Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: lockhart basin road

Drifting Around Indian Creek Country IIIDrifting Around Indian Creek Country III

Drifting Around Indian Creek Country III

Friday – Sunday, January 26-28, 2024

January has kind of been off to a rough start for me and I was really feeling the need to get away for the weekend alone and in a place that I am familiar with and comfortable in; a place that feels like home. So I decided to spend the weekend hiking and camping in Indian Creek Country, which has been one of my favorite places to explore the past couple of years, especially in the winter when there aren’t many other people around. Anyways, if you saw my post from earlier this month, you might have noticed that my Jeep has been out of commission for a few weeks by now, and the good news is that I finally got it back from being repaired earlier this week. One of the camshafts in the engine needed to be replaced, which had been on backorder for a little while, and thankfully the powertrain of my Jeep was still just barely under warranty. Since I had already paid for a rental car through this upcoming Monday, I figured I would leave the Jeep home and take the rental Ford Explorer out this weekend instead. I left from work on Friday afternoon and made my way south through Moab and down the Indian Creek Corridor, where I found a campsite along the road to Lockhart Basin just after sunset. I then spent the remainder of the weekend just wandering around the canyon country to see what I would find along the way. Below are some photos from my wanderings this weekend.

CONTINUE READINGDrifting Around Indian Creek Country III
Leave a Comment
Exploring Desert Stone: Harts Draw to Indian CreekExploring Desert Stone: Harts Draw to Indian Creek

Exploring Desert Stone: Harts Draw to Indian Creek

Tracing the Historic Route of the 1859 Macomb Expedition, Part II
Friday – Sunday, October 27-29, 2023

It’s now been almost an entire year since I started my quest to follow and explore the historic route of the 1859 Macomb Expedition, also known as the San Juan Exploring Expedition, which contained a small detachment of men who were quite possibly the first non-native Americans to view and describe what is now Canyonlands National Park. During that trip I followed the Old Spanish Trail across Dry Valley from Cañon Pintado (East Canyon) to Casa Colorado and then steadily climbed up Hatch Point until I was at the edge of the rim overlooking Cañon Colorado (Harts Draw) and the greater Canyonlands region. That point was roughly in the same area where Captain Macomb and his men would have had their first view of the region that would later become known as The Needles and where they would most likely have begun their descent to the canyons below in search of The Confluence of the Green and Grand Rivers. This weekend I set out to continue following their historic route as it descended from the rim of Hatch Point into Harts Draw and then I would continue downstream into Labyrinth Cañon (Indian Creek Canyon). Although I had hoped to follow the route segments in order, except that I had planned to start hiking from the bottom of Harts Draw up to the rim since I thought route-finding would be easier in that direction, but stormy weather on Saturday altered my plans a bit and I ended up hiking the segments out of order.

CONTINUE READINGExploring Desert Stone: Harts Draw to Indian Creek
Leave a Comment
Kept in The Loop at The NeedlesKept in The Loop at The Needles

Kept in The Loop at The Needles

Friday – Sunday, March 4-6, 2022

I ended up staying home last weekend because a winter storm had moved through the area during the week and dropped plenty of snow and also the temperature, so I was anxious to get back outside this weekend and thought this would be a good time to head back to The Needles once more before things start getting busy there for the spring season. Back in the late summer of 2020 when I floated the Colorado River through Meander Canyon we didn’t quite make it all the way to The Confluence like we had hoped to and ended up stopping shortly after entering The Loop. Since then I’ve wanted to get back and try exploring more of The Loop by foot and thought this weekend would be the perfect opportunity to give that a shot. As the weekend was approaching, I was keeping my eye on another storm system was that was going to be impacting the area and almost cancelled my plans again, but with conflicting forecasts I decided to take my chances and hoped that I would be able to hike around the weather this time. I’m glad I took the chance because the weather in The Needles was great for hiking and most of the storm system missed this area completely.

CONTINUE READINGKept in The Loop at The Needles
3 Comments
The Land In-Between: Around The NeedlesThe Land In-Between: Around The Needles

The Land In-Between: Around The Needles

Friday – Monday, January 14-17, 2022

Well here it is, my first Trip Report of 2022! This wasn’t originally supposed to be my first trip of 2022, but we ended up cancelling our plans over New Years Day weekend because of the weather and then I decided to take last weekend off, too. So now it’s time to get back at it again, and what better way to start off the year then by spending a three-day weekend exploring one of my absolute favorite places on the Colorado Plateau– The Needles! As usual, I left after work on Friday afternoon and made my way down to The Needles and found a place to camp along the Lockhart Basin Road. Then I spent the rest of the weekend exploring the Land In Between the more popular trails in the park to see what I could find along the way and ended up hiking over 36 miles. It felt good to put in some higher miles this weekend since I’ve been taking it easier after my incident in November.

CONTINUE READINGThe Land In-Between: Around The Needles
4 Comments
Drifting Around Indian Creek CountryDrifting Around Indian Creek Country

Drifting Around Indian Creek Country

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.

CONTINUE READINGDrifting Around Indian Creek Country
1 Comment