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- Aug 9, 2007
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May 2011
I probably go on more than my fair share of camping and backpacking trips, but as my wife, audraiam , says, ''you have a passion, so go do it". The only sad thing about it is that I rarely get to bring her with me when I go. It's not all bad though, it's definitely nice to have her at home to watch the house and whichever of our three dogs I didn't bring but at the same time it means a lot of time apart. It's not that Audra is against hiking and camping, although she is more of a fair-weather camper than I am. The real issue is that Audra is in the Professional MBA program at the University of Utah and between that and work she has no time for much of anything. So when there is a break between semesters it presents an excellent opportunity to take a trip together.
We had initially planned a longer trip to Coyote Gulch the following weekend but due to the availability of a dog-sitter we ended up backpacking Chesler Park in The Needles district of Canyonlands National Park instead. I had secured a permit there about a month earlier so that I could take Kevin Wellard out on an intro to backpacking. It was just days after returning from my trip into The Maze but we only had a few weekends to work with before another big trip that he had wanted to come on so I figured I could make it work. But as luck would have it, a broken tooth killed that plan knocking Kevin out of both trips and leaving me wondering if I would finally get out to Chesler Park or not.
We left Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon. It's nearly 5 hours to The Needles from SLC so we decided we would get down to The San Rafael Swell, check out a few things and car camp there before heading onto The Needles on Saturday morning. Instead of heading out of Price through Wellington we diverted southwest on Highway 10 through Castle Dale and Ferron and took the Moore Cutoff Road to I-70 where we stopped to see some rock art and dinosaur tracks.
Our first stop was at a spot with a few different petroglyphs. This one is called the Molen Snake.
And this panel is nearby, too bad it's been vandalized over the years.
After that we made our way to one I was pretty excited to see. This is one is called The Juggler. It's a pretty cool rock art panel with some very cool surroundings. The giant boulders nearby make me think that perhaps whoever created this thought of these boulders as being like giant objects that some sort of supernatural juggler dropped randomly around the field. Notice Audra in the background pretending to hold up a rock for scale.
After the rock art we stopped to see some dinosaur tracks. I've yet to be super impressed by dino tracks I've seen but at least these had some decent shape to them.
From there we decided to head out to our camp for the night. We were driving Audra's Toyota Venza so I wasn't sure which campsites we would be able to get into. I'm so used to driving my Tacoma on trips like this. The wind wasn't very bad so we decided to go for a spot that I had visited last year on Cliff Dweller Flat just south of I-70 in The Swell. It's definitely not a good spot to be on a windy night but the views out there might make up for it. Just as we arrived the sun slipped down below the cloud ceiling and gave us some great evening light.
Audra and I
And the sunset as the last bit of sun slipped away.
Audra enjoying our campfire.
A quick shot of Arson's Garden and Eardley Canyon as we were packing up in the morning.
We packed up camp quickly on Saturday morning and made our way towards The Needles. Moab was an insane, tourist-filled hell hole. We had to stop for a couple of things there and I couldn't get out fast enough. It's amazing how much more I like that place in the winter when no one is there. After another hour or so we finally arrived at The Needles visitor center. It wasn't very busy there but there were a couple of people in front of us in line at the backcountry desk where we needed to pickup our backpacking permit. The first group was in and out pretty fast but the next guy had some interesting questions that I couldn't help but overhear. He was from Seattle and was asking something about jeeping around The Needles at first and then he started inquiring about what the roads are like in 'The Mesas' and where the closest gas is. The woman at the BC desk seemed confused and assumed that he was talking about Island in The Sky so she started telling him all about the White Rim Road, etc.
After many confused exchanges I had to chime in and say something, "You mean, The Maze, right"? "Uh, yeah, that's it", the man said. I assumed at this point the ranger would explain to him that The Maze is not a trip to be taken lightly, maybe explain how permits would be very difficult if not impossible to get last minute, the level of self reliance required, etc. But that didn't really happen, he asked about what would happen if it rained and she said he would need to be prepared to be stranded in there for a few days but that's about the scariest thing she said. I was really surprised, I had after all just spent nearly a week in The Maze just 5 days earlier and I knew the kind of planning that a trip out there involves. Eventually I stepped in and started explaining my trip to the guy, how he would need to be prepared to go upwards of 200 miles without a gas station, how rough Teapot Canyon is and how long it takes to get out to The Dollhouse. He thanked me and went about his day. It never seemed to me like he quite got it though. I really got the impression that he was just looking for another Moab rock crawling trail and that 'The Mesas' sounded perfect. I can't help but wonder how many people show up out at Hans Flat going to see 'The Mesas' without a clue as to what they are getting themselves into.
