It was approaching 3pm on Thursday, February 16, 2023 when Sean and I drove into the snow-laden Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. Down below the canyon rims, but still above the junction of the Green and Colorado Rivers, The Needles District is known for its many miles of hiking and backpacking trails amid a wonderland of red rock formations. That afternoon, as we continued our snowy driving tour to points south of Moab, we were lucky to see the red rock country blanketed white beneath a beautiful blue sky. While snow is fairly rare in The Needles (the higher Island in the Sky District gets more), they had received over a foot of snow in the same storm that had merely dusted Moab.

Our first stop was the Visitor Center, where there were only a couple other cars in the lot. Another couple was talking to the Rangers, one of whom seemed to be fairly new. The couple had not been expecting snow and were not remotely prepared. They also expected services down here and were disappointed to learn that there were none.

I asked the Rangers about whether they thought Horseshoe Canyon, a remote portion of Canyonlands unconnected from the rest of the Park, might be accessible given all the snow. They said that it was absolutely not accessible, even with a Jeep. So Ranger Matt Smith from Natural Bridges National Park had been correct in his assumption. I was disappointed because the Archaic Barrier-Canyon style Pictographs there look absolutely incredible. Next time…

The Rangers did say that even though Island in the Sky District had gotten more snow, the roads were plowed and the district was open. We planned to return there on Saturday to see a few things we’d missed on our visit earlier in the trip.

As for exploring The Needles, hiking was more or less out of the question, so it was time for a driving tour and tons of photos.

We were really lucky. The sun was warm, the sky cloudless, and afternoon shadows were just beginning to form. And very very few other people had ventured down to The Needles that day after the storm, so the blankets of snow were unsullied by footprints, except for those of birds and animals.

We stopped at a pullout that had a brilliant view east all the way to the snowy La Sal Mountains.

And to the west we could see the district’s namesake Needles rising from the plateau.

At this pullout, while I photographed the landscape, Sean encountered a pair of Ravens, who inquired of him about possible snacks. Of course, Sean refused.

They were willing to pose for a few glamour shots, however, even without a payment of snacks.

We drove out to Big Spring Canyon Overlook at the end of the road. From here we could see the distant Island in the Sky District to the north.

We spotted Junction Butte off the southern end of the Island in the Sky.

Nearer at hand we were surrounded by wonderful hoodoos and formations accented with snow and icicles.

The pair of Ravens had followed us. Again, they requested a tribute of delicious snacks. Again, Sean refused. He got back in the Jeep while I continued snapping photos.

The Ravens persisted in their request of delicious morsels from Sean. The larger of the two fluttered onto the hood of the Jeep and stared at Sean through the windshield.

Sean locked the doors.

It was a standoff.

No matter how many times Sean told the Raven to go away, it just stared its silent demand at him.

I left them to their disagreement and wandered around taking photos.

Sean grew increasingly grumpy.

“You can buy your own snacks,” he said. “You probably have brokerage accounts.”

The standoff lasted ten minutes.

After the standoff ended, we drove back down the road, stopping at pullouts for photos as the light grew more atmospheric.

We drove to the end of a plowed spur road into the empty Needles Campground. Here the snow, heavy on the Utah Junipers, made everything feel like a classic winter wonderland.

We looped our way back toward the Visitor Center, with views south at other formations (and Bears Ears beyond).

Even after we exited Canyonlands National Park, I kept pulling over in Bears Ears National Monument to capture shots.

As we wound back through Bears Ears along Indian Creek and approached Newspaper Rock, a small group of Mule Deer crossed the road in front of us and started climbing the ridge to the east.

After we topped out and were headed north toward US-191, we saw the Mule Deer again as they recrossed the road.

Also cows.

As usual, we listened to podcasts on the drive.

Back in Moab at 6:15pm at The Radcliffe, Sean put in an order from Canyon Pizza Company across the street. While we had our pizza and wine, we watched Poker Face. Then we settled in for the much-anticipated season three premiere of Star Trek: Picard, which was as thrilling as we’d hoped.

Then it was time for bed after a very full day in the National Parks.