Friday – Sunday, January 8-10, 2021
After spending the first long weekend of 2021 along Comb Ridge with Diane, I was on my own this weekend since Diane has now started PA school and just had LASIK surgery on Thursday, and needed to rest her eyes for a few days. As many of you are probably aware of by now, the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park is one of my absolute favorite places to explore, so earlier in the week when I was deciding which area to go to on my first camping trip of the year, it was an easy decision for me to head that direction. This time I decided to mostly stay out of the heart of the The Needles and planned to spend more time along Indian Creek just outside of the park. I left after work on Friday, topped off my fuel tank in Moab and then finished the drive down along Indian Creek to a familiar campsite I have spent many nights at before. I then spent the rest of the weekend drifting through Indian Creek Country from South Six-Shooter Peak to Davis Canyon with a couple scattered petroglyph panels along the way.
A view of the La Sal Mountains at sunset as I drove across the snow-covered Cisco Desert on Friday evening.
It was a bit overcast as I climbed up South Six-Shooter Peak on Saturday morning, but as I walked around the base of the vertical Wingate wall, the clouds finally started to clear out a bit.
There was a great view across Indian Creek Country to Harts Point from up here.
The Very High Panel
Two views of the top of South Six-Shooter Peak
Looking back down the steep rocky slope I just descended.
Petroglyph on a Boulder
Here’s a closer look at the petroglyph with an inscription from 1890 lightly scratched above it.
A hoodoo on the edge of the mesa with North Six-Shooter Peak in the background.
I hiked all the way around South Six-Shooter before heading back down to my Jeep.
Hiking back down the climbers route I had followed to get up to South Six-Shooter.
Next up I headed over to Davis Canyon and went on another hike into Canyonlands National Park.
By this time the fast-moving clouds were looking great over the sandstone.
Junction Arch
I caught a sunstar through Flection Arch.
Even though I’ve been into Davis Canyon a couple of times in the past, for some reason I had never stopped to check out Log House Ruins, so I made sure to do that this time. They were much larger than I was expecting, but are also inaccessible, which was a bummer.
I liked the way the cutout in the canyon wall framed these ruins.
I explored a few side canyons before turning around and hiking back down the canyon.
There are some really great striped walls throughout Davis Canyon, which are always fun for me to photograph!
The rising sun begins to light up the sandstone along Indian Creek on this cold morning.
Bighorn Petroglyph
I sat in silence and watched the first light of the day strike this petroglyph panel as the sun came up over the canyon rim.
The Claw
Descending Dots
A really nice petroglyph panel on the side of a large boulder.
I’m wild about the glyphs. The photo labeled side canyon is particularly beautiful with the full tree in the near center. What a pleasure for you to be that far out you see no blabbery people.