Built To Roam: Chesler Park

Canyonlands National Park was established in 1964 and currently encompasses 527 square miles. To be honest I didn't really know much about Canyonlands before last year, I had wanted to go to Utah for a wile but mostly to visit Zion and road trip that section of the West. It wasn't until I watched "127 hours" that I was introduced to Canyonlands, and immediately wanted to go there. If anyone has seen the movie your first thought is probably, why the hell would you want to go there after seeing a movie about someone cutting off their own arm, well yeah that part sucked but the setting of the arm peacing fiasco was completely bad ass. So as fate would have it a little less than a year later I would be hiking in the same vicinity as Aron Ralston did when he got his arm stuck under a boulder that fateful day in April of 2003.
The Chesler Park hike was the flagship hike of our trip to Utah and it was chosen especially to encompass all aspects of what one would come to Canyonlands NP to see. It had strange rock formations, colorful spires, a desert meadow, a slot canyon, and numerous other sights that marked the 11.5 mile round trip hike. Chesler Park is located deep in the Needles District of Canyonlands NP and requires a 30 something mile drive to the entrance and an additional 10+ miles (mostly on dirt roads) to the trail head. We began hiking around 10 am after camping out the night before at the Bureau of Land Management's Hamburger Rock camping area. After a windy night without much sleep we were eager to pack up our things and start out on the trail. The first half mile was pretty much strait uphill and I could feel the death stares of my friends behind me, no doubt plotting to kill me if the next 11 miles were similar. But as luck would have it the trail leveled off and headed into some great scenery as we made our way to the entrance of Chesler Park. After a few miles of heading through winding canyons and slipping through thin cracks in the spire walls that surrounded us we finally made our way into Chesler Park, a large meadow caged in from the surrounding slick-rock desert by large colorful spires. This section of the hike meandered through low scrub brush and over dried up riverbeds until we got to the end of the park and dropped down into Devil's pocket. After hiking for a bit we met up with a 4x4 Jeep road and followed that for about a mile to the entrance of the Joint Trail where we stopped and ate lunch. After fighting off the urge to nap and watching ravens fly off with a years supply of free bagels courtesy of Nancy, we headed up to the Joint Trail, a 0.5 mile section of slot canyon that passes through a crack in the rock. Slot canyons are very narrow, often only a few feet wide, and this one was probably no more than a foot and a half wide at it's tightest section. This part of the trail was other worldly and would not have been a great place for someone with even the slightest bit of claustrophobia, memories of "127 Hours" came to mind and I hoped Mark wouldn't have to cut off his own arm, mostly because I would never get him to come on another trip again. There was a large cave type structure at the beginning of the Joint trail that was full of 100's of Cairns made by other people who had passed through previously. After getting lost, and exploring the side canyons for about an hour we made our way out of the slot canyon and back into Chesler Park. It was at this point I'm pretty sure the mirages of comfy beds and cheeseburgers, or in Mark's case visions of my funeral, started to appear and each additional mile felt longer than the last. Don't get me wrong the scenery was great and I was stopping just as frequently to snap pictures of the newest landmark I thought was the coolest thing I had ever seen, but 11.5 miles is a long god damn hike. So after going through the first 6 stages of grief we finally accepted that the hike would be over soon and we hoped the fuggen car started and the air conditioner worked when we got there. We finally got back to the car sometime around 5:30, high fived, and headed into Moab to check into our sweet, sweet hotel for the night. I can honestly say, this was one of the most fulfilling and awesome hikes I have ever been on in my life and only added to my want to move out West and be able to do stuff like this all the time. Canyonlands is beautiful and unlike anything I have ever seen before, and I can't wait to let my boots loose in there again. Once again thanks to all two of you who read this, I appreciate your support and thank you for reading my ramblings.

Mileage: 11.5 Miles