In the southeast corner of Utah, you’ll find a collection of some of the most beautiful national parks in the United States. One of these national parks is Canyonlands. However, Canyonlands is often overshadowed by its smaller neighbor, Arches, with many visitors coming to Canyonlands pretty much just because it’s close by, and they were already in the Moab area. Truthfully, we were among those people. Road tripping from our home in Albuquerque to Moab meant driving right past one of the entrances to Canyonlands, so we figured we’d stop along the way. Little did we know we would end up on one of the most exciting hikes we did over our whole trip to Utah!
The Needles District
There are two different parts of Canyonlands National Park, separated by the Colorado River: The Needles District and Island in the Sky. Because of the river running through the middle of the park, you cannot drive from one district to the other, and the entrances are actually quite far apart. The Island in the Sky is the more popular of the two districts, but because of our itinerary, it made more sense for us to visit The Needles. (Hopefully we will be able to return some day to see the Island in the Sky!) This area of the national park is shockingly quiet and breathtakingly beautiful. It is a hidden gem that I doubt will remain hidden for long!
There are lots of trails in The Needles District, but a quick search online led me to believe that the best trail is the Chesler Park Trail to Druid Arch. This is one of the best hikes we have ever done! It was a blast from start to finish, with everything you could ask for when hiking in the Southwest. Desert vistas, red landscapes, cool rock formations, this trail really has it all! We loved it in spite of some rather extreme weather, but more on that in a minute.
Chesler Park
We entered Canyonlands with our handy-dandy national park pass, and drove to the Elephant Hill Trailhead. The parking lot here is pretty small, so it is best to arrive early to guarantee a spot. We were driving from northern New Mexico, and got to the trail around 9:00, and nabbed one of the last parking spaces.
After a few initial stairs, the first couple of miles on the trail are relatively flat, and you are rewarded almost instantly with incredible views of red and yellow sandstone formations. There is also a small slot canyon, so this trail really has a lot to love right off the bat. You then reach a section with some fun and fairly easy rock scrambling. Up to this point, we had the trail entirely to ourselves, which is practically unheard of in most national parks. The final ascent to the Chesler Park viewpoint is pretty steep, but not very long, and the views from the top are a worthy reward. The hike to this viewpoint is about three miles.
From here, you have a few options. One of the really cool things about the Needles District is that all the trails are connected, so you can walk as much or as little as you want, and easily combine certain trails with others. All the trails are clearly marked, with signs at each junction so you don’t get lost. I’m not 100% confident that the distances on the signs were totally accurate, but generally close enough.
On the far side of the viewpoint is Chelser Park itself. This flat area is covered in desert grasses and shrubs, out of which rise beautiful rock formations I think that these tall, jagged rocks are what give the district its name, The Needles. We also saw some deer. Unfortunately, this was when the weather decided to turn on us.
We ran into another group of hikers at the Chesler Park viewpoint. I foolishly proclaimed that the cloudy weather was “perfect for hiking,” and the universe heard me and laughed. Shortly after we left the viewpoint, the rain came down, and it came down hard. This was not your average rainstorm either. The wind was fierce, and it was freezing! We were visiting Canyonlands in late April, so not quite summer, but I wasn’t expecting freezing temps and sleety rain! Hence, I had only a windbreaker. My teeth were chattering, and of course the rain hit us during the section of the hike where we were totally exposed in the open. There was nothing to do but keep walking.
Druid Arch
We kept hiking in the freezing rain around the Chesler Park loop, eventually coming to a cave where we could hide from the rain a bit. We were never really dry from this point forward, but once we got out of the open Chesler Park and back into the canyon, we were at least protected from the wind. We had to do a little more rock scrambling, which was made much more treacherous when the rocks were wet and slippery, eventually making our way to a river bed, where there was a sign pointing us towards Druid Arch.
We hiked along the river bed for quite a while, and while the rain let up a bit, it never totally stopped. This trail is less well marked, and we had to keep our eyes peeled for cairns to make sure we were still on the right track. At some point, we missed one, and came to a dead end in the river bed. Looking at our location on my phone, I could see that Druid Arch was right in front of us, but from the bottom of the river bed, there was no way to reach it. We retraced our steps several times to no avail, and just when we had given up on ever finding the trail again, lo and behold, there was a cairn off to the side, a sharp turn off that was easy to miss, especially in the rain. There was some steep climbing to get from the river bed up to Druid Arch, but it was absolutely worth it. To make things even better, the sun came out right when we got to the arch! It was the best reward after some serious struggle.
After admiring the arch, we turned around and headed back towards the parking lot. It had been quite an adventure of a day, but in spite of all the mishaps, we absolutely loved it! If I still had a good day after being caught in the cold rain, you know it was a special trail! Altogether, we hiked 13.5 miles, but that includes our detour when we got lost. Once we made it back to the car, we drove on to Moab, where a hot shower and some yummy Thai food was waiting for us!
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