The Needles district is currently (1973) the most highly developed part
of the unfinished park as the result of design, not accident, for this
district includes the greatest number and widest variety of spectacular
features—The Needles proper, The Grabens (pronounced gräbǝns), colossal
arches and other erosional forms, large meadows such as Squaw Flat and
Chesler and Virginia Parks, a wide variety of prehistoric ruins and
pictographs, and Confluence Overlook for viewing the joining of two
mighty rivers—the Green and the Colorado. Like the White Rim and The
Maze, the Needles district is another of the broad benchlands about
midway between the high mesas and the deep canyons.
Utah Highway 211, as mentioned already, is a 38-mile-long paved road
leading to the Needles district from U.S. Highway 163 at a point 15
miles north of Monticello and 18 miles south of La Sal Junction. The
intersection is well marked by Church Rock (fig. 37), a butte of the
Entrada Sandstone. Highway 211 gradually climbs an eastward-dipping
slope of the Navajo Sandstone dotted with a few buttes and patches of
the Entrada Sandstone, such as Church Rock, and reaches the first of two
summits 3 miles west of Highway 163. The road crosses a broad gentle
valley in the Navajo Sandstone, reaches the second summit about 10 miles
from the highway, then descends steeply through the Navajo Sandstone and
part of the Kayenta Formation to Indian Creek, 1½ miles below, and
follows this creek nearly to The Needles. Half a mile down the canyon
takes us to the top of the cliff-forming Wingate Sandstone, and another
half mile brings us to Indian Creek State Park and its striking
Newspaper Rock (fig. 5). Another 1¾ miles takes us to the base of the
Wingate and top of the underlying Chinle Formation, which forms the red
slope beneath the cliffs.
Historic Dugout Ranch (p. 14) is 19 miles west of the highway, and from
here a dry-weather road leads southward up north Cottonwood Creek 37
miles to Beef Basin and connects with roads to Elk Ridge and the Bears
Ears, both just west of the Abajo Mountains. Just west of the ranch we
get a good view ahead of two historic landmarks—North and South
Six-Shooter Peaks (fig. 38), so named because of their resemblance to a
pair of revolvers pointing skyward. The guns are sculptured from slivers
of Wingate Sandstone resting upon conical mounds of the Chinle. These
can be seen from a wide area; both appear in figures 38 and 40, and the
north one is seen in figure 77.
[Illustration: CHURCH ROCK, standing guard at the intersection of
U.S. Highway 163 and the east end of Utah Highway 211 leading to the
Needles district. Rock is Entrada Sandstone: red foundation is Dewey
Bridge Member; yellowish smooth rounded body of church is Slick Rock
Member; white steeple is Moab Member. La Sal Mountains at left.
(Fig. 37)]
[Illustration: NORTH AND SOUTH SIX-SHOOTER PEAKS, looking west from
entrance road to The Needles. (Fig. 38)]
A mile west of Dugout Ranch we descend to the top of the Moss Back
Member of the Chinle, a ledge of gray-green sandstone forming the base
of this generally red formation, and reach the base of the member at the
top of the Moenkopi Formation in the next mile and a half. The Moss Back
is uranium bearing in nearby areas.
At 3.8 miles west of Dugout Ranch a poorly marked road on the left
crosses Indian Creek, then forks; the left-hand fork follows the bed of
Lavender Canyon, and the right-hand fork goes into Davis Canyon.
Headwaters of both these canyons are new additions to the park.
The red Organ Rock Tongue of the Cutler Formation is seen about 3 miles
beyond the turnoff, or about 6 miles west of Dugout Ranch. Another 1½
miles takes us down in the rock column (fig. 9) to the top of the Cedar
Mesa Sandstone. The White Rim Sandstone, which forms such a prominent
bench around the southern part of Island in the Sky (figs. 20-23) and
west of the Green River, is missing from the Needles district, its place
in the rock column being taken by red shales and sandstones of the
Cutler Formation. South of Indian Creek other underlying red beds of the
Cutler are gradually replaced in turn by the thick Cedar Mesa Sandstone.
Erosion has reduced the general level of the Needles district to or into
the Cedar Mesa Sandstone, but many streams have cut into the underlying
Rico Formation, and the Colorado River has cut also into, and in places
through, the limestones of the unnamed upper member of the Hermosa
Formation. Our first view of The Needles is another 4 miles, and 1 more
mile takes us to the park boundary, nearly 32 miles from the U.S.
Highway 163. We pass a road on the right leading to Canyonlands Resort,
and on the left is a new line camp which replaces the restored one at
Cave Spring (fig. 6).
The unusual features of the Needles district are due in some part to the
character and thickness of the underlying rocks but in large part to
erosion along joints and faults. Joints are fractures along which no
displacement has taken place, and faults are fractures along which there
has been displacement of the two sides relative to one another (fig.
76). The Cedar Mesa Sandstone comprises 500 to 600 feet or more of hard
well-cemented buff, white, and pink beds of massive sandstone. On the
basis of the type and amount of deformation and erosion of the Cedar
Mesa Sandstone and underlying rocks, the Needles district can be divided
into three differing areas: (1) an eastern area where the rocks are
relatively undeformed but are carved into an intricate series of
canyons, including Salt Canyon and the upper reaches of Davis and
Lavender Canyons—the section of the district that contains most of the
arches and Indian ruins; (2) The Needles proper, where tensional forces
have cracked the brittle Cedar Mesa Sandstone into a crazy-quilt pattern
of square to rectangular blocks separated by joints widened by erosion,
creating a myriad of spires and pinnacles; and (3) The Grabens, where
the previously jointed rocks were later subjected to additional
tensional forces that produced a series of nearly parallel faults that
trend northeastward and separate downdropped blocks of rock, called
grabens, from intervening stationary or upthrown blocks of rock, called
horsts.
Let us examine each of these areas in the order named. For traveling to
most features a four-wheel-drive vehicle is strongly recommended. Some
visitors negotiate the jeep trails with dune buggies or motorcycles, but
four-wheel-drive vehicles are considered safer and generally more
reliable. A few trails can be traveled only on foot.
Squaw Flat, in the western part of the relatively undeformed area, is a
nearly flat area of lower Cedar Mesa Sandstone covered here and there by
a thin layer of sparsely vegetated soil and surrounded by generally low
hilly erosional forms in the upper part of the sandstone. Short canyons
and alcoves in the sandstone hills along the west side afford excellent
semi-private campsites, each of which has its own paved access road,
picnic table, and trash can (fig. 39). Moreover, ground water at shallow
depth in the underlying sandstone has encouraged the growth of
exceptionally large piñon and juniper trees that provide welcome shade.
[Illustration: SQUAW FLAT CAMPGROUND, in the Needles district, in
Cedar Mesa Sandstone. Large piñon and juniper trees draw ground
water from this sandstone. (Fig. 39)]