Canyonlands Needles District Self Guided Driving Audio Tour

Before we arrive at Canyonlands National Park, we’ll be passing through a section of Bears Ears National Monument, or not, considering the boundaries of this national monument are a little complicated and subject to change.

We’re definitely going to want to stop and see this. I don’t want to give too much away so I’ll just say that several different cultures have passed through this spot over the last 2000 years and many of them left their mark on this rock.

You’ll pass Glamping Canyonlands on the right—it's a great landmark and a popular stay for visitors. From here, simply follow UT-211 west as we begin our journey through the dramatic landscapes of the Needles District in Canyonlands National Park.

The tour is over 40 miles long, with more than 20+ audio stories, and takes about 2-3 hours to complete.

We’re about to get our first sweeping views of the Indian Creek Corridor. This area is quite the mecca for rock climbers - it’s one of the most popular spots to climb cracks in the United States, if not the entire world.

When Heidi Redd and her former husband Robert purchased the Dugout Ranch in 1967, the road was all dirt from the U.S. Route 191, climbers had yet to descend on Indian Creek in droves, and this part of Canyonlands National Park saw very few visitors. Until recently with the advent of satellite internet, the Dugout Ranch never had a TV or telephone.

The northern one is called North Six shooter Peak and it’s a bit taller and larger than its southern neighbor cleverly known as South Six shooter Peak. About a mile and a half separates the two peaks and well, someone thought they looked like a pair of revolvers pointing upwards into the sky so that’s how they got their name.

We'll see the turnoff to the right for the Lockhart Basin Road. This road can take us all the way to Moab but we'll need a serious off-road vehicle to make the trip.

The Visitor’s Center is coming up quickly on our right. It's always a good idea to stop in here and make sure the trails we want to visit are all clear. There's water and washrooms here too of course.

The first pull-out on our left is for Roadside Ruin. I recommend skipping this one for now, we'll catch it on our way out. Shortly after that, we’ll find a sign for Cave Springs pointing toward a road on the left.

Keep straight past the ranger residences and we’ll see a dirt road in a little less than a mile. We’ll see a sign pointing toward the Cave Springs Trail. Be sure to return to the main park road this same way we came, or we'll end up missing a bunch of the stops in the park.

It’s called the Wooden Shoe Overlook and well, I'll let you see for yourself why it was named after the classic Dutch shoe. You heard me right - an arch here at Needles in Canyonlands National Park.

The Needles Campground and the unpaved Elephant Hill Road. Six miles down Elephant Hill Road is where we’ll find the trail to Druid Arch. Many backpackers and hikers hoping to make it to Chesler Park begin from either the Elephant Hill Trailhead or the Salt Flat Trailhead near the campground.

We’re approaching the Pothole Point Trailhead. It’s called Pothole Point because the slickrock here is covered with pockets in the rock called potholes or ephemeral pools.

We're just a few minutes from the end of the road, shew, that was quick - I did say the Scenic Drive in the Needles district was pretty short. Our next stop is the trailhead for the Slickrock Foot Trail.

We're just about to the turnaround point of our Needles District Tour. At the turnaround up ahead, we’ll find yet another trailhead - the Big Spring Canyon Overlook Trail which leads to the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers and also connects to the Chesler Park area trails. I’d skip these trails in favor of the others I mentioned so far and let's start making our way back toward the park entrance.