But I digress. After a short chat with the ranger at the backcountry desk we had permit in hand and were on our way down the nice graded dirt road to the Elephant Hill trailhead. The trailhead was packed full and we ended up parking way down the road in the overflow area. We got our packs loaded up and we were on our way.
There are no water sources in Chesler Park so we had to pack a lot of water. That meant very heavy packs for the hike in. Lucky for us, our campsite for the night CP1, was not far into Chesler Park. I would guess only a little more than 3 miles from the trailhead with a good amount of up and down, but mostly up. To make the heavy packs situation even more fun, the temperatures were far above average, pushing 90 degrees. HOT!!
Audra in little slot on the descent into Elephant Canyon.
We went straight to our camp and had lunch before setting out on the loop hike around Chesler Park. I'm going to skip showing you any pictures of that part until later in the day when the light was so much better. After a mile or two of hiking clockwise on the Chesler Park loop the trail comes to a very fun section called The Joint Trail. The entrance is made of stone stairs and then wraps a corner into a long straight slot with black walls and pink sand. This shot is looking down at Audra as I descend the stairs.
Audra starting down the slot.
A little drop in the slot.
Audra approaching daylight in between joints.
Entering the Temple of the Cairns
Okay so I don't really know what these place is called so until I'm told otherwise I'll refer to it as the Temple of the Cairns because I think it is fitting. There are probably hundreds of cairns lined up all over this subway section of the canyon. The light and feel in there was so awesome.
Immediately outside the Temple of the Cairns is this very tight staircase.
After a bit of hiking the trail ends up at the Chesler Canyon trailhead. If you have 4WD this is the way to get to Chesler Park but no one was parked there. Bizarre in my opinion. The trail is so awesome through the Joint Trail, I would love to go in this way and skip all the up and downs going the other way. One other noteworthy item if you go, there is a pit toilet at that trailhead so if you're hiking the Chesler loop and have kids or anyone who would like better facilities, keep that in mind. From that trailhead you have to walk .9 miles on this nice dirt road before getting back on the trail that gets you back up into Chesler.
Back on the trail. I don't know what it is with lizards and cairns but they seemed to love them on this hike. This was definitely the biggest lizard on a cairn that we saw along the way.
Looking back from where we came through Chesler Canyon on the ascent back up.
There's a little bit of scrambling involved on this end of the loop but nothing bad.
Almost back into Chesler Park. This section was deceivingly long in my opinion. Maybe that was because we were out of water and it was bloody hot outside.
Audra hiking near the usual entrance into Chesler Park. Camp is near.
CP1 is a great campsite on so many levels. After we made it back I grabbed a few things and we went through a notch on the other side of camp where there is an awesome ledge with great panoramic views of Elephant Canyon.
Backcountry campsite CP1
The evening light around camp was fantastic. I wandered off for a while to take some shots. A few clouds would have been nice but you can't complain with light like this.
This spot is about 500 feet away from our camp along the main trail. Killer view of Elephant Canyon.
When I got back to camp Audra had everything setup, she even inflated my air mattress. Could she be more awesome? And speaking of awesome, I can say with no doubt that CP1 is the very best of the five campsites in Chesler Park. It's the most secluded and it has incredible views from all sides and good shelter amongst the rocks. Highly recommended.
Dusk as seen from our camp tarp while eating dinner.
After it got dark I got my things together to go shoot some star trails at the Elephant Canyon overlook around the corner from camp. As I was walking out I almost stepped on a very large scorpion. Naturally I chased it into some rocks where I setup my camera and then moved the rocks away for a picture. It doesn't look very big here because it's all scrunched up. Also, that beer can is a double-size 24 ounce beer can. Right after I took this shot it freaked out and started attacking my beer can before running off into more rocks. Good times.
Audra and I sat out in the dark watching the stars for about 30 minutes while I shot star trails. Seeing the scorpion on the way there didn't make her very comfortable with it but there were no more sightings that night. The glow on the horizon in this shot is from Moab in the distance.
The next morning we had planned to wake up and hike to Druid Arch on the way back but we had a problem. We were pretty much out of water. We had packed in 11 liters of water, 1 powerade and my two 24 oz beers. Yes, I know, the beer won't help for hydration but I feel I need to mention it to show how heavy our packs were! It was supposed to be very hot again so we decided to skip oatmeal and use our 1/2 liter of remaining water for the hike back out to Elephant Hill. On the bright side, the morning light in Chesler Park was beautiful and the cool morning temperatures were a pleasure to hike in. My book listed this loop as 10.9 miles, with extra hiking to and from camp I figure we did a solid 12 and if you factor in the heat it felt like 20. I look forward to coming back through, hopefully from the back door next time.
