Len's Southwest Photo hiking adventure March 2022 Part 2 - Canyonlands National Park

[Len Backus]

Canyonlands is located just outside of Moab, Utah. My time there for this trip started with 3 days overnight in the backcountry of the Needles district. I had never been to that area before but I sure will return often.

This 3 day trip provided one of the most photo rich experiences I have had. Hiking progress was slow - too many photo opportunities.

VIEW IMAGES ON A LARGE SCREEN.

PART 1 OF THIS TRIP REPORT CAN BE FOUND HERE..

Len's Southwest Photo hiking adventure March 2022 Part 1 - Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend

Two weeks in 4 different areas coming up. Be kind to each other while I am gone... . .

www.longrangehunting.com

 

[Len Backus]

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The "scrambling" being demonstrated here on the trail to Druid Arch in the Needles area was the toughest on my trip but there was a lot of it.

 

[Len Backus]

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In the shot below of a cairn, that's my Inreach mini that I placed next to the cairn as a prop. And i turned it on as I set it down.

While composing the shot it powered up and at one point beeped indicating some message was incoming. I looked at the screen as I snapped and it read: "I see you. " Kathy Backus

I had earlier sent a message to her saying "Click this link to see on a map where I am now"

Amazing coincidence that her reply came in right then.

 

[Len Backus]

After finishing up my fantastic journey through the Needles, I checked into a KOA in Moab to act as ops base for my day hike photo sessions in the Island In The Sky district of Canyonlands. The campsites in the park are nice but have little or no wi-fi.

I have been there several times over the years. In fact, the first photo below of a sunrise at Mesa Arch in the island area was taken on my trip last month (February) to Grand Canyon and then Canyonlands on the way home to Wisconsin.
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[Len Backus]

This next shot was actually taken at Dead Horse State Park, right next door to Canyonlands Park.

The setting is a goose neck in the river. On a large screen you can see a rugged gravel jeep road.

This next scene was last evening back in Canyonlands sunset.

 

[HRM Johnny]

Thanks for letting us live vicariously through you. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[340Wby-4-everything]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. God and Mother Nature were at their finest in Utah long ago. Moab and Canyonlands are a couple of my faves too. Need to get back out there to Mtn Bike again!

 

[Len Backus]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. God and Mother Nature were at their finest in Utah long ago. Moab and Canyonlands are a couple of my faves too. Need to get back out there to Mtn Bike again!

And part of what I like about it is how the seasonal climate there extends my potential annual outdoor activity duration to include the months of Feb, Mar, Apr, Nov.

 

[huntinghuasna]

Amazing! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Len Backus]

Everyone knows that a cairn is a stack of stones used to designate the trail...such as the image above.

The Needles trail system relies on cairns more than any other hike area I have been in because so much of the trail system is over slabs of rock with no "worn" trail visible.

I lost the trail for up to 40 or 50 yards at a time about 5 or 6 times since I was so intently searching for photo ops and quite distracted by the beauty surrounding me. So I'd have to double back finding that last cairn and then find the next one that I had missed.

 

[Len Backus]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. God and Mother Nature were at their finest in Utah long ago. Moab and Canyonlands are a couple of my faves too. Need to get back out there to Mtn Bike again!

Moab must be the mountain bike capital of the world!

Andy and I jeeped the long White Rim trail 30 years ago with bikes on the back. He rode his bike ahead of the vehicle for quite a while while I drove the car.

He looked to be having so much fun on his bike that I made him drive the Jeep for a while so I could bike, too.

That was a little before he had his drivers license. He sure was excited.

 

[Len Backus]

Curious, has anyone on LRH taken their family to Moab area for vacation before and if so how did that work out?

My daughter Barbara yesterday asked me for national park ideas for their family vacation.

 

[Len Backus]

My backpacking campsite for two nights was 400 yards behind the backside of this opening scene.
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[ATH]

Curious, has anyone on LRH taken their family to Moab area for vacation before and if so how did that work out?

My daughter Barbara yesterday asked me for national park ideas for their family vacation.

Yes, I took mine with a camper summer 2020. Stayed in an RV park south of downtown Moab. We did Arches, and Canyonlands. I love seeing your pics because we did not have time not (in some family member's cases) the desire to hike much there. It was July so it was a poor time to hike Canyonlands so we were stuck with the rim views. I'd looked forward to that trip for 20 years. I hope to go back and get some hiking in. We did do a fair amount of hiking in Arches.

Make time to take a Dan Mick's Jeep Tour out of Moab. Not the other ones. Highlight of our trip.

I've heard the area has gotten more insane just in the past couple years. The crowds in national parks are getting on the ridiculous side.

If you have any specific questions just ask.