"Over Hill and Under Hill" Canyonlands NP

Back on trail!! and what a trail! A 5 day hike up, over and under the otherworldly rock formations and canyons in the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

While sleeping on snow in Colorado and New Mexico, I often went to sleep fantasizing about the desert...
What a great way to get back on track after the "incident;" great weather, conditions, and incredible company.

the lowdown: Canyonlands NP is located upriver from the Grand Canyon, and as both are part of the Colorado Plateau, the rock is very similar. That is, primarily sandstone and limestone, the former appearing in various shades of red depending on iron content. The white limestone (i think it may technically be a shale) is harder, and erodes less easily. The resulting formations are spectacular. The major difference is scale; the canyons here are only a few hundred feet deep, but as a result, the rock formations (arches, needles, etc) are much more accessible.
dates: June 9-13
mileage, elevation +/- pinnacle: 55 miles, +/- 10,500'; 5,800'--Druid Arch
conditions: travel was mostly through, up and over, canyons and along "slickrock," the smooth rock that makes up most of the rock formations and canyon walls. Trails were well marked (by rock cairn and sign) and well maintained. Water was scarce but available on days 1-3, but days 4&5 were dry, and i had to plan accordingly (carry heavy water.)
weather: low 90s & sunny during day, no lower than 60's @ night, with clear skies. No precipitation (surprise.)
highlights: incredible scenery, great company, easy conditions, and sitting outside the tent at night to admire the sky (and bs with the guys i met.)
lowlights: really, just erasing my pics from Rocky Mtn NP and New Mexico while playing with my camera one night. So that's what "format memory card" does to 1.6 GB of pics and video!!

the hike: I had planned on getting here on the 10th, but as i was eager to get back on trail, i checked into arriving early with a ranger on the phone, and found that i could start a day early. All i needed to do was get to the backcountry office by 3, which i did, with only a few minutes to spare...After a gorgeous hike over slickrock and up and down canyons i got to camp at Salt Creek right at dusk. Salt Creek stays wet through the year, and is an area of archaeological significance, and i passed petroglyphs on the canyon walls that date to well before 1000 BCE. I had a great night in the warm desert air looking at the most amazing sky. The next day found me exploring nearby Horse Creek Canyon on and out and back hike (to the same campsite that night.) The canyon was a totally dry wash that probably only runs a few times a year. The formations were beautiful, and the hike was a good way to gauge what my water needs would be for the week, knowing that i had a good water source very near camp to rehydrate that night. But even better than the water was the company that showed up that night and camped not far from me--3 guys from the Bureau of Land Management on their 1st night of a trip into the backcountry. They worked with the University; one specialized in water quality, and the other 2 worked with insects. They were great company that night for quite a few hours. I set out down Salt Creek Canyon, as I'd heard it was beautiful. After about 3 miles, i retraced my steps to the campsite and continued on westward, out of Salt Creek Canyon. Descending into Salt Creek Canyon, I followed the (intermittent) creek a few miles into camp, Lost Creek 2, an incredibly beautiful campsite. Where i erased the memory card, holding all the pics from Chicago, Rocky Mtn NP, New Mexico, Mesa Verde... Basically, everything from the going away part to that moment. No big, i guess, b/c i'll never forget those places, but i do like to share.So, with lots of memory space to spare, i headed out the next day toward Chesler Park and the eponymous Needles formations. I planned a side trip down and out a canyon and up into a formation known as Druid Arch. I also expected to find water at the trail junction, but not again for the next 3 days or so as i headed west through Devil's Pocket towards to confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. I carry a "dromedary" for times like this in the desert, a 3 gal water bladder, which can be stretched to 2.5-3 days worth if you're careful, but it is also 18lbs when full. So if there's going to be an extended "dry" stretch like this in my route, i try to plan these days for the end, so food weight is down.At Druid Arch, I met 2 incredibly cool guys, from Brooklyn, natch. They were celebrating Ed's doctorate in neurobiology before starting his residency (the man can de-brain a mouse in less than 30 seconds, i hear.) His companion, John, had just finished shooting a movie in Buenos Aires, and could beat-box like i've never heard. Turns out that they were at a site less than a half mile from me that night, so we hiked out, filled up our water and headed to Chesler Park, which was a winter pasture for herders, and there is a ton of cowboy graffiti from the 1850's on to the mid 20th century on the rocks. We all hung out after dinner that night, and they were excited by the route i had planned for the next day: through the Joint trail, which narrows to less than 2' across between rock formations for a half mile, then onto the confluence. It was going to be a long day for me, and if they wanted to join it would be a really long day for them, as they planned on hiking 4 miles further that night, to get back to their car to keep on schedule. Despite all that, they were at my site the next am, ready to go, and we set off to explore the Joint trail and rivers. The former was incredible; we were forced to remove our packs to shimmy and slide through these cracks in the rocks, emerging at one point into a cavern where someone(s) had created a work of art using rocks. We continued on to the overlook of the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers, which is in a 1,500' deep canyon and is quite impressive. At this point, we were all pretty thirsty, having burned off a lot of water in a very exposed hike through Cyclone Canyon, where the sun was just merciless. With 6 miles to go to my camp for that night, this wasn't too much of a problem for me, knowing that i had at least 2 gal of water stashed there from when we had passed it earlier. By the time we did get back to camp, we were all pretty de-hydrated, having already hiked 14 miles. The only water we'd seen in over a day was a puddle, about 3 gallons, and full of tadpoles and algae, and it was tough not to want to try to filter that (it would've been potable, but tasted like tadpole piss and algae.)Rather than skimp on the water that i wanted to share with the guys, i decided that we should drink up, and i'd hike out with them. They could then drive me to my car, and we could all go to Moab that night. So we did, and finished with 18 miles and 3000' up and down under our belts. Needless to say, once we got to Moab, we ate very well that night, and all crashed in the same Days Inn. In fact, I'm pretty sure we got the last 2 rooms in town, as we had tried about 10 other places first with no luck. It was an incredible trip; great company, scenery and weather. Very low stress and high reward.