Day 6 Today we finally turned south to investigate one of the three Canyonlands regions - The Needles. Along the way we stopped to look up at yet one more named arch, Wilson Arch, an easily photographed roadside attraction,before continuing down Hwy 191 to the 211 turn off that would lead to The Needles entrance of Canyonlands National Park. Initially not planning to stop until we entered the park, we were intrigued by a pull off called Newspaper Rock, and then sold when we read the byline: “petroglyphs”. Just a few yards from the parking area was a darkened rock face covered with inscribed figures and symbols covering two thousand years of human history. There were depictions of herds of deer, mountain goats, bow hunters, footprints that looked like bear paws and others that looked like human feet - only with six toes. Some appeared timeless, while images of bow hunters riding horses couldn’t be more than a few centuries old. We later learned that this particular unassuming site hosts one of the largest surfaces of petroglyphs in the country! Our next stop was The Needles Visitor Center - which we decided to visit with time to spare instead of risking arriving at closing time as we had done at Arches! Gift purchasing, and site recommendations accomplished we ventured into the park. Our first short hike, and Joe’s favorite of the entire trip, was to Cave Spring. The area consisted of “islands” of soft rock consisting of a softer reddish rock a couple meters thick, with a white denser layer of stone maybe three meters thick on top. As the softer rock eroded it left the upper layer overhanging creating shaded passages around each island. Sand surrounded and ran between these islands hosting various desert flora from sagebrush and juniper to pine trees depending on the availability of water we assumed. What made this site so special was the presence of a year round spring beneath one of the overhangs which consequently led to a human presence dating back 6000 years - first by Native Americans, and later by cowboys. Beneath a particularly wide overhang a short distance from the spring, the remnants of the last cowboy camp from the 1960’s still remain, while various petroglyphs and hand print paintings bear witness to the original occupants. The trail circles around the island of rock that provided the spring and shelter and then proceeds to climb on top via a couple wooden ladders. And while the trail is a mere .5 mile long we ended up exploring the site for over an hour. The natural beauty of the site combined with its human history made this hike one of our most memorable of the trip. We stopped for lunch at a roadside picnic area and then proceeded to Pothole Point for our second short hike of the day. Pothole Point lived up to its name. The hike traverses a layer of rock, similar to the dense white sandstone at Cave Spring, covered with potholes of various sizes. These holes create micro environments when filed with rain water that support diverse communities of micro-and-macroscopic organisms. The trail provided multiple overlooks into one of the many canyons running through the area, as well as circling its own substantial sculpted rock island complete with shady overhangs. Our final planned stop of the day was Canyon Overlook at the road’s end. It is impossible to describe the landscape and vistas that greeted us here and throughout our drive through the park. Close at hand, rock walls and sculpted figures - similar to what we have seen previously, but softer, more rounded but ever creative and fresh. More distant, classic mesas rise out of the plain, palisades of rock surrounded by long slopes of wind, water and ice peeled debris. Out of view and at the center of this scene run the Colorado and Green Rivers that have been carving up and carrying away the rocky matrix of this plateau for millenia. Around the edge of this vast open expanse, where we visited today, run a maze of large and small canyons and outcrops that continue to slowly feed the river serpents, but for now provide a complexity of scenery and habitats. Everywhere plants cling to life where shade, intermittent water, and wind blown soil will support them. In the canyon bottoms, dry arroyos are bordered by the tallest pines. Higher among the rock islands, stunted trees with dark branches twisted by the wind, some still bearing foliage, others not, erupt from the rock, around them the sun bleached skeletons of their brethren long since passed. Juniper, sage brush, desert grasses, and the flat pads of prickly pear cactus thrive while revealing the scars of their struggles to survive. We say little of the animals we know must be taking advantage of this unique environment other than a few birds and lizards. And everywhere, the silence.... Even the wind seemed to hold it, carry it, amplify and expand it. The silence. As we retraced our passage back to the park entrance one more marker lured us out of our vehicle: “Roadside Ruin”. Nothing visible from the parking area, we followed the short dusty trail through the sagebrush toward some rocky mounds. The trail descended slightly into a gap between the mounds where tucked up beneath a rocky overhang we found “the ruin” - a 700 year old ancestral Puebloan granary - a large cylindrical structure composed of stacked flat rocks and dried mud. We later learned that the Native American farmers that once dwelled here had constructed many of these around the area of which this was the best preserved. We lingered a while to contemplate the lives of these people who once inhabited these lands, their relationship with it, and their ingenuity in surviving and building a life here.