Mile Marker: Day Two in Utah (Canyonlands)
Canyonlands National Park and the re-awakening of Awe.
Previously, on the Endless American Road:
After breaking camp, I examine the map and calculate that I’m about two hours from “The Needles” portion of Canyonlands National Park, so off we go.
After two hours I exit Highway 191 and take the Canyonland “Highway” thirty miles to the park’s entrance. On the way there, the landscape becomes more interesting and a few ranches speckle the landscape—I’m guessing these were cutouts grandfathered in to the National Park System but there is a single three hundred acre parcel for sale. I wonder if the brawny guy I’ve been talking to would be interested in ranching and raising a gaggle of kids among the red rock canyons of Utah, but this is a nonsensical line of thinking that I chuckle off as I bring my attention back to the road right in time to see a sign for petroglyphs up ahead. (I will write about these in more detail in a future post).
I stop to admire the 2,000-year-old petroglyphs carved onto the red rock and just seeing these carvings drops me into deep time—the time we culturally can’t remember but has shaped so much of our physiology.
When traveling with dogs, National Parks can be tricky to navigate. With the dogs, you trade the back country scrambles for the more pedestrian and tourist-addled places as dogs are restricted to paved trails, roads, and parking lots. In The Needles, this essentially means that the dogs are in the truck for most of the day and my visit to the park is restricted to a six-mile driving tour and a few short hikes I can take as the dogs wait patiently in the backseat. Fortunately, they are well exercised from our morning excursion and the temperature is mild.
Even from the roadside, the canyons of Utah are extraordinary. I stop at nearly every stop along that six-mile drive and take as many short hikes as I can with the dogs in the car. We spend several hours in the park driving, taking photographs, and sitting in the abundance of beauty and silence. I am deeply moved by all I have seen when we eventually exit the park in the early afternoon.
The day is still young and I have scoped out, with the assistance of a very attractive young Park Ranger, several spots of interest including a large chunk of BLM land just north of the park. I asked the enthusiastic (and did I mention handsome? Yes, I did, but it’s worth mentioning again) young ranger about the area and he gave it a solid recommendation. BLM land has no restrictions on dogs and few on camping, so we set out to The Needles Overlook which is another 20 mile drive off Highway 191.
The road to the Overlook was not very impressive, mostly sweeping grassland, though there was a gradual incline that only became evident in the last few miles of the drive. I began to spot canyon views near the end of the drive and scouted several campsites but they were all taken. Once we got to the Overlook, a stone structure built on the cliffside with expansive views in all directions, there was only one other person there. I leashed the dogs and got out to see what we could see. And, oh wow, were the views ever stunning.
The scale of this land became evident from here and it was truly massive. On the highway, in the middle of all that land, it’s hard to grasp just how vast the wilderness around you truly is. You need to get some elevation to really appreciate the views and from the overlook the view was one of the most remarkable I’ve experienced.
One thing that all contemporary explorers will tell you in the West is that if you find one of those amazing, beautiful places that has managed to stay hidden from the crowds, you best keep it to yourself. In the age of Instagram, these places have gotten fewer and farther between, so out of respect for that principle I will not tell you where we ventured, and camped, next. Instead, I’ll show you some of the views and tell you that what we found was a campsite, on the side of a high cliff, with views that rival if not surpass those of the Grand Canyon. The best part was, the rock road leading to the campsite kept people away. That night after making camp we walked a mile in both directions from the camp without seeing another soul. Mine was the only fire that lit the mesa that night. The view was extraordinary, and even in twenty years of traveling the West, it genuinely surprised and delighted me.
After an exquisite sunset, I put the dogs to bed in the tent and had a few beers by the fire looking up at the night sky. By the time I turn in, I am exhausted from the heat and the hikes and the driving. In the dark of my tent I smile, realizing that this has been one of the very best days of travel I’ve experienced. Tomorrow, I’d be content just to stay at the site all day and read and take in the view, but tomorrow is also Beltane and another idea is brewing.
🐾🐾 🇺🇸 🐾🐾