Canyonlands National Park (Needles)

We drove south, down I-191 towards the Needles entrance of Canyonlands National Park. On the way, we stopped at Hole in the Rock...which is, basically like it sounds, a hole which was actually a 5000 sq ft home carved out of a huge rock but is now a gift shop and "trading post". We didn't bother going on the tour but its a cool idea and neat to see.


First stop along the route into the park was Newspaper Rock: a petroglyph panel etched in sandstone that records nearly 2000 years of early man's activities. This is a stitched picture of just a portion of Newspaper Rock, which was quite large.


maybe Spunky did it...?


Driving through Canyonlands


Old Cowboy Outpost, circa 1880's





Mushroom looking rock formations which formed caves and looked like Flintstones houses


Ancient Pictograms on the rock walls












Canyonlands Outpost...the only private facility serving the southeast entrance to the vast Canyonlands National Park. There really is not much else around and there are no facilities in the park itself, the owners work hard to provide for visitors to the area. If you're planning a camping trip or ever plan visit to Canyonlands you absolutely must stop here for supplies, souvenirs, a meal, a cold drink, or just to say hi


We met the owners of the outpost who were awesome! We spent a little while hanging out with them, and Tracey gave Nick some really cool souvenirs.


View from Canyonlands Needles Outpost at sunset


Hanging out on the porch of the outpost with Gary & Tracey, talking and enjoying the sunset and awesome scenery. Good times.




One of the souvenirs Tracey gave us was a music CD that was composed and performed by friends of theirs while camping at the outpost. We listened to it on our way out of the park, it was very cool and an awesome soundtrack for our drive.