What a great day! Amanda and I woke up early this morning and headed over to McDonald Creek for a little hiking. This is a nice easy hike that starts out near Castle Rocks and then heads down to the Colorado River.
There are also some pictographs along the canyon.
We just got back from our annual May Moab trip. Just barely made it this year as May is almost over! Our plan for this day trip was to run Sevenmile Rim.
The last time I ran part of Sevenmile Rim was back in 2003, so I was looking forward to running the whole trail.
We took the short side trip to Uranium Arch
On Monday, Amanda and I said goodbye to Jared and headed our separate ways. We ended up sticking to the pavement and did some more ‘touristy’ stuff as we looped around on our way back home. Our first stop was the Four Corners Monument. Amanda has wanted to stop here for a while, so we finally did it.
Our next stop was Mesa Verde
We didn’t have too much time to spend at the park as we wanted to get home at a decent time, but I really wanted to get a feel for the park, get some information to help plan future trips and to do a short hike away from the Memorial Day crowds. We managed to accomplish all of that.
After a stop at the Visitor’s Center for some info, we headed a little ways down the road and took a short hike to the Far View House and surround structures. While the park was pretty busy, we saw only two other people the whole time we explored this area.
Far View House
Far View Tower
On Sunday we woke up early again and headed South along Comb Ridge until we reached Snow Flat Road, which would take us up onto Cedar Mesa.
Crossing Comb Wash
At Snow Flat Road getting our hiking permits with Comb Ridge in the background
On our way we passed a small natural bridge next to the road that I had to stop and get a photo of
Our first destination for today was to try and get to the Moon House Ruins. This was supposed to be an easy hike with some minor scrambling, however when we got there, we found the climb down into the canyon was more technical that we were prepared for, so we had to settle on viewing the ruins from the other side of the canyon on this trip…
Reflection at the Moon House Ruins trailhead
Moon House Ruins in McCloyd Canyon
Saturday morning we woke up extra early and headed for one of our favorite campsites in Comb Wash. As we were driving through Monticello, I noticed a Cherokee in my rearview mirror that sort of looked familiar. By the time we reached Blanding that Cherokee had caught up with me and it was in fact someone I knew…..Jared. We both pulled off at the local Shell for some gas and talked about our current plans for the weekend. We had spent the last Memorial Day weekend exploring the Comb Ridge area, and it looked like we would be doing the same again this year.
After setting up camp in Comb Wash we took a short walk to some ruins that Jared had found near our campsite last year.
Then we headed north to the road cut into Comb Ridge that you can see when you are on the Hotel Rock trail. I have always wanted to drive this old section of road since I first saw it, and was not disapointed.
You can see the road cut in this photo if you look closely
We stopped near the top when we saw an old car hanging onto the edge of a cliff. While we were stopped, I turned around and spotted a small arch above us.
Jared taking a photo with the small arch above us
The old car on the edge…
Since a number of people have asked me about a GPS track for the Kokopelli trail, I have decided to go ahead and post them up here, before I get around to doing a full trail informational post. So below you will find the GPX and Google Earth (KML) track of the Kokopelli 4×4 Trail starting at the trailhead in Loma and ending at Main Street in Moab.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them below.
Enjoy 
We’re heading out bright and early this morning for the Four Corners area. We don’t have any specific plans, but I have a number of ideas….we’ll make it up as we go
I’ll have my SPOT on, so feel free to check where I’m at.
Have a good Memorial Day weekend!
This past weekend I finally got around to completing a trail that has been on my to-do list for quite a while….The Kokopelli Trail. When people hear the name Kokopelli, they usually associate this trail with mountain biking. While it is indeed a popular mountain biking route, this trail follows old four-wheel drive roads for much of the way. There are only a few sections of singletrack that need to be bypassed.
This trip was put together by Jan on ExpeditionUtah a few months ago, and in the end there were five vehicles total that showed up. We all met on Saturday night at El Tapatio in Fruita for dinner and then headed to Loma where a few of the guys setup camp for the night. Being local, I went home and slept in my comfy bed for one more night 
Bright and early on Sunday morning we all met up at the Kokopelli trailhead in Loma to get our journey started.
The route started out on a gravel road that follows the interstate and ends at the Mack exit. Once at the Mack exit, we were forced onto the pavement to bypass the first section of singletrack on the trail. We had to hop on the old Highway 6 & 50 and take it for a few miles to Sidewinder Road, which would take us back under the interstate again.
Sidewinder Road took us back to the Rabbit Valley Road which is where we joined back up with the Kokopelli Trail again, and wound our way through Rabbit Valley and the McDonald Creek Cultural Resource Area.
Headed down McDonald Creek
Castle Rocks
Even though Amanda and I stayed home this weekend to get a bunch of stuff done around the house (and we did), we still needed to get out for a little bit. We haven’t hiked to Mica Mine yet this year, so we got up early this morning and spent a few hours in the Rough Canyon area. We were hoping the creek was still flowing in the canyon, but I guess it has been too dry lately and the creek was dry, so we did not bother hiking all the way to the waterfall past the mine.
Here’s a few photos from our hike…
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