Goblins, Canoeing the Green, Wandering the Maze, Ledges in the Needles and Searching for the Perfect Kiva

Victoria, South Seattle then Farewell Bend were stepping stones before crossing over the Idaho border and the attractions of Southern Idaho. A tour of the state capitol building in Boise held our interest. We used our "get out of jail" cards at the Old Idaho State Penitentiary and spent the night and following morning at the Bruneau Sand Dunes. We lingered in the Curlew Grasslands on our last night in Idaho. The weather took a turn for the worse in northern Utah, so we made a hotel stop in Lehi, on southern edge of Salt Lake City.

It took us almost a week to reach southern Utah. We stayed three nights at the comfortable, in the middle of nowhere, Goblin Valley State Park and used it as a base to see some of the San Rafael swell area. Although we visited the Little Wild Horse Canyon and Wild Horse Canyon we saw neither domestic nor wild horses. Our little Hyundai was tested on gravel roads and survived. Aussie Karen & Gary arrived on the scene and we did a few things together including visiting the detached Canyonlands NP unit of Horseshoe Canyon and Great Gallery. We began an overnight trip down from Angel Point to the Dirty Devil River but ominous signs of poor weather encouraged the group to retreated. Big winds later whipped up sandstorms in the region; at one point we could not see past the hood of our car while driving. We sought refuge at Green River State Park and got somewhat organized for our Green River trip.

We had made reservations for transport and canoe rentals with Tex's Riverways. We had also prearranged for permits in the Maze district of Canyonlands National Park.

Day 1: We checked in at Tex's in Moab, left our car there and took their shuttle out to Ruby Ranch in the morning. The first thing that we noticed about the Green River was there wasn't much current and that we would have to do some paddling. Our first night was at "Three Canyon" where we walked up the canyon after lunch. We went up a fair ways but not all the way to the top. One of the attractions to the Green River trip was the option to hike at various places along the river.

Day 2: We got a dusting of snow overnight and it slowed us down a little in the morning. It was the only campsite that we shared with others until Spanish Bottom, and we had a good chat with the paddlers from Wisconsin before starting out. Once the sun came up, the snow melted quickly. We stopped at and hiked the underwhelming "Hey Joe Canyon" and then carried on to a campsite before the Bowknot Bend.

Paddlers are required to bring fire pans (even if you don't have any fires like ourselves) and a self-contained portable toilet. We rented these items from Tex's; the advantage to the toilet, is you don't have to mess with cleaning it when you are all done. The toilet was relatively light to begin with, so at our second camp, I carried it up a ways for a throne view of the surroundings.

Day 3: We got off to an early, cold start as we had things to do. We paddled the Bowknot bend (and climbed up for views). We stopped further along for the fabulous walk up to the Colonade Arch. We made camp at Mineral Bottom.

Day 4: We paddled the morning to reach Anderson Bottom. It was important stop, as the spring allowed us to replenish our drinking water. Most of the other paddlers that we talked to at the beginning and end of the trip carried all of their water requirements, however we chose to rely on this reliable water source. Anderson Bottom looks like a huge flood plane and it attracted shorebirds in places. We had plenty of time to wander about, admire the flowering cacti, walk a small slot canyon and clamber the sandstone formations. It was quite agreeable.

Day 5: We pushed on and visited some small ruins below Turks Head before reaching the mouth of Jasper Canyon where we camped for the night. After lunch, we hiked up to see more ruins. Jasper is one of the few places never grazed by cattle as access is challenging and now the NPS prohibits any access, leaving it in pristine condition.

The Green River is heavily silted and it takes a long time for the particles to settle. We had brought along some aluminium silicate that accelerates the settling process. It takes a while, so we used the partly settled water for washing and not drinking or cooking.

Day 6: This was a transition day. We paddled along to the mouth of Water Canyon and then organized ourselves for a three night backpacking trip into the Maze District of Canyonlands NP. All of our permits were in place, including a cache permit for our our gear that we were leaving behind. Our remaining food was stored in a sealed plastic tote.

We hiked up Water Canyon up to Water Canyon Spring which took 3 or so hours in the afternoon. We filled up our water bottles from the free flowing spring and carried on a short distance, through a small pass into Shot Canyon. There were gravel patches that we could camp on (camping on the "living soil" is prohibited). We then clambered up the rocks at the pass area for dinner and some beautiful evening views of the canyons.

Day 7: We had a relatively long hiking day ahead of us and started early. The hike up Shot Canyon to Chimney Rock took close to 4 hours including on an interesting old cowboy exit trail at the top end of the canyon. Once we were up on the plateau, we encountered a park ranger in a 4WD who checked our permits. We followed the 4WD track and descended into Pictograph Canyon. It took about 3 hours from the Chimney Rock to the Harvest Scene Paintings. We did pass some standing water along the way, but did not need it.

The Harvest Scene Pictographs are likely around 2,000 years old and the difficulty of access adds to their mystique. We met another couple in the area who had day-hiked from their 4WD to see the Harvest Scene from the "Maze Overlook" trailhead. They were the only day-hikers that we encountered in the Maze. We did not encounter any back-packers on either of our overnight excursions. The first thing that most of the "Jeep people" asked us, was about water. There are reliable springs, but you need to know where they are and plan accordingly.

After the Harvest Scene visit, we continued on towards Pete's Mesa trail and a spring for the night.

Day 8: We climbed out of the Maze on Pete's Mesa trail back to Chimney rock in less than 4 hours. We encountered a jeep at Chimney Rock and the driver took our photograph up there.

