The Needles: Part 1

Time to do a little talkin’ about our recent roadtrip.  And by recent, I mean a month ago.  Wildman had a few hours of vacation time left that needed using, so we scheduled a trip during his break from school.  We originally planned to go to the Uintas to see Fall colors, but the temps were too cold to brave, and the colors were still on the drab side.  I suggested we go to Canyonlands, the Needles District—a place I’d had yet to visit.  Wildman was the only one who had been there.  I found a little campground, The Outpost, just outside the entrance to the Park where we could actually reserve a campsite (we’d be arriving late, after dark) and then counted down the days to departure.  I had scoured the maps of the area I could find, and decided which hikes to do etc.  I was a little leery of one hike, it would require the kids hiking 9 miles…the most they’d ever done was 6.  I did my best to mentally prepare them for such a long hike.  I found it intriguing that they now compare any distance to that of The Wave.  The Wave was 6 miles, and they really remember that hike.  So, to them, 9 miles was hiking to the Wave and back, then to the Wave again.  They decided they could do that.  I spent the 2 days before our departure cooking all our food and gathering all our snacks.  We rarely ever buy food while on a road trips, it’s hard to find anything celiac friendly…so we simply bring everything with us. 

We pulled the kids out of school around noon on Wednesday, packed up the car, then headed south.  The kids were so good in the car. I have to say, the best purchase for road tripping was our portable DVD player.  A 6 hour drive becomes easy-peasy.  We arrived in Moab around dusk, and still had about an hour of driving left.  By the time we reached the turnoff for the Needles, it was dark and we could see nothing outside the halo of our headlights.  The drive to the Needles, Wildman assured us, was spectacular, but we could only wonder at the large blobs of black outlined by stars.  We had a jackrabbit, a cotton tail, and what looked to be a grey fox scurry out in front of us during our journey into the ever increasing remoteness. 

Finally, we found our turnoff to The Outpost.  After a search through the campground for our reserved site, we discovered our last name taped to a post.  We pulled in, decided where to set up our tents and began unloading the SUV.  I found myself thoroughly distracted by the night sky, I’d never seen so many stars! The Milky Way was a filmy ribbon across the sky, and we happened to see a “shooting star”, though I’d never seen a shooting star with such a long, sparkly, streaming tail before.  Woohoo!  We got the kids settled in their tent, then set up ours. The night was so quiet—that kind of silence where you hardly dare to breathe for fear of disturbing it.  Though WM quickly fell asleep, I could only lay there with my eyes wide open, seeing only blackness…excited about our adventures the next day. 

Mother Nature calls quite early in our household.  I had to get up well before dawn to stumble my way to the restrooms.  I found my headlamp, shoved my feet into my chacos, and unzipped the tent as quietly as possible (though with that noise I felt I may as well run through the campground with a mega-phone shouting my intention to head to the bathroom).  After exiting the tent, I looked up to the sky again—it was like I couldn’t get enough of it!  I peered into the surrounding blackness, wondering what the light of day would show me.  Though I crawled back into our warm sleeping bag, sleep was gone and I simply watched the tent gradually lighten. When I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer, I crawled out of the tent and watched the sunrise.  What I discovered with the faint light was breathtaking.  It was as though we were camped on a different planet.  I faced west and watched as pink light touched the tips of the coolest rock peaks ever…the distant Needles.  Our hike of the day would take us right through them! 

