Each region boasts not merely its own distinguishing geological features, but more accurately its own unique, awesome, and phantasmagoric geological features. Islands in the Sky is marked by the abundance of synclines and anticlines -- folds and faults in the land-strata caused by the collapse of a thick layer of salt beneath the overlying sandstone. The Maze contains a labyrinth of canyons formed by differential erosion rates of different types of sandstone. The Needles district gets its name from the spires and pinnacles caused by erosion action after the surface rock long ago fractured in a checkerboard pattern; Needles is also marked by long narrow parallel valleys brought about by subterranean salt flow.

Route Information
This trip took place in the Needles region, not far from the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. Near the confluence, the spires and pinnacles which inspired the name are not as abundant as they are further to the south and east; nonetheless the rock formations are overwhelming in their stark, grand weirdness.

We stayed two nights in the backcountry off the Confluence Overlook Trail, in the vicinity of Elephant Canyon. The Confluence Overlook Trail is a 9.2 km trail to the place where the rivers meet. This was a base-camp, from which we explored endlessly in all directions, wherever we could reach without leaving bare slick-rock. Although we did in the course of our stay make pilgrimage along the trail to its end at the great riparian meeting place, in the main we explored our demesne according to the dispositions of the landscape, from one upthrust fractal terrain to another, constantly covering ground but never traveling far from our basecamp.

The third day, before leaving Canyonlands for Arches National Park, we hiked the Big Spring Canyon-Squaw Canyon Trail, a 12.5 km loop in the same part of the park.

Trip Information
We were three on this venture: Derrick, Michael, and myself, fun guys each (if you get my drift). We hiked into the park fairly early on the first day, leaving oranges and pineapple juice on ice in the van for our return, as is our decadent wont.

We set up base-camp just within the backcountry zone covered by our permit; we were carrying all of our water for two full days, and all that mass is telling when canyon hiking. It is hard to imagine, in any case, that we could possibly have found a more dramatic spot than the one we chose, nor one with a more spectacular view.

The rocks of the Needles district are like nothing I have ever seen anywhere else, not even elsewhere in southern Utah, an area rich in unique rock formations. Their basic otherworldliness makes for an eerie sojourn, like stopping in the playing fields of a band of mad cthonic deities. Whatever rockgod was demiourgos of the Needles district, he must have been at least half-crazed, for the result of his labor indicates clearly the transports of frenzy: endless rows of gigantic stone mushrooms, pockmarked by caves and tunnels, arranged in a deceptive maze of blind alleys and connecting passages.

On our second day we became wild godlings ourselves, inspired by our impossible surroundings. We scaled every available rock formation for miles around, and gawked at every delirious inch of the strange sights we felt ourselves reborn to. Impossible to say how much ground we covered in all our frolics and our detours, but we never stopped moving, never stopped laughing, never stopped staring like god's own fools at this twisted Eden into which we had somehow been granted entry.

That evening we stayed out after dark, erring and wandering until well after the sun went down. It was with a start that we realized that twilight had faded and left us in the still, silent desert night. We had a time of it to retrace our way back to our camp without leaving either slickrock or erosion gully -- which would have meant treading on and destroying the friable, living soil of the desert floor -- but after a sweaty hour or so we found ourselves at the bottom of the cliff on a middle ledge of which we had pitched our tents.

Although a more circuitous route to our campsite could have been plotted, whereby no vertical climbing would have been necessary, the direct approach we were in the mood to favor required us to climb the rockwall.

As a climb qua climb it was not particularly daunting; nonetheless our ascent was not without its minor perils. Sunset is the matins-bell for wildlife in the desert. As I followed Michael's route up the cliff-face, I noticed something he had missed; he had blithely passed directly over a large, coiled snake occupying a small ledge. Not being certain as to its species, I elected to work my way around it. Doing so, I used a small crevice as an alternative handhold -- and thereby put my hand directly on one of the two scorpions sheltering within it. Perhaps surprisingly, I was not stung.

Our third and last day in the park, we hiked the Big Spring Canyon-Squaw Canyon loop from the Squaw Flat trailhead, just a few miles from the Confluence Overlook trailhead. Gorgeous. In the middle of the hike, we were caught in a summer hailstorm, the stones bigger than marbles. We were forced to shelter in the slight curve of a weird stone fin, the only available protection. We huddled like frightened java men, small bedraggled primates in a big and powerful world. Within minutes the storm ended, as suddenly as it had begun, leaving us laughing at one another's pitiful expressions.

Upon finishing the loop, we tore ourselves away and drove to the vicinity of Arches National Park, there finding a suitable spot to sleep for the night in National Forest.

Route Information
We walked the Devil's Garden Primitive Loop Trail, including the legs to Dark Angel, Private Arch, Pine Tree Arch, Tunnel Arch, and Partition Arch. Other named formations on this short trail include the Double O, Landscape, and Navajo Arches. This was around 8 or 9 km, all told.

We also walked the still shorter Broken Arch Trail loop (2 km), and the trail to Delicate Arch (5 km there and back).

Trip Information
Arches constituted a day-trip for us, a last gasp before we started back to Denver. We thought that daytripping was the only way to see Arches, on account of it being so small, but apparently there is some backcountry in there worth a return journey. The dedicated seeker may also be able to find petroglyphs within the park.

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