The top part of Water canyon is tricky so we returned down Shot Canyon and back to the Water Canyon in roughly 2 .5 hours. in time for lunch. There all kinds of cool ledges that you can walk on at the bottom of Water canyon. So once we had found a place to pitch our tent, I looked around and found a place to get up on them. Once you are on the ledges, you can wander for hours.

Day 9: We spent part of the morning walking the ledges and then packed up for the hike down Water Canyon to the Green River in a little under 2hrs. We packed up our gear and jumped back into the canoe. It wasn't long before we reached the confluence of the two rivers (Green & Colorado). The Green has a larger volume of water than the Colorado.

We started seeing more people in this area. First a ranger in a motorboat checked our permits and whether we had fire pans and a portable toilet. Then we passed a crew working on destroying patches of invasive tamarisk trees along the shoreline and a second ranger checked our permits.. We camped at Spanish Bottom and prepared our backpacks for another backpack trip.

Day 10: After we cached our gear, we hiked up the hill to the Doll's House, a collection of nicely sculpted rocks. I carried extra water for our second night and stashed it before we continued on the lightly traveled but cairned trail through Ernie's Country towards the Fins. We had lunch a ways below the Fins. While Sheila took it easy, I carried on to Clell's Seep for more water. There was a pot in place to collect water, so emptied it into a Platypus container. While I waited for the pot to refill, drop by drop, I carried on and checked out a nearby slot canyon. An hour and a quarter later, I had an additional litre of water in the pot (though I needed most of it to re-hydrate from the excursion).

Then it was up to Fins and a campsite with a view. We wandered through the fins late in the day. It is an amazing place.

Day 11: We retraced our route through Ernie's Country and took a detour on the trail that brought us to the Confluence Overlook. Water is a big thing in the desert and we were happy to find some water pools from an earlier rain. We topped up our Platypus bags. Back at the Doll's House, we looked for a campsite some ways away, to fulfill the permit restrictions, and we had quick bush showers with the extra water that we had collected along the way. After dinner, we spent a delightful evening watching the light change on the Doll's House.

Day 12: We couldn't sleep-in on our last day because we had a boat to catch. We were moving by 6:00am and back down to the Colorado River and paddling across the river by 8:30am. There were all kinds of other canoeists milling about and the jet boat arrived around 9:30am. It took a while to lash all the canoes and get everyone's gear on board. We were boated up the Colorado to the Moab boat launch and then taken by bus back into Moab .

The Wilson Arch and Newspaper Rock are features close to the road, when driving to the Needles District from Moab.

The Needles, in Canyonlands NP, offers some of the best hiking in the US Southwest. Day hikes out of Squaw Valley campground are fabulous. Back-country permits are much sought after, but most of the Needles area is within range of day hikes, including a visit to the Druid Arch. We dropped into the back-country office to see what might be available at short notice. We cobbled together a four night trip. We had been to the Salt Creek area on an earlier 2011 trip and we knew there was much more to explore.

Our first two nights were within day range of Squaw Valley. We carried water for the first night into Chesler Park but picked up some water closer to our second night camp at Lost Canyon. The wind really picked up at Lost Canyon in the middle of the night and we feared that a desert oak tree might come crashing down on us, so we got up and moved our tent out of danger.

The Peekaboo Trail provided access to the Salt Creek drainage. Despite its name, the creek is not salty. Our at-large camping permits required us to camp a certain distance away from Salt Creek which was fine with us. There are all kinds of interesting, albeit dry, canyons around lower Salt Creek. We simply filled up with water and climbed into side canyons and found all kinds of inviting ledges to explore. On our 2011 trip, we had come across some ruins up on a ledge that were quite well preserved (link to 2011 photo album is near the bottom of this page).

The Cedar Mesa is south of Natural Bridges National Monument and north of the Valley of the Gods. If you are looking for Ancestral Puebloan ruins, the Cedar Mesa is the place to go. We car camped up on the mesa and did a series of day trips into the canyons.

We started with short hikes on the north side of the mesa to the Tower House ruins, and the Upper Butler and Mule canyons.

Owl & Fish Creek canyons can be combined as an overnight trip, but we did an in-and-out hike to Owl Creek Canyon and visited the Puebloan ruins.

Road Canyon offered us both the Ceiling (or Fallen Roof ) Ruins and the 7 Kivas both of which sit under ledges that offer some protection from the elements..

If we had to recommend just one Cedar Mesa day hike, we'd opt for the Upper Slickhorn Canyon for both scenery and the opportunity to visit the "Perfect Kiva" (a Pueblo place for spiritual ceremonies).

We left the Cedar Mesa via the Moki Dugway down to the area around Mexican Hat and the Valley of the Gods (we had visited and camped in the valley on an earlier visit).

Antelope Island is the largest island on Great Salt Lake. Although water levels had been shrinking recently, back in the mid 1980's water levels were so high that the island causeway was flooded, closed and rebuilt several years later. Large mammals like buffalo, pronghorn and big horn sheep wander the island but the gnats and mosquitoes must out-weigh all other animals by gross weight. By day, the bugs were quiet, but we haven't experienced bugs like that anywhere as night fell. We ran in terror from our car to the washrooms for showers on our one night that we stayed there (May 10).

After we left Utah, it was off to the moon for us, Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. The landscape is like no other, a product of lava flows over time. The lava oozed out of fissures and sometimes spewed from vents. It is a place where you learn the difference between a spatter cone and a cinder cone.

We moved through Montana and visited the heritage cities of Dillon, Butte and Helena.