Canyonlands Natl Pk Needles Dist. Backpack April 25-30, 2013
OK, first I'd like to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the helpful service of the great NPS rangers and folks who have been of great assistance to me on this trip throughout Utah desert National Parks. Canyonlands National Park folks as much as anyone. Out of respect to them and the landscape, I will keep place names vague on this trip report. I am practically euphoric about the routes I chose (and found) as much of it was off trail, crossing high routes and walking rims, negotiating entries and exits. Some of which I got some gracious routefinding assistance in the form of TOPO program maps, and verbally from others. Some of which I just wanted to find myself and hoped it would "go". I will add that I am quite scraped up and bloody having taken great pains to avoid the cryptobiotic crust, often working through awful spiny brush just to stay on sand in tight little washes. At times I had to backtrack, frustratingly, to work another route around a "field of black crust". But it is so worth it and I am smiling for all of it. Whenever visiting an ancestral puebloan site I take my time to find a way to stay on bedrock and never walk through one ruin to access others. This is what it was like:
Thurs April 25:
I began the trip at the Cave Spring trailhead of Salt Creek, took the jeep trail toward Peekaboo. I loaded up with a night's water and entered a dry side canyon to the east, to camp and explore for the night.
Fri April 26:
Rather than walk back downcanyon to Salt Creek through a laborsome sandy wash, I worked toward the canyon rim, climbing a concerning 10 foot stem chimney, and pulling my pack up through with cord to access the level white sandstone layer. I worked my way around the layer until I could exit back into Salt Creek Canyon. This was scary as I could only find one exit and it entailed about 15 feet of steep face traverse, feeling like class 5 with 45 pounds on my back. I should have pulled out the p-cord and lowered the pack the 25 feet off the ledge. 25 feet would have been a bad fall! But it went and soon I was working my way upstream in Salt Creek.
I guess I didn't have enough excitement yet because now I chose to leave the trail again and take a side canyon to the west, this time. The map showed it had a exit route over and down into the canyon system I planned to spend my next few days. It started great. Of course they always do when they are in the flat wash portion! Exiting, I took another class 4 face followed by steep friction chutes to the divide. Argh, I could see my canyon, and water, right down below. But couldn't trust any of the seemingly very steep exits on slickrock. Darn, forced to backtrack the entire spur canyon I just ascended. Downclimb I went, beating the brushy headwater wash again, and kissed the Salt Creek Trail when I returned to it! The rest was easy, as I took the big flat wash of a canyon west of Salt Creek to water and a camp for the next 3 nights. I had been here before.
Sat April 27:
Goal for today: hike this canyon to its' head and find a high route back into Upper Salt Creek with a daypack. This went flawlessly and was a whole lot of fun! Once again, there was a steep chimney/crack to descend/ascend, fun with a light pack. With a rope to lower an overnight pack, it is certainly doable. I will return….someday. Evidently, bears and cougars can climb it because I found tracks on both sides of the crossing in the trailless washes. Here, I learned a lesson that if the animals are heading in the direction you want, then it is a good sign a that human will be able do it, too. I am serious, later I had a decision to make on which fork, to which gap, to take and the animal tracks led me to the route that "went". More on that tomorrow.
Sun April 28:
Goal for today: finally find a crossing over to the west side of the Needles and the Colorado River for a future trip. I tried this last year, and made it to a mesa divide, but decided I would not ever try it with a multiday pack.
Yay! This route I found today definitely goes and I will be back someday, with 4 or 5 days of pack, to circumnavigate the heart of the Needles. It entailed 500 vertical of classic loose North Cascadesish gully choss to a secret "cleft" but went fine through to the head of a wash draining toward the Colorado. I absolutely loved it!
Mon April 29th:
OK, time to move camp. I need to relax on a trail so I returned to Salt Creek, then took the famed and spectacular Peekaboo Trail, and finished up Lost Canyon Trail a mile to my designated camp, LC2.
In the afternoon and evening I worked up to rims for evening colors and views.
Tues April 30th:
Time to leave, but rather than do the trails out I took one more rim route, worked the white and red benches a few miles, exited a mini canyon, and walked a wide wash back to my car. I need a rest, but I am giddy with how this trip went and wish I had the strength to work another Canyonlands Needles Trip in before it is time to head home.
This place brings me such intense joy! Care for it, stay off the cryptobiotic crust, respect the ancestral puebloan sites, but appreciate it!!!! As John Muir said, "go...and get their good tidings! Hopefully, I have achieved a balance of satisfying the concerns of others, who I greatly respect, that have a real concern for information getting out to careless or deliberately destructive people. At the same time, may this give a taste of what this National Treasure is all about and how everyone should be inspired to go enjoy it, love it, appreciate it, at whatever level is comfortable. I would like to hear back from anyone, on any side of the issue, if you have a concern with what I am/am not sharing. We are all so lucky to have had some wise folks before us set aside such precious and spacious landscapes for every American to enjoy into perpetuity!
