Day 57-62 – Arches and Canyonlands National Park – April 19th – 24th, 2011

Jeep Odometer:  287800km

Arches NP

So we arrived at Arches late in the afternoon to find out that the campsite was full.  Luckily just a couple miles down the road along the Colorado river there was a series of BLM campsites along the Colorado river.  We managed to find a great site about 7 miles from the park along the river.  We quickly setup camp and headed into the park to catch the sunset at delicate arch.  The next day we spent the whole day visiting Arches National Park, hiking several trails and taking in most of the sites.  That evening we made dinner, had a nice fire and went to bed.  About 2AM in the morning we woke up to heavy winds and some rain.  The wind got so bad that Rose and I had to evacuate the small backpacking 3 season tent we were in and take it down.  I was afraid that it was going to be broken if we did not.  We retreated to Lisa’s tent, a 3 man 4 season mountaineering tent that is designed to stand up to the strong winds.  After a couple of hours the winds calmed and we managed to get some sleep.  The next morning we had to dust everything off, fine sand had been blown into the tents and on everything we had in them.  My phone is still a bit crunchy.

Dead Horse Point State Park

After cleaning up we headed to Dead Horse State Park.  We wanted to check out the views and grab a quick shower.  Unfortunately we found out there are no showers in this park, so we still did a nice hike and took in the views, and then headed down to the Needles district of Canyonlands NP.  We arrived just in time to find out the campground was full, but managed to book back country camping for the next 2 nights.  We also found a nearby private campground, the Needles Outpost.  We prepared for our first backcountry adventure, and managed to get a shower. 

Canyonlands NP

We spent the next 3 days and 2 nights backpacking through the needles area of Canyonlands.  We also took a nice 4 wheel drive track (almost to the end) to an overlook of the Colorado river.  The 11 year old Jeep performed admirably, considering it was loaded down with gear and people (no offence ladies).  The views were amazing, and the terrain was like nothing else I have ever seen.  The first day we hike about 4 miles to camp, setup and relaxed.  The next day we hiked to Druid Arch, and the only spring in the area to fill up our water bottles.  Unfortunately my filter worked for only the first 2L of water then it became plugged and I could not get it apart to clean it out.   Luckily I always carry water purification tablets as a backup.  We filled up our bottles  and headed on to complete a loop, where we walked through 2.5 foot wide slots that were 60-80 ft deep.  Very cool.  By the end of the day we had hiked about 9 miles total, maybe more.  We returned to camp, made dinner and headed to bed early.  We woke up to a very rainy morning.  Luckily we got a long enough break in the weather to quickly pack up camp and get on the trail just before the rain started again, a well coordinated effort to do things so quickly by all 3 of us!  We headed back to the car, and then headed for Monticello, UT.  We found and internet café and spent a couple hours catching up on emails, blogging etc.

FTF Day 57-62