stopped at this structure, called The Grottos. The kids found a few nice petrified wood chunks:

On the way back:

Continuing on, we stopped at a roadside pullout where a preserved 11th century Native American site has been restored:

We drove another mile and pulled off at the trailhead for Lower Mule Canyon, home of the Native American structure called House on Fire. The trail through the canyon was lush in spots:

The canyon wall had some interesting eroded grottos:

At last we reached the House on Fire dwelling complex. Ideal time for photography is when the sun is highest, around 1pm during daylight savings time. We arrived a few hours later, so the sun was unfortunately fully illuminating the lower half of the structure:

The House on Fire:

From this side, much of the effect is lost:

Driving on, we visited the Butler Wash overview. I walked out a half mile or so to view the townsite built into the canyon wall, much like at Mesa Verde:

Continuing on a bit father, we are overnighting in a dispersed camping location a few miles west of Blanding, Utah. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 636: Goblin Valley State Park

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Ben

It’s a cloudy day here outside of Goblin Valley State Park. We overnighted in this short little canyon:

I climbed to the top of the canyon wall, where I could see Goblin Valley to the south. It’s also the only place around here that the phone seems to work:

B has started creating flower photos:

We drove into Goblin Valley State Park. The park is known for its interesting hoodoos, which are called goblins here:

This area is composed of alternating layers of sandstone and siltstone. The toadstool shape occurs because the softer siltstone of the “stem” erodes more quickly than he harder cap of sandstone:

The siltstone is very soft:

The kids received their junior ranger badges:

Not a bad view from the parking lot:

We unhitched and drove a few miles west to the trailhead for Little Wild Horse Canyon and Bell Canyon. The canyon starts out normally enough:

Interesting textures:

At the fork in the canyon, we decided to go up Little Wild Horse Canyon first:

Eventually the canyon became water filled, so we had to climb the walls to avoid the water:

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On the way down we spotted a wriggling Horsehair Worm. In its larval stage, it gets eaten by a host animal like a cricket, then burrows out of the host’s stomach into the animal’s organ cavity and grows into a worm several inches long. When ready to emerge from the host, it emits neurotransmitters that convince the host to jump into water (and usually drown) so that the worm can emerge into the water and swim away:

Here a harder layer of sandstone emerges from the canyon wall:

We hiked back down to the fork and hiked up Bell Canyon. We pretty soon ran into deep pools:

M got into trouble here as the walls were almost too wide for him to wedge himself between the walls. He narrowly escaped getting really wet:

Heading out:

We left Goblin Valley State Park, driving north, east, and south back to Hanksville, where we used the grocery store’s WiFi:

We visited the Wolverton Mill in Hanksville. The mill is unique in that the waterwheel drives a gold ore crusher, an arrastra, and a saw for milling wood, all via a complex array of belts: