We camped at a campground just outside the Needles (southern) entrance to Canyonlands National Park. It’s all BLM land so we could have pitched our tent anywhere, but we wanted a place to shower. That was good because it’s super sandy here. Our tent filled with sand the first day so we covered it in two tarps and tucked in the edges. We lost count of how many times we dumped our shoes out.
The first thing we did in the hike was the Peekaboo Trail. It’s a moderately difficult 10+ mile hike that seemed to have a lot of cool stuff in the description. At the trailhead, we spoke to a Ranger who confided in us that Backpacker Magazine is going to name Peekaboo as the best USA hike in this November’s issue! Glad we came now!
The hike was amazing, Andy’s favorite ever and Priscilla’s top three. It had a sandy grassland, slickrock paths, amazing canyon views, needle formations, beautiful fall color and a Native American petroglyph. It’s a stunning introduction to the Utah National Parks. Hopefully it won’t become too overrun after this November. Here are some pictures we took along Peekaboo:
Within the Needles district of Canyonlands, we saw an ancient Native American granary nestled in a cliff and more pictographs. The white pictographs were painted by Ancestral Pueblo Indians 1,000 years ago. The faint dark red pictographs behind the white ones were painted over 3,000 years ago! It’s pretty neat to think about this desolate land being inhabited for so long.
There are a bunch of self guided nature trails in Canyonlands which gave us a lot of good info about the ecology and history of the area. Getting some context really helped us immerse in the park.
Other days, we biked along the Colorado River that runs next to Moab and the Moab Canyon Trail. Moab is a mountain biking mecca, but Andy’s cyclocross bike wasn’t quite up to traversing the incredibly sandy trails. Not for lack of trying and getting stuck though.
We also explored the northern entrance to Canyonlands and Arches National Park (which is basically right across the road from northern Canyonlands). We hiked to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands and spent a few hours seeing arches in Arches. Delicate Arch in Arches National Park was the best and also happens to be the one featured on Utah’s license plates. Honestly, Arches was just too busy and we didn’t feel it offered nearly as much as Canyonlands.
Highlights of Canyonlands National Park in Utah
- Canyonlands Needles District, you can easily spend days exploring this place
- Peekaboo Trail
- Biking the Colorado River north of Moab. It’s short but offers a lot of scenery
How beautiful! And thank you for the descriptions with the photos. The weather looks really good – shirt sleeves in late October. Savor every moment.
Thanks Linda! Yes, it was nice and warm 🙂 Happy November!
Maybe I’m just hungry, but that second picture with Andy under the rocks looks like two dinner rolls pushed together..
Canyonlands Needles District is our family favorite. We try to get there at least every other year. Did you stay in the campground just outside the entrance? It just recently went under new management so I hope it is still an OK place. Think I’ve eaten off that same picnic table. Love that you seem to love this area as much as we do.
Yeah, we stayed in the one right outside the entrance (Needles Outpost). We chatted with the new owners for a bit, they’re incredibly nice and planning on renovating the bathrooms this winter. We had a great time both at the campground and in the park 🙂