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Tag: salt creek

Beef Basin & Gypsum Canyon

Thursday – Sunday, November 1-4, 2012

After work on Thursday evening I got in my Jeep and drove into Utah again. I had taken Friday off from work and was planning on meeting a group of friends in Beef Basin for a long weekend of camping and exploring the area. A few months earlier my friend Rob had tipped me off about a large petroglyph panel in the area he knew I would be interested in finding, and that was the beginning of planning for this trip. I arrived at our predetermined campsite in the dark and found Marty already there with his tent setup and a campfire already going. I was surprised to only be the second person there but knew the others would arrive shortly. Twenty minutes later Alex, Rob and his companions showed up. We sat around the fire for a little while waiting for the others, but headed to bed before anyone else arrived since we planned an early start for the following day. As soon as we were in our sleeping bags Jared and his brother Brian showed up. Later that night I heard Dave and his son pull up in their Jeep. We had all made it.

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The Elusive Horse Canyon

Saturday & Sunday, July 14-15, 2012

I first tried to explore Horse Canyon in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park back in 2008 when I camped at Peekaboo with a few friends. Back then the entrance to the canyon had been washed out pretty good and there was a very deep hole blocking vehicle entry. For the past two years I have been checking the condition of the road so that I could finally get back there to start exploring the area, but both the Salt Creek and Horse Canyon roads have been washed out and closed for that long. I have hiked up Salt Creek Canyon twice during those two years, but Horse Canyon was a bit too long for a day hike. A few weeks ago I finally received word that the National Parks Service had finally reopened the roads in Salt Creek and Horse Canyon, so I quickly made plans to get back. I reserved a campsite at Peekaboo for the weekend and invited Jared and Marty to come along.

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A Wet and Cool Weekend in The Needles

Saturday & Sunday, October 4-5, 2008

Before heading to NAXJA’s 25th Anniversary event in Moab, I headed to Canyonlands Needles District where I met up with Jared, Alex, Maria and Adam for a weekend of exploring the area. After leaving the house at 5am and taking the back way through Gateway, I managed to make it to the ranger station shortly after 9am. Alex had reserved a Peekaboo campsite in Salt Creek Canyon earlier this year, however it was only good for three vehicles and we now had four. Luckily for us, the other site was not reserved, so we grabbed that one as well. While we were getting our camping permits and finding out that Horse Canyon was closed due to a large washout, we ended up getting day permits for Lavender canyon.

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