IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Memorial Weekend in The Needles | Day 1
Saturday, May 26, 2012

Bright and early Saturday morning I was up and headed to The Needles District of Canyonlands National park to meet up with a few friends for the Memorial Day weekend. I made pretty good time and was soon on my way over Elephant Hill and at our campsite in Devils Kitchen. It took my just under four hours to reach the campsite from my house in Grand Junction. I quickly setup my tent and we were soon on our way to start hiking and exploring.

We started out by searching a new area of Devil’s Lane hoping to find something new. We did end up finding a few small panels of handprints which seem to be very common in The Needles.

White Hands by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Red Hands by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

After taking a few photos of the handprints and searching the area a little more we started our hike from Devil’s Lane over to Cyclone Canyon. I should mention that it was VERY windy out! As we started the hike in Devil’s Lane we had to watch out for rolling tumbleweeds blowing through the graben. It was a sight to see tumbleweeds racing down the lane. The skies were also full of dust for much of the day, blocking the sunlight and blue sky.

The view down into Cyclone Canyon as we started the descent.

Cyclone Canyon by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
 

Friday – Sunday, May 18-20, 2012

A few months back I managed to get another pair of permits to the Coyote Buttes North area so that Amanda and I could visit The Wave again and explore a few new areas. It turns out that I had picked a great weekend to go without originally realizing it. Our permits were for Saturday May 19th and it just so happens that the Annular Solar Eclipse was going to be happening on Sunday the 20th and some of the best views of this event would be down in the same area. It couldn’t have worked out better! We would visit Coyote Buttes North on Saturday and then stick around for the Solar Eclipse on Sunday with a little extra time to check out Wire Pass.

After work on Friday we finished loading up the Jeep and headed south through Utah to the Paria Plateau in northern Arizona. As we drove past Moab the light played hide and seek with the peaks of the La Sal Mountains in the distance.

In the Spotlight by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

We also made a quick stop at Wilson Arch for a photo since the last photo I took here in late afternoon light was with a point & shoot camera.

Wilson Arch by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

The sun was just setting as we drove through Bluff, and it lit up the clouds behind the Horse Boulder nicely.

Horse Boulder by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
 

Here’s three quick photos of the Transit of Venus from today…didn’t have much time to process them, so I might revisit them when I have a chance (especially the sunset one). If I do, I’ll post the new photos up here on the blog again. There was a lot of smoke in the air from the New Mexico fire near the horizon which made for a colorful sun.

Here’s a photo I took on Saturday that I really like. It’s a reflection of Sheep Mountain in Lizard Lake over by Marble, Colorado in the Elk Mountains.

Three stages of the Partial Eclipse of the Strawberry Moon early this morning. Click on the image for a larger view over at Flickr.