I woke up at ~5:40am, and told Nick we should go someplace to catch the sunrise. We were thinking of reserving a campsite at Arches Park, but there was already a line of people waiting at 6am for the office to open at 7:30, and instead I drove to the south Canyonlands entrance, while Nick got another 90+ minutes of sleep.
I took some pictures of the sun rising over the mountains.
Was glad I filled up on gas in Moab before I left, cause it's 78 miles to the park entrance from Moab. About 25 miles from the park, things started looking cool.
It was ~7:30am, and no one was on the roads, so I could stop and take pics at will.
Check out the cows, and moon
Cool pic with the sprinklers on and plenty of green grass, with red, pointy fingered rocks in the background.
We got to the visitors center just before it opened at 8:00. We filled all the water bottles at the drinking fountain (only water source within 40+ mile radius). I got some hiking advice, and we decided on an 11 mile hike among the Needles.
As I drove to the Elephant trailhead, we saw our first "red columns with white hats".
We started the hike ~9:15, and I carried the backpack with the 3 water bottles. The trail rose among the rounded rocks.
Instead of chipmunks all over the trail, like in CO, lizards scampered on the rocks. The first time I took a step off trail, and saw 2 tiny lizards fly across the ground, it felt like I was in Jurassic Park, with tiny Compy dinosaurs running around.
It felt like we were walking on a white rock bed, but then we saw our first valley of the day.
Nick is actually a small black dot in the middle of this picture.
He's a little more noticeable in this pic. Lots of rounded rocks.
These mushroom rounded rocks reminded us of Super Mario landscapes.
What's this one look like? A pie? A flying saucer? A toad stool? I wanted to get on top for a picture, but I couldn't even reach the underside of the mushroom rock.
This rock I climbed had a white bottom and red top.
Nick joined me on the rock.
The first flower of the hike.
A couple looks into the eroded area below the white rock layer.
We hiked down into one of the valleys. The terrain seemed like we were at Disneyland, waiting in line for a rollercoaster that had fake cool looking rock, but this was the real thing.
And back up, and over to another eroded valley.
Nick climbed up a rock, next to some wizard hat shaped rocks.
Check out this long tailed lizard.
You can really see the white and red alternating layers in the rock.
I call these tall rocks, "The Chessmen". They're looking out over the mushroom rocks.
A couple more climbs with terrific views of the mushrooms and needles.
Next we entered an open grassy field, with more red/white needles ahead. Just past 3 miles at this point in the hike.
Some pretty blue flowers lined the path.
We crossed the field and climbed up to see another gorgeous view of some needles.
Looking back, we saw the field we just crossed.
A still energetic Nick continues on the next grassy stretch, with needles in the background.
Next we entered a series of narrow passages between huge rocks. There was a little piece of wood with some notches for steps here.
My brother looks like he's caught in an alien laser beam. It was nice and cool down in the rocks, but soon we had to go back into the sun.
As soon as we re-surfaced, I climbed this toad stoolish rock. We saw very few people all day, but somehow these guys ended up in the picture. That rock in the background looks like a hooded cobra too.
From there I saw a site that made my jaw drop. The druid arch. It looked like something from another world (even more so that everything else). Something from Mortal Kombat... I gotta come back and hike to that someday. If anyone is interested, come out to visit, and we'll go there.
One more sweeping look with the druid arch on the left.
Back to the trail. On the return path now, ~6 miles in.
Check out the colorful flowers along the trail.
We took a different route back, an extra .6 miles to our total, but it led us to this splendid overlook. The green grass was a treat, in peak spring condition.
This is the crack in the rock we passed through, which gave us the view in the picture above. I call these rocks, the Argonoth. :-)
Looking back from a bit further out across the field.
We followed a 4x4 road (high clearance required!) through "Devil's Kitchen" and after a few miles, climbed up to the white bedrock. I wonder if they call it a kitchen cause the rocks look like salt shakers, and spice containers...
We walked a bit further, and when we looked back, all we saw were the white tops of mushroom rocks. One wouldn't know about the amazing world below, unless they walked over and down.
Once we got back to the car, it was time to re-fuel. It's written everywhere that each person should drink a gallon of water a day in the heat. Now seemed like a good time for me. According to my watch, we climbed over 4000' in cumulative elevation over the 11.6 mile hike
On the drive out I took some pictures of the rocks on the east side of the road, with the afternoon sun shining.
On the drive back to Moab, we stopped at Wilson Arch, right off the highway. Nick climbed up.
Today we were content to set up camp while it was still light, and shower, and relax. Nick wanted to play some pool, so we found a local bar, and Nick ran the pool table for 1 1/2 hours on just 50 cents.
Here's the campsite. The place had a pool, and showers. Pretty nice. Nick opted to sleep in the car again, so I had the tent to myself. First use. I could use a softer ground pad...
The Needles hike was amazing, and it's perhaps my favorite hike ever. This and the Quiraing hike I did with my mom and sister in Scotland had the most surreal, otherworldly, terrain.
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