Wildman was the next one up, followed shortly by the boy.  We had all eaten breakfast by the time I was able to coerce the girl out of her slumber to get some hot chocolate.  We quickly gathered our food and packs for the day, piled into the SUV and headed off to the next grand adventure.  We stopped at the visitor’s center for maps and info.  It’s good that we did, because there we found out that the road we wanted to take to the trailhead was passable only to high-clearance, 4WD vehicles.  No big deal, we had taken our SUV on roads like that many times.  However, by high clearance, they meant a lifted vehicle, and not AWD. The ranger informed us that the stretch of road we wanted to take was one of the most—if not THE most—challenging roads in the state.  I cringed as this ranger unknowingly pretty much threw down “the gauntlet” in front of my husband.  In the end, the only thing that deterred WM was the towing fee, a hefty $1000.00.  The trouble with this road being “impassable” to us was that if we still wanted to do our hike, rather than 9 miles, it was now 12 miles.  How could I expect my little kids to do a 12 miler, when I’d spent so much time preparing them for a 9 miler?  We sat the kids down and explained our situation and options.  As they tried to fathom what hiking 12 miles would be like, Wildkid said, “that would be like hiking The Wave twice.”   Yep.  He pondered that for a minute, then said he was up for it.  I tried not to let my eyes bug out of my head.  Wildgirl said she wanted to see the arch we were hiking to, but 12 miles sounded really hard.  We told them it would be really hard (no sugar-coating here).  We also let her know we could take the whole day to do it.   After some thoughtful moments she agreed to give it a go.  I was just about as proud as a mom could be. I tried to focus on how awesome my kids were, and not think about the fact that the longest hike I’d done post-accident was 10.4 miles…and that on a smoothish dirt trail…not boulder scrambling…but I figured if my kids could go for it, so could I. 

We made sure we had all the right maps and drove through amazing scenery to the Elephant Hill trailhead.  As we were strapping on our gear, a ranger approached us in the parking lot, wanting to make sure we had the right maps…meaning the detailed one labeling all the trails.  We did.  At approximately 10am, we embarked on our adventure to find the fabled Druid Arch. 

The first part of the hike was just plain cool.  Great rock formations and breathtaking panoramas—interesting trail obstacles, perfect weather and temperatures. We played “trail tag” with an elderly couple from San Jose, and enjoyed their smiles and jokes.

these pics below show how smooth the trail wasn't...

 We eventually dropped down into a wash, and that’s when the going got a bit tough.  Hiking through intermittent sand and boulders for 3 miles quickly takes its toll. I was reminded of the “unmentionable” part of Subway…the stretch of trail at the “end” that never ends…you feel like you have been scrambling over boulders and mucking through sand nearly forever. The closer we got to the arch, the harder the “trail” became to navigate.

WM and WK consulting the map...

a view of the wash up which we hiked...

 The last ¼ mile climb to the arch required hands as well as feet.  WM kept up with our little mountain goat, while I trudged along with our exhausted girl.  I knew if I felt like crying, she must feel even worse.  Sure enough, tears of exhaustion were falling down her cheeks as she reached the top and stopped, absorbing the view of the gigantor Druid Arch.  I was so proud of her I had to blink back my own tears.  We had just covered 6 miles of some of the most rugged “trail” I’d ever seen. We sat under a rock overhang and devoured our lunch while enjoying the grand view.

starting the ascent to the arch...

just keep going, just keep going...

Tada!  Druid Arch!

Yes, that's her tired-beyond-all-reason face...

 Little Wildkid, standing at the base of the photo, under our lunch rock.  This pic shows just how big that arch really is....so cool.

 looking back the way we'd come...

 Below:  hiking back down from the arch...nice "trail", huh?

 We made much better time heading back from the arch.  We passed our elderly friends who had decided to turn around and make for the trailhead, not wanting to be hiking in the dark.  Our hike out was about twice as fast as our pace hiking in…which I apparently pointed out enough times that it is now the first inside joke our kids have of our road tripping.  I was amazed at how fast and furious my little 8 year old WK hiked, it was all I could do to simply keep him in sight.  Once, as we stopped to doctor WG's hot-spots on her feet, I asked WK if his feet were okay.  He shrugged nonchalantly and said “they just hurt”, like….”oh, it’s just pain, mom.”  I was a bit dumbfounded by my children’s lack of whining.  There was simply no whining on this hike.  Though they were sore and WG was tired beyond all reason, they only made statements like,  “Wow--I’m tired, let’s rest” or “Wow, my feet really hurt.”  There was never actual whining...which makes my kids really fun to hike with.  As we approached the end of the hike, little WK was hiking so fast he was almost running.  Seriously. I can still hardly fathom it. We made it back to the car after 7 hours of hiking.  What an adventure!

Below:  A giant fin on Elephant Hill...near the end of the hike...

Below: sunset from our campsite...