salt creek canyon feedback

C

Carlos

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Jan 24, 2014
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88
Hi,


I need some feedback on a trip I am planning for 2017. I want to hike the Salt Creek Canyon in the Needles district in Canyonlands. I have read a couple of trip reports here and also googled some trip descriptions on the web. My current plan i:

On the first day start hiking at the Cathedral Butte entrance (on the Beef Basin road), hike all the way to campground 4 and spend the night there.

On the second day, hike up to Angel Arch and then hike back all the way to campground 3 and spend the night there (or maybe campgrounds 1 or 2 ...... if I decide to do day 3).

Now, on the third day ……… hike back to Cathedral Butte, but do it via Lavender Canyon. I got my hands on a google earth path that takes me from Kirch arch to Lavender Canyon and back to Cathedral Butte trailhead.



Is Lavender Canyon abundant on Indian ruins and art as much as Salt Creek ? My main interest in the hike is mostly the Indian ruins and art on Salt Creek. If there is also nice stuff in Lavender Canyon (plus natural arches), then that would be great.


I went to the BLM reservation site and its confusing the names they give to the campgrounds. https://canypermits.nps.gov/index.cfm?mode=sites



Are Upper Salt 1,2,3,4 the ones in Salt Creek Canyon ? I assume so, since they match the four that I see in the BLM maps of the area.

What is Davis/Lavender Zone ? I think I read that in the Lavender canyon you are allowed to camp anywhere. Is this that ?

What is the Salt/Horse Zone ?
 
That's a whole lot of rushing around for an area best experienced in the details, in my opinion.

Carlos said:
Are Upper Salt 1,2,3,4 the ones in Salt Creek Canyon ? I assume so, since they match the four that I see in the BLM maps of the area.

What is Davis/Lavender Zone ? I think I read that in the Lavender canyon you are allowed to camp anywhere. Is this that ?

What is the Salt/Horse Zone ?
Click to expand...

The zones are at-large camping, not specific campsites. You can see the zones on the needles district map. http://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/upload/needles.pdf
 
Nick said:
That's a whole lot of rushing around for an area best experienced in the details, in my opinion.



The zones are at-large camping, not specific campsites. You can see the zones on the needles district map. http://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/upload/needles.pdf
Click to expand...



ohhhh, now I see the zones. Dont I feel stupid :(

Yup, I thought it was too much hiking if I wanted to explore ruins in detail. That was a concern of mine. Maybe a 3 day hike and skipping Lavender Canyon would do it more justice ?
 
I spent this past weekend in Lavender Canyon. It's a nice canyon. Lots of arches and some indian ruins. But I'd probably choose to spend more time in Salt Creek than head over into Lavender.
 
Nick said:
Yes. I haven't done Lavender, but rushing though Salt Creek that fast would be pointless, IMO.
Click to expand...
I would really agree wholeheartedly UNLESS your point was to do a speedhike on purpose as in a R2R2R (rim to rim to rim crossing of the Grand Canyon). In that case, speed away, and plan on wanting to go back for quality time in the future. You're gonna need it.
 
Artemus said:
I would really agree wholeheartedly UNLESS your point was to do a speedhike on purpose as in a R2R2R (rim to rim to rim crossing of the Grand Canyon). In that case, speed away, and plan on wanting to go back for quality time in the future. You're gonna need it.
Click to expand...


Looks from the feedback here that I should settle on spending three days on Salt Creek Canyon exclusively. I ran the distances in google earth and like Artemus said, i would be speed walking and what I want to is stroll a find indian ruins and art and take my time to admire them. I've read that the BLM is now asking people to bring bear proof canisters. I know that in some parks you can rent then from them, can I do that here ?
 
Carlos said:
Looks from the feedback here that I should settle on spending three days on Salt Creek Canyon exclusively. I ran the distances in google earth and like Artemus said, i would be speed walking and what I want to is stroll a find indian ruins and art and take my time to admire them. I've read that the BLM is now asking people to bring bear proof canisters. I know that in some parks you can rent then from them, can I do that here ?
Click to expand...

The park does not rent them, but there other places you can.

I rented mine from the U of U rec. Affordable, but hated carrying that stupid thing.
 
Do NOT rush Salt Creek. There are a bunch of great sites to explore out there. Be sure to make a water resupply stop at the beautiful spring,just North of the cabin.
I could spend a month on Salt Creek easy.

Sent from my AN/PRC-150
 
Carlos said:
Hi,


I need some feedback on a trip I am planning for 2017. I want to hike the Salt Creek Canyon in the Needles district in Canyonlands. I have read a couple of trip reports here and also googled some trip descriptions on the web. My current plan i:

On the first day start hiking at the Cathedral Butte entrance (on the Beef Basin road), hike all the way to campground 4 and spend the night there.

On the second day, hike up to Angel Arch and then hike back all the way to campground 3 and spend the night there (or maybe campgrounds 1 or 2 ...... if I decide to do day 3).

Now, on the third day ……… hike back to Cathedral Butte, but do it via Lavender Canyon. I got my hands on a google earth path that takes me from Kirch arch to Lavender Canyon and back to Cathedral Butte trailhead.



Is Lavender Canyon abundant on Indian ruins and art as much as Salt Creek ? My main interest in the hike is mostly the Indian ruins and art on Salt Creek. If there is also nice stuff in Lavender Canyon (plus natural arches), then that would be great.


I went to the BLM reservation site and its confusing the names they give to the campgrounds. https://canypermits.nps.gov/index.cfm?mode=sites



Are Upper Salt 1,2,3,4 the ones in Salt Creek Canyon ? I assume so, since they match the four that I see in the BLM maps of the area.

What is Davis/Lavender Zone ? I think I read that in the Lavender canyon you are allowed to camp anywhere. Is this that ?

What is the Salt/Horse Zone ?
Click to expand...
 
We just got back from 4 nights in Salt Creek Canyon, all spent at SC1, which is the superior site to neighboring SC2. We had three full days to explore the area and would've enjoyed more!
 
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