Canyonlands

Welcome to Canyonlands National Park, Needles Outpost. I think the sign kinda says it all. This was a pretty remote section of the park, which is huge! Canyonlands is bigger than Arches, Bryce & Zion put together. We didn't realize that you can't get from the north side of the park (referred to as the Island in the Sky) from the south side without completely retracing your steps back to Moab. Given we had already been there we decided to just enjoy the south part of the park referred to as the Needles.

 

Quite the primitive, remote site, indeed!

We took the opportunity to go "off roading" in the F-150 and we'll say that Dave really, really enjoyed it; me not so much!

 

 

We did see some amazing overlooks and viewpoints though!

 

 

 

There was snow we went up the mountain so far, but the view at the top of Salt Creek Canyon was spectacular!

And then Wow, a gorgeous sunset was waiting for us back at Phoebe!

The next day we were back on our hiking boots instead of the 4 wheels and was I ever happier! We hiked Slick rock trail and met the nicest couple from Canada (we know all Canadians are so nice! 😉)

We also hiked the Cave Spring Trail, which was totally different being "under" the  mountain and then climbing up ladders to get to the top.

It was cool to still see some flowers as well as the trees changing to their fall colors. We saw a historic Cowboy Camp, but nobody was there doing any cooking (we miss you Michelle!!)

When we got to the top of Cave Spring we could even see all the way to our campground (see Phoebe on the far left). Great views all around, including the La-Sal Mountains still in the background!

Dave, the early bird caught this great sunrise to bid us goodbye. We left a couple days earlier than we were planning mostly due to the 30 degree temps at night and the campground prohibiting generator use from 9pm to 9am. It was stressing the batteries to try to keep Phoebe (and us & the kitties!) warm for that long of a time.

So, we decided to run like Forrest Gump, on highway 163 south, only passing the cattle on the side of the road for an impromptu stop at...

 

...The Grand Canyon!! We originally didn't think we would have time to fit it in before the weather got cold but we are going for it!

As a post note, my father corrected me on that last bit of advice on the water heater. You only need to drain the water every 3 months and change the anode rod every year. Thanks Dad! 😙