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Tag: lockhart basin road

Below Hatch Point: Indian Creek to Lockhart Canyon

Friday – Sunday, November 20-22, 2020

After spending a great weekend in the Canyon Rims Recreation Area earlier this month, I thought it was time I returned below the rim of Hatch Point to spend some more time along the Lockhart Basin Road between Indian Creek and Lockhart Canyon. I left after work on Friday and decided to drive through Moab this time instead of going through Gateway. As I expected, traffic was backed up outside of town and it took me about forty minutes to get through town and on my way again. I finished the drive in the dark and found a campsite along the road leading to Lockhart Basin. This is usually one of my go-to places to camp when I’m visiting The Needles, and I have never seen so many people camped in this area before! It was crazy busy!

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Hatch Point: The Other Island in the Sky

Halloween Weekend Exploring the Canyon Rims Recreation Area Under a Blue Hunter’s Moon
Friday – Sunday, October 31 – November 1, 2020

Talk about a stacked weekend! Not only was it Halloween on Saturday, but there was also going to be a Blue Moon along with the Daylight Savings Time change overnight, and I knew that I definitely wanted to spend this weekend exploring the Canyonlands region some more. Aside from a brief but amazing evening at the Needles Overlook in January, it’s been a while since I spent any real time in the Canyon Rims Recreation Area and I thought that it would be fun to spend a full weekend exploring Hatch Point again. Aside from a couple of semi-popular overlooks, I feel like this area which is located just to the east of Canyonlands National Park gets overlooked and I would like to see more of it!

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West Side Wandering: Fingers of Salt Creek Canyon

Thursday – Sunday, March 12-15, 2020

This year for our annual early season backpacking trip to The Needles we returned to one of my favorite places on the Colorado Plateau- Salt Creek Canyon. Although I have spent a lot of time in this canyon over the years, Diane had never been here before, so I was looking forward to showing her around on her first visit and searching for new traces of the ancient ones that called this canyon home. Instead of it being just the two of us, this time we also invited our friend Jerry along since I know he’s always up for a nice walk through Salt Creek Canyon. We planned to meet up with him on Friday morning at the Visitor Center since I had to stop there to pick up the permit that I had reserved online four months in advance.

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Secrets of Canyonlands

Friday – Sunday, March 22-24, 2019

This past week was an unusual one for me since I spent most of it in Rifle, Colorado attending a training class so I could get a Remote Pilot Certification (FAA Small UAS Rule, Part 107) for work. The funny thing is that I have never touched a drone in my life, and as of Friday morning I am now an FAA certified Drone Pilot! After taking the required test at the Grand Junction Airport on Friday morning and then having lunch with Diane afterwards, I drove into Utah through scattered storms to Moab before continuing on to The Needles for the second weekend in a row. On Sunday morning I was going to be meeting up with my friend Clyde so we could go on a hike together, but until then I was going to be spending Friday evening and all day Saturday revisiting a few rock art sites and searching for new ruins and rock art panels on my own. I would find a couple of secrets along the way…

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Lost Canyon Loop

Thursday – Sunday, March 14-17, 2019

Last March Diane and I had such a nice time backpacking through Chesler Park and Elephant Canyon in Canyonlands National Park on our first backpacking trip of the season, that we decided to head back to The Needles for another early season backpacking trip this year, too! I think this might become one of our new annual traditions, at least for a couple of years! The Needles is a great place to get back into backpacking mode after taking a few months off, so at the end of last year I reserved a couple of campsites during the first full weekend that the park was back open and operational again in the middle of March for our trip. This year we decided to hike a loop through Lost Canyon and Big Spring Canyon because it had been almost seven years since the last time I hiked through Lost Canyon and I wanted to get back to explore it more thoroughly.

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