Having arrived in Moab, we followed our usual course and went to the visitor center at Arches National Park, asking the ranger for his suggestions on the best ways to spend our 3-1/2 days here. After discussing a few of the options, he said, “If you can spare a day, you really ought to visit The Needles District of Canyonlands. It’s worth it.” That possibility was on our list anyway, so on Friday, July 26, off we went.
To get to The Needles, one has to drive 40 miles south of Moab, and then 35 miles west on State Route 211. Far from being just a long drive, however, State Route 211 presents its own, fascinating story.
Route 211 passes through the what is now the Bear Ears National Monument. National monuments, because they are created by Presidential fiat, are often controversial, but this one is a doozy.
After decades of maneuvering by Native American groups and self-appointed conservationists, on December 28, 2016, even though it was after Donald Trump had won the 2016 election and Obama had only days left in his term, President Obama designated 1,351,849 acres of land in Utah as the “Bear Ears National Monument,” making it the third largest national monument in the continental United States. (For what it’s worth, the largest national monument is also in Utah: the Grand Staircase / Escalante National Monument at a whopping 1,870,000 acres. One way or another, the federal government owns 63.1% of the state of Utah. Things could be worse, though; it’s 80.1% in Nevada.)
In any event, almost immediately after Obama made the designation, opponents (including Utah’s governor and legislature) started working on ways to undo Obama’s parting decree. President Trump got the message and promptly commissioned an evaluation of the designation and then, barely one year later, reduced the size of the monument by 85% to 201,000 acres.
When Joe Biden won the 2020 election, the original proponents starting working on ways to undo Trump’s undoing of the original designation, so in October 2021, President Biden restored the designation to its original boundaries.
If Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, one can confidently look forward to the undoing of the redoing of the undoing of the doing. And for those of you who wonder what kind of land use policy is reflected in this back and forth, all I can say is, “welcome to America.”
Back to the trip …
The first thing one encounters on the path to The Needles is “Newspaper Rock.” Indeed, we were told that Newspaper Rock is a must-see en route to The Needles.
Newspaper Rock didn’t do much for us. I asked the ranger why such things are considered important and he said that the carvings were 2000 years old and told passers-by where to find game, water, encampments, and so on. Meh. Compared to other cultural compilations of knowledge from 2000 years ago (like the Library of Alexandria, for example) a few stick people doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but I guess if it’s your grandma, it’s a different story.
Where Bear Ears National Monument does start to get interesting, though, is in the geological formations that line the roadway.
And after the drive through Bear Ears, the real treat was The Needles, an array of sandstone spires that were formed when a giant salt dome pushed up the crust of the earth, split it into a series of parallel cracks, and then erosion erased everything down from the cracks.
We did a few hikes (Cave Spring and Pothole Point) and drove down to the Big Spring Canyon overlook. I toyed with the idea of driving to the Colorado River overlook, a 7-mile dirt road that leaves from the Visitor Center, with long stretches of soft sand, and is described as “technical.” Well, I’m a pretty technical guy, and I have a 4-wheel drive truck (admittedly with street tires), so I asked the ranger if he thought I could negotiate the route. “Are you very experienced?” he asked. “No.” “Don’t.” So much for that idea.
As usual, the advice from ranger we got when we first arrived was exactly right. With a day to spare, The Needles is a must-do destination.