I probably go on more than my fair share of camping and backpacking trips, but as my wife, audraiam , says, ''you have a passion, so go do it". The only sad thing about it is that I rarely get to bring her with me when I go. It's not all bad though, it's definitely nice to have her at home to watch the house and whichever of our three dogs I didn't bring but at the same time it means a lot of time apart. It's not that Audra is against hiking and camping, although she is more of a fair-weather camper than I am. The real issue is that Audra is in the Professional MBA program at the University of Utah and between that and work she has no time for much of anything. So when there is a break between semesters it presents an excellent opportunity to take a trip together.
We had initially planned a longer trip to Coyote Gulch the following weekend but due to the availability of a dog-sitter we ended up backpacking Chesler Park in The Needles district of Canyonlands National Park instead. I had secured a permit there about a month earlier so that I could take Kevin Wellard out on an intro to backpacking. It was just days after returning from my trip into The Maze but we only had a few weekends to work with before another big trip that he had wanted to come on so I figured I could make it work. But as luck would have it, a broken tooth killed that plan knocking Kevin out of both trips and leaving me wondering if I would finally get out to Chesler Park or not.
We left Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon. It's nearly 5 hours to The Needles from SLC so we decided we would get down to The San Rafael Swell, check out a few things and car camp there before heading onto The Needles on Saturday morning. Instead of heading out of Price through Wellington we diverted southwest on Highway 10 through Castle Dale and Ferron and took the Moore Cutoff Road to I-70 where we stopped to see some rock art and dinosaur tracks.
Our first stop was at a spot with a few different petroglyphs. This one is called the Molen Snake.
And this panel is nearby, too bad it's been vandalized over the years.
After that we made our way to one I was pretty excited to see. This is one is called The Juggler. It's a pretty cool rock art panel with some very cool surroundings. The giant boulders nearby make me think that perhaps whoever created this thought of these boulders as being like giant objects that some sort of supernatural juggler dropped randomly around the field. Notice Audra in the background pretending to hold up a rock for scale.
After the rock art we stopped to see some dinosaur tracks. I've yet to be super impressed by dino tracks I've seen but at least these had some decent shape to them.
From there we decided to head out to our camp for the night. We were driving Audra's Toyota Venza so I wasn't sure which campsites we would be able to get into. I'm so used to driving my Tacoma on trips like this. The wind wasn't very bad so we decided to go for a spot that I had visited last year on Cliff Dweller Flat just south of I-70 in The Swell. It's definitely not a good spot to be on a windy night but the views out there might make up for it. Just as we arrived the sun slipped down below the cloud ceiling and gave us some great evening light.
Audra and I
And the sunset as the last bit of sun slipped away.
Audra enjoying our campfire.
A quick shot of Arson's Garden and Eardley Canyon as we were packing up in the morning.
We packed up camp quickly on Saturday morning and made our way towards The Needles. Moab was an insane, tourist-filled hell hole. We had to stop for a couple of things there and I couldn't get out fast enough. It's amazing how much more I like that place in the winter when no one is there. After another hour or so we finally arrived at The Needles visitor center. It wasn't very busy there but there were a couple of people in front of us in line at the backcountry desk where we needed to pickup our backpacking permit. The first group was in and out pretty fast but the next guy had some interesting questions that I couldn't help but overhear. He was from Seattle and was asking something about jeeping around The Needles at first and then he started inquiring about what the roads are like in 'The Mesas' and where the closest gas is. The woman at the BC desk seemed confused and assumed that he was talking about Island in The Sky so she started telling him all about the White Rim Road, etc.
After many confused exchanges I had to chime in and say something, "You mean, The Maze, right"? "Uh, yeah, that's it", the man said. I assumed at this point the ranger would explain to him that The Maze is not a trip to be taken lightly, maybe explain how permits would be very difficult if not impossible to get last minute, the level of self reliance required, etc. But that didn't really happen, he asked about what would happen if it rained and she said he would need to be prepared to be stranded in there for a few days but that's about the scariest thing she said. I was really surprised, I had after all just spent nearly a week in The Maze just 5 days earlier and I knew the kind of planning that a trip out there involves. Eventually I stepped in and started explaining my trip to the guy, how he would need to be prepared to go upwards of 200 miles without a gas station, how rough Teapot Canyon is and how long it takes to get out to The Dollhouse. He thanked me and went about his day. It never seemed to me like he quite got it though. I really got the impression that he was just looking for another Moab rock crawling trail and that 'The Mesas' sounded perfect. I can't help but wonder how many people show up out at Hans Flat going to see 'The Mesas' without a clue as to what they are getting themselves into.
