IntrepidXJ's Adventure Weblog

February 15, 2010

My goal for President’s Day was to head out to Moab and to find some geocaches. However, there was more snow and ice around Moab than I had hoped for, which killed that idea, as I was not about to go digging in ice and snow looking for geocaches. I had started out on the Cotter Mine Road hoping to find some caches near the Monitor & Merrimac Buttes, but when I reached the turnoff, I quickly found out that it had not been traveled.

Along the Cotter Mine Road

Instead of breaking through the icy snow, I decided to loop around back to the highway and head to Arches National Park. When I arrived at the park, I made my way towards The Organ, where I parked my Jeep and started hiking up the Park Avenue trail.

Three Gossips and Baby Arch

Three Gossips

The Organ

Park Avenue

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February 13 – 14, 2010

For the weekend following my birthday, I wanted to head back to Capitol Reef National Park. When I was there back in October, I noted a couple of hikes I wanted to check out and figured this would be a good time.

After driving through some thick fog early Saturday morning, we arrived at Capitol Reef and started on our first short hike up to Hickman Bridge.

After climbing above the Fremont River looking back at Capitol Dome with the road below.

Hickman Bridge

On our way back from the Hickman Bridge, we stopped at the Nels Johnson Bridge

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Heading to Arches National Park on the weekend closest to Christmas seems to be a tradition that Amanda and I are starting. Hopefully we can keep it up in the future

On Sunday, we got up early and made our way to Arches. The sun started to rise as we neared the park, and it appeared that it was going to be a nice clear day. Unfortunately, by the time we reached Devils Garden, the clouds had rolled in. We quickly made the hike to Landscape Arch and took a few photos.

We had wanted to head over to Double O Arch, but with about a foot of snow on the ground in the park, the trail was very slick and difficult. Since I didn’t want to fall and break my camera gear, I decided it would be best if we headed back when the snow melts off. Instead we headed back to Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch before heading back to our car.

The sky did get a little more interesting on our way back

Tunnel Arch

Near Pine Tree Arch

Sky through Pine Tree Arch

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Sunday, November 29, 2009

After a good nights sleep we left Green River and made our way to the White Wash Sand Dunes via the Ruby Ranch Road. When we reached White Wash, we followed the sandy wash around the dunes in the area. Then Amanda took over driving and drove over a few small dunes along the wash.

White Wash

Wide well traveled wash

After playing around in the sand, we continued on past Red Wash and arrived back at the Tenmile Point Road. From there we made our way to the Dubinky Well Road again and cut across Deadman Mesa to reach Spring Canyon Bottom.

My original goal was to finish the Hey Joe Canyon trail, however when we reached Spring Canyon Bottom, there was a slow moving Jeep heading down the trail and I was feeling impatient. Instead, we took a left at the intersection and followed around the Bowknot Bend of the Green River the other direction. It was a little narrow and washed out in places, but still very drivable.

After heading back from the Bowknot Bend, we made our way to Moab to have some lunch at the Moab Brewery. From there we headed home across the Dolores Triangle where Amanda was excited to drive my Jeep across the Dolores River.

It was a nice relaxing weekend after Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Since Amanda had to work on Black Friday, we had to wait until Saturday before we could head anywhere on the Thanksgiving weekend. There were some trails north of Moab that I had been wanting to check out for a while and we didn’t want to head too far away from home, so we ended up heading that way for the weekend. Our main destination would be the Crystal Geyser near Green River, but we would of course take the long way there

We took I-70 to the Floy Wash exit just past Crescent Junction and headed south on the Ruby Ranch Road. We took a left onto the Blue Hills Road and then turned off onto the Dubinky Well Road. After looping around Tombstone Rock we started our first trail of the day….Rainbow Terrace (aka Rainbow Rocks). Since I’ve been on this trail before, Amanda drove the whole thing.

You can see the colors in the rocks above this trail.

After finishing the trail we headed west to Tenmile Point above the Green River.

Amanda taking a break from driving

After taking in the views, we headed back to the start off the Crystal Geyser trail.

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Sunday, December 6, 2009

Today Amanda and I headed out to hike the popular Serpent’s Trail within the Colorado National Monument. The original vehicle entrance to the Monument, this route was once called the “Crookedest Road in the World” and is now on the National Register of Historic Structures.

According to my GPS, the trail was just under 2 miles one way and there were about 14 switch-backs. From the parking area at the bottom of the trail, it climbed steadily all the way to the top with an elevation gain of about 830 feet. Coming back down was much easier for us Here’s a little more info on the trail:

Constructed between 1912 and 1921, Serpents Trail provided the only automobile access to Colorado National Monument until 1937 when the Fruita Canyon portion of Rim Rock Drive opened. Serpents Trail reflects engineering techniques used in the construction of early automobile roads in difficult terrain and was specifically designed to optimize the scenery of the park. John Otto, the original booster of the park’s scenic wonders and the custodian of Colorado National Monument from 1911 to 1927, designed the original route and was involved in its sporadic construction. The project also provided access to the Glade Park region, and local engineers and citizens contributed to its construction and funding.

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Cedar Mesa | The Citadel

South Comb Wash | River House Ruins

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Cedar Mesa | House on Fire

Cedar Mesa | Arch Canyon Rim

Cedar Mesa | Seven Towers

Sunday, November 22, 2009

After making our way back to the highway from Arch Canyon Rim we crossed and headed back to Mule Canyon….this time on the other side of the highway. After a short half mile drive down a 4×4 road and a quick 100 yard hike down a rocky wash, we reached the Seven Towers (also known as the Cave Towers and Mule Canyon Towers).

Located here on both sides are the ruins of seven circular towers that once stood at the head of this canyon. A few still have some walls standing, but most are reduced to piles of rubble. I also spotted some ruins in an alcove located below in Mule Canyon.

If you look closely in the following picture, you can see some tower ruins on the other side of the canyon.

Looking across the canyon at the biggest remaining tower

After checking out these ruins, we headed back to the highway and made our way back home. It was another great weekend in Southern Utah!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

After hiking back to the Jeep from the House on Fire ruins, we continued on down the dirt road we had parked on which headed across Texas Flat and then followed near the rim of Arch Canyon. I ended up taking a spur that led us to a pretty cool overlook of Arch Canyon. The overlook was located just above where the 4×4 trail in the canyon ends near Cathedral Arch.

Great views into Arch Canyon from above…

There was even a set of old stairs installed to help you get further out.

If you look really close, you can just barely spot Cathedral Arch in the shadows below.

After making it back to the main road from the overlook spur, we continued on for a few more miles, but the road got progressively worse before dead-ending.

The final part of Sunday still to be continued…

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Sunday morning we left Blanding and headed towards Cedar Mesa again. Our destination this morning was South Mule Canyon where we looked forward to hiking to the famous House on Fire ruins. We were hoping to be there at a good time of the day for lighting, and I think we nailed the timing pretty good. We spent about an hour exploring the ruins and taking some photos. Here’s a few of the photos…

Still more to come from Sunday…