In The Shadow of Longs Peak
Canyonlands
20 October 1998 – 25 October 1998
Canyonlands, Utah (with Gary H.)
I am up early on Tuesday (early for me anyway) and on the road by 6:45 AM (45 minutes later than planned). Most packing had been done on the weekend or the night before and here I am with 5 days ahead of me with no work, no cares, and no responsibilities and no gnarly mountains to climb. On vacation: rest, relaxation, no schedule and no goals.
I get to Gary’s by 7:30 AM and we combine and repack. I have an incredible amount of stuff. It will be interesting to see what I don’t use. Before long, we are on our way with a quick stop at King Soopers for ice then on to I-70 headed west past all the familiar places: Floyd Hill, Idaho Springs, Georgetown, the Eisenhower Tunnel.
We stop at Copper to get our season’s passes. No line, yippee! The farther west we go, the places are less familiar: Vail, Beaver Creek, Glenwood Springs. We stop in Glenwood Canyon for a lunch of sandwiches, brownies and pop. Then back on the road.
Beyond Glenwood the names and places are even more unfamiliar. I close my eyes and sleep and now we are in Grand Junction getting gas…at this point we are about half-way. We are well past the mountains and into the high desert – the Colorado Plateau – more arid, less green, and more open vistas. Eventually we turn south toward Moab. Along the way, formations of red rock tower over us.
We continue south another 40 miles or so then turn west toward Canyonland National Park (Needles District). The rock becomes even more intriguing: Bands of red and white, tall and narrow with pockets of green at the bottom.
This will be our home for a day or too.
Notes: This place is called the Needles: Spires of rock jut up, one after the other and thus it’s namesake. This is not the desert as I expected as there is lots of sagebrush and lots of short grass. And lots of sand, all red colored. This reminds me of Wyoming and it definitely is not barren. The rocks are banded, red with white and many form a horseshoe with a canyon at the center, and are lush with juniper, pinon, various grasses and cottonwood turning gold.