But I digress. After a short chat with the ranger at the backcountry desk we had permit in hand and were on our way down the nice graded dirt road to the Elephant Hill trailhead. The trailhead was packed full and we ended up parking way down the road in the overflow area. We got our packs loaded up and we were on our way.
There are no water sources in Chesler Park so we had to pack a lot of water. That meant very heavy packs for the hike in. Lucky for us, our campsite for the night CP1, was not far into Chesler Park. I would guess only a little more than 3 miles from the trailhead with a good amount of up and down, but mostly up. To make the heavy packs situation even more fun, the temperatures were far above average, pushing 90 degrees. HOT!!
Audra in little slot on the descent into Elephant Canyon.
We went straight to our camp and had lunch before setting out on the loop hike around Chesler Park. I'm going to skip showing you any pictures of that part until later in the day when the light was so much better. After a mile or two of hiking clockwise on the Chesler Park loop the trail comes to a very fun section called The Joint Trail. The entrance is made of stone stairs and then wraps a corner into a long straight slot with black walls and pink sand. This shot is looking down at Audra as I descend the stairs.
Audra starting down the slot.
A little drop in the slot.
Audra approaching daylight in between joints.
Entering the Temple of the Cairns
Okay so I don't really know what these place is called so until I'm told otherwise I'll refer to it as the Temple of the Cairns because I think it is fitting. There are probably hundreds of cairns lined up all over this subway section of the canyon. The light and feel in there was so awesome.
Immediately outside the Temple of the Cairns is this very tight staircase.
After a bit of hiking the trail ends up at the Chesler Canyon trailhead. If you have 4WD this is the way to get to Chesler Park but no one was parked there. Bizarre in my opinion. The trail is so awesome through the Joint Trail, I would love to go in this way and skip all the up and downs going the other way. One other noteworthy item if you go, there is a pit toilet at that trailhead so if you're hiking the Chesler loop and have kids or anyone who would like better facilities, keep that in mind. From that trailhead you have to walk .9 miles on this nice dirt road before getting back on the trail that gets you back up into Chesler.
Back on the trail. I don't know what it is with lizards and cairns but they seemed to love them on this hike. This was definitely the biggest lizard on a cairn that we saw along the way.
Looking back from where we came through Chesler Canyon on the ascent back up.
There's a little bit of scrambling involved on this end of the loop but nothing bad.
Almost back into Chesler Park. This section was deceivingly long in my opinion. Maybe that was because we were out of water and it was bloody hot outside.
Audra hiking near the usual entrance into Chesler Park. Camp is near.
CP1 is a great campsite on so many levels. After we made it back I grabbed a few things and we went through a notch on the other side of camp where there is an awesome ledge with great panoramic views of Elephant Canyon.
Backcountry campsite CP1
The evening light around camp was fantastic. I wandered off for a while to take some shots. A few clouds would have been nice but you can't complain with light like this.
This spot is about 500 feet away from our camp along the main trail. Killer view of Elephant Canyon.
When I got back to camp Audra had everything setup, she even inflated my air mattress. Could she be more awesome? And speaking of awesome, I can say with no doubt that CP1 is the very best of the five campsites in Chesler Park. It's the most secluded and it has incredible views from all sides and good shelter amongst the rocks. Highly recommended.
Dusk as seen from our camp tarp while eating dinner.
After it got dark I got my things together to go shoot some star trails at the Elephant Canyon overlook around the corner from camp. As I was walking out I almost stepped on a very large scorpion. Naturally I chased it into some rocks where I setup my camera and then moved the rocks away for a picture. It doesn't look very big here because it's all scrunched up. Also, that beer can is a double-size 24 ounce beer can. Right after I took this shot it freaked out and started attacking my beer can before running off into more rocks. Good times.
Audra and I sat out in the dark watching the stars for about 30 minutes while I shot star trails. Seeing the scorpion on the way there didn't make her very comfortable with it but there were no more sightings that night. The glow on the horizon in this shot is from Moab in the distance.
The next morning we had planned to wake up and hike to Druid Arch on the way back but we had a problem. We were pretty much out of water. We had packed in 11 liters of water, 1 powerade and my two 24 oz beers. Yes, I know, the beer won't help for hydration but I feel I need to mention it to show how heavy our packs were! It was supposed to be very hot again so we decided to skip oatmeal and use our 1/2 liter of remaining water for the hike back out to Elephant Hill. On the bright side, the morning light in Chesler Park was beautiful and the cool morning temperatures were a pleasure to hike in. My book listed this loop as 10.9 miles, with extra hiking to and from camp I figure we did a solid 12 and if you factor in the heat it felt like 20. I look forward to coming back through, hopefully from the back door next time.
