Skip to main content

Day 51 - Canyonlands Needles Pt 3

A deep connection to the nature surrounding you comes from the solitude of solo travel, but sometimes it is nice to have a companion!  I ran into David, a retired telecom exec from Canada a few days ago on the Syncline Loop trail at Canyonlands Island in the Sky. Then I ran into him again halfway through my Chesler Park hike two days ago, then again later in the hike, finishing the last two miles together.  David hiked his favorite trail, the Peekaboo trail yesterday, and said I could join him, but my heart was set on confluence trail, so we hiked separately. We did share a campsite though and exchanged travel stories.

David was 55 and had retired at 50 from a high-level international job with Nortel and was now traveling full-time. We instantly bonded over our solo travel style. He outclassed me by leagues. He had trekked one month in Nepal, then another month in India, then some months in Asia. He had hiked and skied and adventured all over the western U.S.  and Canada. He was thinking of moving to Thailand for the winter. 

We exchanged contact information and then I decided to hike the Peekaboo hike today in honor of my new friend David. Described as "a roller coaster ride of a hike", the Peekaboo trail was actually a pathway of rock cairns along a high slick rock ledge. You have to trust the stickiness of your shoes as you passed slanted turns, exposed passes, and short but steep scrambles. I love slick rock hiking and the scarier the better for me so it wasn't exactly a roller coaster to me, it was easy hiking. You eventually come to a window in a rock ledge which gives the trail its name. The pic shows an exposed section of trail through this window. 


The highlight of the trail was the petroglyphs at the end. The white shielded figures are from 700 to 1100 AD but the faded red figures are from 1000 to 4000 BC. Imagining two Indian peoples drawing on this same wall thousands of years apart was fascinating. 



After enjoying my ancient ponderings, I climbed back up to the Peekaboo trail (up a twenty foot steel ladder section) and retraced my steps to the Lost Canyon. A totally different experience, hiking Lost Canyon was like hiking through a pleasant meadow, mostly flat, with greenery and spring water all around, with birds chirping and bunnies passing and with the sun shining for the first time today. I hiked up the canyon end for a great view below and then back down Squaw Canyon to the van. A fun and pretty 15 miles hike (thanks David).
 


With many hours left in the day and still set on arriving in the fine State of Colorado on Day 51, I drove out of the land of canyons toward Mesa Verde. I stopped in Cortez, Colorado and camped at a Walmart parking lot filled with RVs. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward.  On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills.  Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising.  I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch).  After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch.  The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead.  The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics.  By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

Day 42 - Escalante Stevens Arch

The Stevens Arch is so massive that legend says daredevil pilots would fly through it. I was excited to see it!  Having napped most of the afternoon, I awoke promptly at 545, packed up my things and hiked down to the Escalante River as the first morning light was pouring into the canyon. Hiking around more waterfalls and ledges and along the stream before anyone else was up was nice.  My written directions said to look for sandy hill to my right which led up to my only exit from the canyon-- the Crack-in-the-Wall. I ran into the confluence of the Escalante River, a point which my guidebook noted was passed my exit route, requiring a ten minute backtrack. This was fine though because I had tons of time and wanted to see the Stevens Arch.  I crossed the knee-deep Escalante River several times before the Arch came into view. Like a window in the Roman Colloseum, the Arch seemed almost engineered by man in this tall curving canyon wall. I hiked under the arch and couldn't eve...