Elephant Hill & Chesler Park Loop - September 2021
Summary
The Elephant Hill & Chesler Park loop is an 8.5 mile trail located in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. It offers a great variety of views and hiking conditions as you experience the solitude of this district.
This is the trail we followed for this hike. We hiked the loop portion counterclockwise which led us to the Chesler Park section first. The second half of the loop was the low point for the hike, so if you would prefer to get that out of the way sooner, hiking clockwise would be better. Additionally, many people asked us if we were doing the Chesler Park loop or hiking to the Joint Trail, which would be about a mile or two more hiking overall, but based on the popularity of both of those trails is something I wish we would have considered and recommend anyone consider when picking a day hike in this district. Our hike ended up being closer to 9 miles and the Chesler Park loop trail is 10-10.5 on AllTrails so not much further for a potentially better loop overall.
Where
This trail is in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, which is located in Utah in the United States. The closest major town to this park/trailhead is Moab. This park is quite remote and took about 1.5 hours from Moab by car.
Logistics
The trailhead for this hike extends the 1.5 hours of driving from Moab a bit further as you need to take an off road trail from the Visitor Center. Any newer car or aggressive vehicle should have no issues getting back to the trailhead, but it does take some time as it is a single lane road with lots of ups, downs and switchbacks. This added to the excitement in my opinion, as there were very few people that drove back here.
Hiking
This trail starts out pretty fun from the beginning as you climb up within a huge rock onto a plateau that gives you views of the surrounding area. You see Elephant Hill pretty early in the hike and get access to some slot canyons quickly. Within 2 miles you make it to the loop portion of the trail and need to decide if you will head clockwise or counterclockwise. As previously mentioned, we chose to travel counterclockwise.
The first half of the loop after starting counterclockwise was the highlight of this trail for me. There is some climbing with great views and changing terrain about every quarter mile or so. You transition from climbing large rock structures to being in an open field surrounded by Needles. Once you get to the fork that takes you towards Chesler Park and the Joint Trail, you head away from this area and into the last notable section as you make your way towards the Druid Arch Trail. This section is a cathedral of large rocks and brings with it a chance to do a little bouldering instead of hiking. Nothing too risky, but enough to give you a sense that you aren’t just hiking anymore. I really enjoyed this area as it provided great views of the rock formations, but also gave you the feeling that you were in a completely different world.
Once you get past the Druid Arch trail fork, you finish up the loop portion of the trail hiking in a wash for about a mile. This was admittedly the least exciting part of this hike. I think it was a combination of the heat catching up to us and the lacking views after having had 5 miles of non-stop action. We were relieved to have finally made it back to the stem portion of this trail and to hike out the remaining 2 miles which ended up being repeat miles for us.
I liked this hike better than the previous day hike I had done in the Needles District largely because I felt like there was almost always something to check out. I really liked the diversity of views this trail provided and the added challenge of some bouldering too! I would recommend this trail over the Squaw Canyon trail, but I would also recommend doing the Chesler Park loop instead as it would capture all of the highlights of this trail while minimizing the low points we experienced.
Photos
All photos below were taken with my current phone at the time, the iPhone 12 Pro.
