Into Canyonlands – northeast back into Utah and we took a little detour on our way. Muley Point offered views of the goosenecks of the Colorado, but getting there meant a bunch of switchbacks, so we dropped Scarlet outside of Mexican Hat and headed up. Lots of cool terrain and texture and a nice change from driving and towing.
About an hour southeast of our destination we climbed to over 7000 feet and stopped in the small town of Monticello. All of a sudden, it was cooler, there were tree covered mountain tops and green all around us. We scoped out a campsite near Lloyd’s Lake, thinking that we may want to get back to a little bit of cool for Mike’s work days.
Then down we went and on into the Needles district of Canyonlands. The park is divided up into three areas by the Colorado and Green Rivers – the very remote Maze (which we would not be going to), The Island in the Sky (the most accessible and visited area), and The Needles. We stopped to view the petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock and then continued on to find a campsite in Indian Creek BLM, just outside the entrance to The Needles.
And boy did we find a campsite. Looking out over mesas and juniper filled desert, backed by a beautiful rocky outcropping that hid our site from the little used road in. We settled and enjoyed the sunset, until the wind kicked up. We had to close up the trailer, but not before we had a gritty bed from all of the dust that blew in and every surface had a layer.
The next day we headed into the park for a long hike – the Chesler Park Loop. This was an 11 mile hike that involved a fair bit of climbing, but it was gorgeous. We were on the trail by 7:30, but we should have started even earlier. The day warmed up quickly and we were grateful for any shadows from rock formations or canyons.
We got to the overlook and took a little break for breakfast as we enjoyed the last of the big shade offered by the needles we just climbed through. We were surprised by how much green was around us throughout this area – so many junipers and evergreens, some grass, cacti and tiny wildflowers.
And then onward to the loop. There was slick rock and sand, lots of cairns to follow, and just general gorgeousness. We hit the Jeep trail for a little walk along a sandy 4×4 road and, after a short break, headed onto the Joint Trail.
This part of the trail was very different. A narrow canyon led into a cavernous opening where we took a longer break to eat, read a little and cool off. We walked through long stretches of slot canyon to eventually work our way back to Chesler Park.
And this is where the heat really started to hit. We followed a blessedly flat sandy trail back to the start of the loop, but the sand soaked up a lot of heat and shared it with us. We were grateful for any little breeze that came by and the one small cloud that briefly covered the sun.
At this point, the heat was starting to get to me, so any time we had to hike up an incline (and there were quite a few), I needed a shade break to cool off and recover my breath. I was also a little sad that we didn’t bring even more water than we had. Mike had three liters and I had 2.5 and we went through all of it by the end of the hike.
We very slowly made our way back to the trailhead and happily turned on the air in the truck for the ride back to the campsite.
After a little rest and downtime, I made the brilliant decision to do some food prep. The wind had kicked up again, so I couldn’t use the stove outside. Cooking inside was the only option.
Making omelets and taco meat kicked the temperature inside the trailer to 103 degrees and Mike and I took turns manning things inside.
The next day we realized that we had lost another rug. Mike had stowed everything two nights ago, but we think we didn’t get the rug put away the night before.
Things we have lost so far:
1 pair of sandals (taken off by the car, then left when we drove off)
2 pairs of socks
1 chair (stolen when we were trying to mark a campsite)
2 rugs
We headed back into the park to check out everything else – did a couple of short hikes and tried to drive on a 4×4 road to view the Colorado. This was supposed to be one of th easier 4×4 roads in The Needles, but we couldn’t quite make it to the end. Mike got pretty good at driving through long stretches of deep sand, but the road just got too bumpy toward the end.
Cairns were our friends 
Pictures could not capture the gnarliness of the road
We said goodbye to The Needles and packed up, deciding to go back to Monticello for cell service and cooler weather. Unfortunately, the way out of our beautiful site was a little trickier than the way in. We bent another stabilizer jack, too much to try to correct. Time to order another set!
Things we have broken, mangled or otherwise died so far:
3 stabilizer jacks (or at least bent them enough to warrant getting new ones)
1 cabinet door
1 pair of sandals
1.5 spare tire covers
1 side view mirror extension
1 rear truck bumper
Weight distribution hitch parts
1 thermometer
1 water jug
2 travel mugs
2 travel chairs (we aren’t buying cheap ones anymore)
We parked at an area overlooking Lloyd’s lake and enjoyed the cooler temps. Unfortunately, the second night we got kicked out. We had seen the “No overnight camping” signs at other parking areas, but missed the one where we stayed. iOverlander had steered us wrong and a woman from the city council pointed it out to us. We headed into town for a night parked amongst the semis by the Exxon, but headed back to the lake for our second work day.
