Chesler Park, Needles District, Canyonlands
I am obsessed with the Needles District area, I must have about 300 pictures on my computer of the area.
The image below shows the trails that I hiked: Chesler Park, Devils Kitchen/Devils Lane, Druid Arch, Peekaboo, Squawflat/Lost Canyon.
The image below shows the trails that I hiked: Chesler Park, Devils Kitchen/Devils Lane, Druid Arch, Peekaboo, Squawflat/Lost Canyon.
I have taken a million pics at the Chesler Park area:
Another group of pics from a previous visit.
Glorious Druid Arch, dont forget the view from the canyon you came in from.
The other area to explore starts at the Squawflat campground and it takes you to two trails, Peekaboo trail (mostly on slickrock) and the Squawflat/Lost Canyon loop.
The red path is the Squawflat trail and Lost Canyon loop, which is pretty short and it can be done in half a day.
On the other hand, the Peekaboo trail (blue) can be pretty long if you want.
The red path is the Squawflat trail and Lost Canyon loop, which is pretty short and it can be done in half a day.
On the other hand, the Peekaboo trail (blue) can be pretty long if you want.
The first part of the Squawflat/Lost Canyon loop is amazing, with views of large formations and many times with the La Sal mountains in the background.
The part that I loved the most is hiking up a saddle (the rightmost picture below) and then at the top admiring that lighthouse looking rock that you can actually climb to get closer (left most picture below). Then you go around it and get a view of the canyon that you are about to go down into to get to Lost Canyon.
On to Peekaboo trail ......... you are hiking on slickrock all the time, so please keep an eye for rock cairns. The good thing is that there is no cryptosoil in there so you can go off trail and explore all you want.
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Nice ruins just before you will take some stairs (yes, stairs) you down to the Peekaboo campground.
This is the canyon you are going to drop down to ...... WHAT A VIEW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The highlight at the end of the drop are the pictographs at the bottom:
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Now, you can end the hike here and turn around or you can make this hike longer and enjoy more stuff.
You see, Peekaboo trail intersects with Salt Creek Canyon, a very long canyon that now is closed to off road vehicles and it is used for backpackers (I have another page describing it from the south entrance). Ok, I recommend taking a GPS since the area where you want to connect Peekaboo to Salt Creek has lots of vegetation and you can get lost. |
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Two nice things, Paul Bonyan's toilet (center and right images, use your imagination) and the Tower Ruins. At this point I turned around.
