Monday, April 17, 2017

Canyonlands National Park ~ Needles

Ella has had a cold since the day we left. It seems to be getting worse and she spent most of the night coughing, which means we all slept very little. We packed up quickly this morning and on the 50 minute drive from Willow Flat campground to Arches NP we were trying to decide what we wanted to do within Arches. Many of the roads and attractions within the park are closed for construction. When we reached the turnoff for the visitor center we found a wait of over an hour, just to get into the park!! The kids said that they had already seen several good arches, so we drove on past! I do really want to go back at some point when they finish the updating.
We were able to get gas, fill up our water tank and get fire wood in Moab as we drove through. The drive to the southern part of Canyonlands NP ~ Needles, was not surprisingly beautiful! We didn’t get as lucky with the 14 first come first serve sites in Squaw Flat, but we were able to get a great spot just outside the park at the privately owned Needles Outpost. The kids (and Carl) ended up spending tons of time scrambling on the rocks right behind our site while I wrote posts for our first several days. When we first arrived there were a handful of the biggest wasps we’ve ever seen, they caused quite a bit of drama with both kids, but they soon tired of us and flew away. We spent a couple of hours playing card games under our shade structure while hiding from the blazing sun. We had our fist smores, a beautiful sunset and crummy showers! By evening Ryan had come down with Ella’s cold, but she seems to be feeling a bit better. We all shared water bottles and such the first few days, so now Carl and I are just crossing our fingers that we don’t get sick…
The next morning was more rock scrambling and then we went to the Needles visitor center and hiked the Cave Springs Trail. In addition to the amazing views, we saw lots of animal tracks, and cowboy camps. I especially liked how they used flattened tin cans to seal the edges of their grain lockers.
















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