Travelling down US191 towards Canyonlands National Park, my eye was drawn to a sign labelled 'Needles Overlook'. The Needles are one of Canyonlands most famous areas, stuffed with fins and spires, so I thought it would be worth a look. When I turned off at the indicated point, I was met with a sign saying Needles Overlook, 20 miles. No prizes for figuring out that's a 40 mile detour there and back...
What the hell, I'm not following a rule book here so I pedalled the metal and a short while later arrived at one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen. The pictures don't really do justice because you've no sense of depth with distances that big. E.g. in this shot, the lone island mesa on the horizon is 9 miles away across that gnarly, rugose, river-cut canyon floor. The spur of mesa I'm standing on is 1000 feet up from the plain. It was utterly boggling.
More pictures (for what they're worth) here
Lesson : whenever you feel that sensible voice in your head trying to drown you in perfectly logical reasons for not doing things, ignore it and open yourself up to possibilities. You might come across something boggling.
Incredible - maybe the closest to Mars you'll get?
ReplyDeleteTotally awesome dude! - great that your keeping us all posted on it!
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