Canyonlands day 3

After doing all of the short trails, we decided to take the trail out into the Needles to Chesler Park. The trail is a 6 mile round trip over slickrock, through stream beds and generally going through a broad selection of them possible terrain in the area.

The trail starts at the base of Elephant hill and goes up a bit before leveling out for a while.



This is the view from the rock ledge where we ate lunch.



It took a while to find a place where we could sit and eat. The problem was the cyanobiotic crust. Stepping on it damages the crust and it take decades to repair itself. You can see it at the bottom of the photo of the park area. It kinda looks like a blackish crust.



Still, the hike was well worth it. The view once you cross into the park is of a green oasis in the middle of the red sand desert.

After we spent about an hour eating and walking bout we headed back. This is the last part of the climb out of Elephant creek. It is a steep ascent, but not overly difficult. Although I would recommend a hiking staff to help with balance and bracing.



The next section was what is called the Wedge. It's a narrow crack in the ridge about 3' at the narrowist and maybe 20-30' high. It was really easy to pass through and was actually one of the most fun places on the trail. For me.

One of the things that made this hike so interesting was that you got views like this after passing through the ridges. A new ridge meant a new and different view.



There was one other spot where the trail narrowed. The trail passed through a short narrow spot in a rock. It was so narrow I had to turn sideways to fit through.



The next two are examples of the scenery along the trail.





And finally, our last evening. I've already showed out the view from our campsite to the west. Here is the view to the east and a fond fair well, at least until the next trip :)