Day Nine - Apr 16, 2025

The Needles, Canyonlands

Tonight's Lodging: Needles Campground, Loop A, Site 14

Today's Weather: Highs in the low 70’s, low’s in the low 40’s. Sunny and increasingly windy

High Point: Scoring site 14 in an amusingly competitive competition of retirees

Low Point: Having to participate in an amusingly competitive competition of retirees

Touristic Events: The campground loop, the visitor center for internet

Travel Tip: Don’t mess with 50 and 60 year olds, they’ve been here before

Miles By Automobile: 8.2

Miles By Foot: 10.6

Daily Didactic

Our day began early with a fairly calculated attempt to get the campsite next door (site 14) as the family reunion broke and returned (presumably) home. Campsite 14 is spectacular and is where Theresa and Brian spent a week last year. It has a tent pad big enough for the palace, which our current site does not which leaves it vulnerable to rain generated streams. And rain is in the forecast. It also gives us a little more room to sprawl out, just in case visitors show up to share our site.
Around 7:00am optimistic vehicles start circling the campground, hoping to negotiate with those who are departing for a site. One of them nearly beat Brian to the spot next door, but they failed. We packed up, killed an hour or two, and when the reunioning neighbors vacated we moved. Relocation accomplished, we headed up to the visitor center for an internet check in and then returned to hike the very rewarding park loop trail.
We made a lazy day of the rest of it, checking in with friends and family in the evening.
A little before 9:00, a white GMC Terrain rolled up with our old friends Tim and Anne. They are taking a leap and joining us in the desert this week. What could go wrong? An hour of tent pitching and settling in later, we all called it an eventful day.

Where we slept last night.