A Wet and Cool Weekend in Canyonlands Needles District
Dates: October 4th & 5th, 2008
Before heading to NAXJA's 25th Anniversary event in Moab, I headed to Canyonlands Needles District where I met up with Jared, Alex, Maria and Adam for a weekend of exploring the area. After leaving the house at 5am and taking the back way through Gateway, I managed to make it to the ranger station shortly after 9am. Alex had reserved a Peekaboo campsite in Salt Creek Canyon earlier this year, however it was only good for three vehicles and we now had four. Luckily for us, the other site was not reserved, so we grabbed that one as well. While we were getting our camping permits and finding out that Horse Canyon was closed due to a large washout, we ended up getting day permits for Lavender canyon.
All morning on my way to Canyonlands, the weather was cool and the skies were cloudy. It would remain that way much of the weekend. While we were on our way to Lavender Canyon it start to rain off and on throughout the day. Lucky for us, it never rained very hard, so flash flooding was not a concern. The light rain also helped keep the dust down all weekend :)
After travelling through part of Davis Canyon we finally made it to the entrance of Lavender Canyon where we had to use the padlock code we got with our day permit from the ranger station in order to enter.
http://www.myxj.net/g2/d/126273-1/IMG_2286.JPG
Much of the trail follows the wash bottom, and did not look very well travelled. The NPS only allows 10 vehicles on this trail a day.
http://www.myxj.net/g2/d/126293-1/IMG_2296.JPG
Once we got near the end of Lavender Canyon, we stopped to check out Cleft Arch
http://www.myxj.net/g2/d/126337-1/IMG_2318.JPG
After reaching the end of the trail, we hiked a bit further and found another arch that I have not been able to find a name for. Of course, during this hike it started raining pretty good.
http://www.myxj.net/g2/d/126351-1/IMG_2325.JPG
After our short hike and some lunch, we turned around and went searching for some more arches that we missed on the way in.
Alex passing by Cleft Arch on the way back
http://www.myxj.net/g2/d/126357-1/IMG_2328.JPG
On our way down the West Fork of the canyon, somehow my roof rack managed to get caught on a dead tree branch and was ripped off my Jeep.
http://www.myxj.net/g2/d/126405-1/IMG_2352.JPG
