Had a great Memorial Day trip up to the Canyonlands. Melody is relatively new to backpacking (her first backpacking trip was down the Bill Haul trail to Thunder River, the lower river trail, and then back up the Deer Creek trail. Pretty epic first backpacking experience). Our previous trips have been high-mileage and really challenging. So sometimes it's nice to have a relaxed pace trek with lots of time for exploring the surrounding areas. We definitely accomplished that this weekend! Usually, the end of may gets up in the mid-90s. We were lucky to have nice clouds and highs in the mid 70s and lows in the 50s! Perfect weather. And there were multiple water pools from recent rains, which is ideal since the western side of the Needles District does not have perennial water.
Friday: night at Monument Valley.
Saturday: Obligatory stop at Newspaper Rock (Very cool). A couple of friends dropped us off at the trailhead, then they continued up to Arches without us. Apparently arches had a several hour wait time to get into the park. It's just as Ed Abbey predicted!
Anyway.
Melody and I began the backpacking trip at Squaw Flat - Big Spring Canyon - Brief time in Squaw Canyon - Elephant Canyon. Camped at EC3. I love how isolated the designated backpacking sites are! We took our time and explored a lot of the side canyons in the area.
Sunday: First we did the out and back trail to Druid Arch (definitely worth it) and then stopped at the spring in this canyon to filter water. Then we hiked out to Chesler park which was exploding with wildflowers in bloom. Then we continued on to the Joint Trail. We built a cairn in the cairn room (see pics) and then back-tracked to Chesler and on to backcountry campsite CP1. This is a wonderful campsite with extensive views over the Needles District. You can even see the Maze in the distance!
Monday: On the trail by 6:30 and at the Elephant Hill Trailhead before 8. Our friends picked us up here, which was nice that we didn't have to walk 5 miles back on the dirt road to Squaw Flat.
Breakfast burritos in Monticello and then a quick stop at Natural Bridges National Monument (I love Utah). Planned another stop at Coalmine Canyon, because it was still early afternoon, but everyone in the car yelled at me when I brought up the idea Guess they were tired or something?
Route Editor
Route Scout
Big Spring Canyon - 
Guess they were tired or something? 
