The drive from our camping spot to Canyonlands alone was incredible. We took 191 to 211 and made it to the Needles Visitor Center within an hour. We stopped for lunch (sandwiches in the RV) at the “Newspaper Rock Site” and saw some 2000 year old drawing.
Once we arrived at the Canyonlands National Park, we entered the Canyonlands at the Needles side (south East side). There are two parts to Canyonlands – the Needles and the Island in the sky, accessible from Moab. We decided to see the Needles area. The entrance booth was empty but we dropped $20 in the box. There is a needles visitors center but we drove on to the first hiking location – Cave Spring Trail (See All Trail). The trail is a short (0.6 mile) loop trail but extremely fun. It leads past an old Cowboy Camp, through some caves that were used for shelter by humans for thousands of years who left their marks and up two wobbly ladders. We took our time exploring and completed the loop in an hours time.
From there we drove on to complete a longer hike on the Slick Rock Trail (See All Trails) – a 2.4 mile loop that took us about 1.5 hours. The loop offered 360 degree views of the canyon and the needles from afar. A great hike over “moon and Mars” rock.
Both hikes had very few other visitors despite it being a Sunday. It was breezy but warm at 80 degrees. We left Canyonlands towards Monticello (45 min drive), where we dumped and refilled at Maverick gas station and stayed at the Canyon Country Discovery Center parking lot (found it via Harvest Host).
