Hiking the High Desert – Backpacking in Canyonlands NP

Join Sara and I in Utah for a little high desert camping, hiking, and backpacking in Canyonlands National Park.

For this adventure, we did a 2 day, 1 night backpacking trip through the Needles District of Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, followed by a little day hike visit to Arches National Park on the way back to Salt Lake City to catch our flight back home.  In fact, this was actually the first trip we’ve ever done via flight instead our usual road warrior routine.  That being said, we still got at least a moderate dose of driving during this trip, as the drive from SLC airport to Moab and Arches NP is about 4 hours.  From there it was another 1.5 hour drive south to the Needles District, the southernmost district in Canyonlands.

Full GPS track data and waypoints for this trip can be found on the Trip Data page.

Canyonlands Lost Canyon Loop Route Overview Sintax77

Here’s an overview of the route, highlighted in pink, that we took clockwise.  As you can see, there are several other trails accessible from Squaw Flat parking lot, creating the potential for larger loop options.

Parking Location:  Squaw Flat Trailhead ‘A’ 38.143017,-109.803700

Day 1 Trails Used (In Order) 

Squaw Canyon Trail
Lost Canyon Trail
Camp at Lost Canyon Campsite 2 (LC2)

Total Mileage: 6 miles
Gross Elevation Gain: 768′
Gross Elevation Loss: 682′

Day 1 Elevation Profile - Lost Canyon Loop

Day 1 Elevation Profile – Lost Canyon Loop

It should be pointed out that campsites in the Needles district are restricted to designated areas only, and must be registered in advance.  This can can be done either online or in person at the visitor’s center and costs $30.  Since I live about 2,000 miles away, and spots tend fill up well in advance, I went the online route.  I reserved my spot about a month in advance and still managed to get the spot I was after, but I could see other areas that were already booked up pretty solid.  When stopped in the visitor’s center on the day of our hike in, we caught a glimpse of the availability board and I was hard pressed to see any open spots, so reserving on the same day in person probably isn’t the best game plan.  The nice thing is, the spots seem to be nicely spread out.  For instance, there were three campsites in the entire Lost Canyon area that we chose to visit, with about a mile of trail in between them.  So, while we did have to be a bit more rigid in our planning than usual, and the $30 fee was definitely the highest I’ve ever paid for backcountry permit, we really did feel like we had a whole canyon to ourselves to call home for the afternoon and night.  The site was also tucked back a decent way off the main trail and situated with an amazing view.  I’m sure all the spots are awesome, but I would highly recommend LC2 to anyone on the fence about where to camp in Canyonlands.  It was a great spot.

Speaking of things that make a campsite great, Lost canyon was one of the few areas in Canyonlands NP I could find in my research that had a high probability of reliable water.  We crossed over several water sources within less that a mile of the campsite, due to the fact that the sites are located in the bottom of a relatively lush canyon within close proximity to the brook that runs though it.  It’s quite a stark contrast to the treeless universe or rock, sand and sun lying only a few hundred feet above.  It also didn’t hurt that the area experience some decent rains and flash flooding several days before.  I tagged a couple of these spots in a GPS file for this trip using my trusty Garmin Oregon 650, but keep in mind that water flow conditions could be much different depending on time of year and amount of recent rainfall.  If you’re planning your own adventure, I would definitely suggest more recent reports and / or just bringing enough water for the duration of your stay.

Day 2 Trails Used (In Order) 

Lost CanyonTrail
Peekaboo Trail
Squaw Canyon Trail
Return to Squaw Flat Trailhead A and parking lot.

Total Mileage: 3.8 miles
Gross Elevation Gain: 427′
Gross Elevation Loss: 440′

Day 2 Elevation Profile - Lost Canyon Loop

Day 2 Elevation Profile – Lost Canyon Loop

I’ll save the full story for the video, but this was truly an amazing trip!  I’ll tell you what though, southern Utah may bitten me and infected me with the desert bug.  Hmmmm, where to next…

Stat Totals for the Full 2 Day Loop

Total Mileage: 9.8 miles
Gross Elevation Gain: 1,195′

Post Hike Burger Joint of Choice
Moab Brewery
686 S Main St, Moab, UT 84532

Annnnnd, for good measure, here’s a gallery of some of Sara’s “VR Panorama” and and regular panorama shots that she had fun playing with using her phone’s camera app.

7 thoughts on “Hiking the High Desert – Backpacking in Canyonlands NP

  1. Can’t wait to check this video out. Hey Sintax77 if you ever get the chance to go back out to Utah again another great place to look at is Wind River mountain Range by Jackson Hole WY. Amazing backpacking trip.

  2. Great video! What was Sara’s pack weight with water and how was the support with that weigh in her new backpack? I am searching for a lighter backpack with some support.
    thanks, Mary from NJ

  3. Sintax77
    PO Box 8163
    Wilmington, DE 19803 USA

    Dear Sintax77,

    I came across your YouTube channel recently, and I would like to congratulate you on having the most articulate, well-edited and on-point of all the outdoor YouTube channels that I have so far found. Nice work!

    I live in north central British Columbia, Canada, and have written quite a bit on the outdoors. I would like to offer you a review copy of ‘Outdoor Safety & Survival,’ published by Rocky Mountain Books:
    http://www.rmbooks.com/author_details.php?contributor_id_1=1279.
    If you are interested please let me know and I will ask RMB to send you a copy.

    I do have another question for you: in your Canyonlands presentations, I couldn’t find (not even the two-hour podcast) the all-important time of year. There was a clue about leaves showing early colour, from which I surmise your trip was likely in mid-October, although it shows as being posted in early March 2016. My wife and I have done late fall trips to nearby Zion, Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon NPs, with Zion, especially, having great fall colours. If you go to my website and scroll down the home page to “Western North America” under YouTube, you can see some of that imagery. You might also get some ideas for future trips of your own from some of these and YouTube slide shows on both sides of the border.

    Sincerely
    Mike

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