Hike the Cave Spring Loop in the Needles District

The Cave Spring Trail within Canyonlands National Park takes visitors past some well preserved pictographs and a cowboy camp complete with many original artifacts, all located in bluff "caves" below the overhanging cliffs of a low mesa. 

The path later climbs to the top via a pair of wooden ladders and crosses a minor summit that affords an uninterrupted, 360 degree panorama of the Needles District of Canyonlands. The spring itself may feel ultra small to most, but this fresh water source has provided life to this desert for thousands of years. 

The rock art is from the Fremont Culture, and dated around 1000 AD, while the camp is believed to have been established in 1890s in the early days of the Indian Creek Cattle Company. The camp was still in use until the 1960's when the National Park was created.