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Show j Sr' J- - : (? ... 'n- J V- (f - ... v; The Devil's Kitchen is a park-like amphitheater surrounded by spectacular and colorful sandstone spires and walls. A primitive primi-tive campground is located in the northern end of the park, and two foot trails that penetrate the Needles originate at the campground. (Photos by Fran Barnes) Big Country Beyond Elephant Hill By Fran Barnes Si'. Z'.-y. !.ir.: H:'.l is a !i ::-: ci : ::.;: V.s story h.is decn told in r.ee paces J, 10 21 71). tivjh.tnl Hill is a g.itt"iay to a fantasvland. Once this infamous in-famous piece of trail is con-q con-q :e red. a ' hole orld of mys-t-ry and beauty and variety h-romes available to park visitors. Beyond Elephant Hill is a land of exotic placi s it h fas-cinatinc fas-cinatinc names such as The Needles. Devil's Kitchen. Silver Sil-ver Stairs. Cvclone Canvon. SOB. Hill. Devils Lane. The Grahens. Drmd Arh J t ; ' - ' - , - - ; ' . ' UvWV $ A 2V v" - ' The Silver Stairs are guarded at their head by two domes of layered red i.- ow ' . ETu ctairs themselves are a series of broken, and white sandstone. The stairs tnemseives wc step-like ledges of white rock down which the Beyond-Elephant Hill jeep trail travels In the distance, beyond the stairway portal, the gigantic abutmpnts nf thf Histant Island in the Sky can be seen. Chesler Park, the Joint Trail ami many others. What are these places with strange names? Have weird names just been applied to scenery that can alsobe found elsewhere.' And is this scenery sce-nery reallv worth the trouble ot strucciini; up and over Elephant Hill. then back apain.' Is it Worth The Trouble? Ask this last question of anyone who has been there -and expect an incredulous look. Of COURSE it is worth the trouble, many times over! And the names are no more unusual than the places they describe. Some Descriptions For those who have not yet been over Elephant Hill into the wonderlany beyond, here are some descriptions of a few of the named highlights beyond Elephant Hill. But bear in mind when planning a trip into this never-never land, that for every feature that bears a name, there are dozens, even hundreds, that are just as wild, beautiful, different, spectacular, lovely, love-ly, unique, colorful, unbelievable, unbeliev-able, wondrous, scenic, novel, no-vel, magnificent, awe-inspiring, majestic, breathtkaing, fascinating, impressive, splendid, spl-endid, enchanting, superb, glorious, fantastic, bizarre, grotesque, exquisite, elegant, r in . " O - . ... - ;5 a T DevTl's Lane "is one of the "grabens" sund on the brink of the Colorado River gorg ln the Needles districtof Canyohlands National Par Dusty jeep trails travel the length of two of these long, walled canyons. charming, graceful, delicate, gorgeous, grand and worthy of being given interesting names as are those already-named. already-named. No doubt, you will find quite a few that you would like to name, or rename, yoursell. Like maybe Elephant Hill should be called "Backseat Driver's Delight," or "Hair-raising "Hair-raising Hill." Two popular places with names are Chesler Park and the Joint Trail. These were described in an earlier article art-icle (TI 72772). Druid Arch is a magnificent and spectacular pileof gigantic gigan-tic but slender stones that stand on end and meet at the top in a pattern reminiscent of the ancient rocks ofStone-henge ofStone-henge in England. Someone mistakenly name the arch Druid, even though the Druids of old England never had a thing to do with the far older human artifacts of Stonehenge The Grabens. A strange word German for "trenches" "tren-ches" or "graves." Used here not to label the burial sites of ancient Indians or early pioneers, pion-eers, but to identify a series of long miles long parallel para-llel canyons that w ere formed by the sinking of vast secitons of rock strata between parallel paral-lel earth faults, a sinking reminiscent re-miniscent of the sunken surfaces sur-faces of ancietit graves. The Devil's Lane and Cyclone Canyon are two such "grabens" "gra-bens" that are traversed by jeep trails beyond Elephant Hill. S.O.B. Hill was no doubt named by those who first traveled this short but horrendous hor-rendous piece of jeep trail that connects one stretch of the Devil's Lane with another. Most drivers who have negotiated nego-tiated this trail since then have agreed with that highly descriptive appellation or have suggested names still more dramatic. The Silver Stairs is a length of jeep trail that also could easily have acquired an expletive ex-pletive for a name, rather than the lovely name it has. But perhaps the beauty of the setting charmed those who first traveled and named this rugged stone stairway. The Silver Stairs is a series of broken, ledge-like steps that takes one of the jeep trails beyond Elephant Hill down to a lower level near the northern north-ern end of the Devil's Lane. The Stairs are in a silver-white silver-white rock layer just below a series of colorful, domes and fins of brick-red sandstone. sand-stone. For some time now, traffic on the Silver Stairs has been one-way down. This was a good Park Service Ser-vice decision, because going up these rugged stone steps would be hard on vehicles and nerve-wracking to drivers. It would also be quite awkward awk-ward for vehicles to meet here while going in opposite directions. The Devil's Kitchen is a park-meadowed amphitheater amphithea-ter that is surrounded on all sides by a veritable fantasy-land fantasy-land of brilliantly colorful sandstone spires, walls domes, terraces and other weather-carved shapes. A primitive campground is located lo-cated in a series of gigantic stone grottoes in the northern north-ern end of the amphitheater. Two spectacular foot trails that explore the surrounding stone wilderness begin at the campground. Both of these trails connect with the complex com-plex patter of foot trails that lace the Needles District and provide visitors with the opportunity op-portunity to truly savor the magnificent beauty of this incomparable land. The Needles? These are the tall, slender spires of red and white Cedar Mesa sandstone sand-stone that dominate the land that lies to the south and west of the Squaw Flat campground. camp-ground. These are the sky-piercing sky-piercing "needles" after which the entire southern section of Canyonlands National Nat-ional Park was named. Worth Any Price Is it worth the trouble to go over Elephant Hill to see what is beyond? Emphatically, yes! It is worth any price you may have to pay, because there you will see a land like no other, a place of wonder and unmatchable beauty -because there you will, enjoy an adventuresome ad-venturesome experience that will forever be a highlight in your life.. |