Since we took our sweet time admiring Newspaper Rock on the way in… and, okay, maybe because I drove the wrong way for a while before we’d even gotten there… we were racing time to get to The Needles visitor center before they closed. When I parked, they were lowering the flag and folding it up for the day.

Luckily, our puppy dog eyes were enough to get one of the Park Rangers to agree to go inside and stamp our Passport herself. Hallelujah. But I’ll admit, I have this itching feeling to go back there because I didn’t get to go inside and actually see it… one day.

We didn’t have a ton of time to spend here, so we read some signs outside the visitor center and took their advice to scope out the Cave Spring trail.

Cave Spring trail

You follow the main Canyonlands road into the park for about five minutes before turning onto the unpaved Cave Spring Road. The trailhead’s a quick bop away. The signs are really good here and you can’t miss it.

The trail is a 0.6 loop, and it’s essential that you follow the sign to the left. Don’t try to reverse it.

We were greeted by a sign that warned of LADDERS ahead and I became super psyched.

“The short trail passes Cave Spring, one of the area’s few year-round water sources. An excellent natural camspite, this location contains evidence of almost 1,000 years of human use.. You can see remnants of a comboy camp in the first alcovve, which served as an open air bunkhouse. Cowboys lived in isolated camps like these from the 1890’s until 1975, when cattle ranching was discontinued in Canyonlands.

Beyond the cowboy camp, there is evidence of earlier human use, including rock markings, grinding sticks, and a smoke-blackened ceiling.”

We first came up on the remnants of a cowboy camp. I love old fences like these, they remind me of my family’s farmland in West Virginia.

We followed the trail around some big ol’ rocks and within corners, nooks, and crannies.

The second little cave area is where Cave Spring is. You can see how mossy and puddly the area is.

And the reddish pictographs everywhere! And the coolest grinding area that I sat next to without even realizing at first.

After staring at those and holding our own hands up to compare, we said bye and followed the trail around the corner where we finally came up on the first little cutie iron ladder.

The second wasn’t far behind.

They’re such an awesome addition to this trail. I’m glad we’d gone this way instead of the other, going down would be super difficult on these.

The second ladder brings you to the top of a huuuge rocky plateau where you have 360 degree views, including of the entire Needles District. The scale is seriously massive and no photo will ever do that view justice.

Another awesome feature here, and one that’s common on nearly every maintained trail in the Southwest, are the cairns (rock stacks) that lead you. It felt like there were a lot on this trail and they were seriously appreciated.

That tiny moon!

Stone Storehouse

On the way out of the park, we made a pit stop when we saw a sign for “Roadside Ruins.”

There’s the tiniest parking area ever that leads you on a quick, quiet, 0.3 mile loop into a shaded area where you get surprised with the Stone Storehouse chilling in the shade.

“Indigenous people long survived here through hard work and ingenuity. Nearly 700 years ago, some built these small stone structures, possibly to use for ceremonial purposes. In Canyonlands, even older structures still stand, but archeologists have found few villages. This suggests that early inhabitants farmed intensively, yet may have lived here only seasonally. Without human impact, these masonry structures can survive for centuries in the desert climate.”

~* Moab *~

The drive in to this area of Canyonlands is so gorgeous. The towering sandstone rock formations all around were beaming in warm neon colors while the sun gradually went down and it was so beautiful.

I’d pulled into a little trailhead parking lot to let someone pass us so we could continue to ooh and aah at our own pace, but when we realized there were tiny little people rockclimbing up there we had to stay and watch. I put my phone on zoom x a million and had so much fun cheering them on from the car.

We also felt obligated to stop again to ogle Newspaper Rock. This time, we had it alllll to ourselves which was very surreal. (And you can’t tell me that rock formation doesn’t look like a skull!)

We headed to our reservations at the Inca Inn off of Main Street in Moab.

It was also super awesome because our motel was next door neighbors with this amazing rock shop which we had so much fun walking through and admiring. They have basically an open air rock market outside, and when they’re closed you can pay out there by using the honor system in this little drop box.

Ummm, dinosaur eggs?!

See how close it was to our little home for the night?

We didn’t realize how late it’d gotten, but we were lucky enough to find this open Italian restaurant and ordered pizza.

It was literally the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life and I swear I would fly back to Utah solely to eat it again.

I feel like Moab is having a huge moment right now just like Sedona was a few years ago. Anyway, I’m all for it. And I can’t wait to come back here to spend *days* instead of just half of an evening.

It was super hard to get to sleep this night because I was PUMPED for what we were going to see the next day: Arches National Park and the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands. Weeeee

Cave Spring trail via AllTrails:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/utah/cave-spring-trail

The Needles District of Canyonlands via NPS:
https://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/needles.htm

Canyonlands National Park via NPS:
https://www.nps.gov/cany/index.htm

Stay at the Inca Inn:
https://www.incainn.com/

Visit the rock shop:
https://moabrockshop.com/

The best pizza ever:
https://www.pastajays.com/moab/