Canyonlands National Park’s Needles District comprises more than a hundred square miles of spindly spires, dizzying canyons, and colossal views. It also boasts some of Utah’s best hiking and backpacking opportunities, including the Chesler Park Trail, the Big Spring – Squaw Canyon Loop, and the Confluence Overlook Trail. Yet visitors making the 1 ½-hour drive …
Continue reading Utah Highway 211 to Canyonlands National Park’s Needles District
Utah’s Canyonlands National Park is sliced into three quadrants by the deep cuts of the Colorado River and the Green River: Island in the Sky, Needles, and The Maze. Yet due to the deep incisions formed by the two rivers, very few roadside overlooks, or even backcountry trails, offer a glimpse of either. An exception …
Continue reading Confluence Overlook Trail (Canyonlands National Park, UT)
One of the principal advantages of hiking in Canyonlands National Park’s Needles District is the abundance of loop hikes. At 7.2 miles, the moderately strenuous Big Spring Canyon to Squaw Canyon loop is one of the shortest. While arguably not the most scintillating hike in the Needles (that distinction belongs to the jaw-dropping Chesler Park …
Continue reading Big Spring Canyon – Squaw Canyon Loop Trail (Canyonlands National Park, UT)
The Needles District in eastern Utah’s Canyonlands National Park features a maze of towering pinnacles, winding canyons, and mushroom rocks—and the Chesler Park Loop winds through perhaps the best of it. The roughly 11-mile stem-and-loop circumnavigates a grassy plain flanked by slickrock spires, while a short section of the “Joint Trail” edges through a narrow …
Continue reading Chesler Park Loop Trail, including Joint Trail (Canyonlands National Park, UT)
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