Klondike Bluffs

After six nights of boondocking in the Scamp, and two weeks total traveling, I was ready for a couple of nights in civilization -- restaurants, laundromats, grocery stores, liquor stores, the whole nine yards. Also, one of my hiking shoes was blowing apart after many miles of use, so I had some shopping to do. The weather was deteriorating as well, so it was excellent timing to be a townie for a day or two.

I headed for Moab and signed in for 2 nights at the Canyonlands Campground. It's a well-kept RV park right in town, practically across the street from the brewpub and a few blocks walk to any of the downtown restaurants and bars; perfect. Their rates are a few dollars higher than the places on the edge of town, but I thought the location was worth the premium.

After an afternoon of retail therapy and watching the clothes go round, the next day I was ready to get outside. This being Moab, the only self-respecting option was to go mountain biking. Jill mentioned the Klondike Bluffs trail, said she had really enjoyed it; that was recommendation enough for me.

The trailhead for Klondike Bluffs is about 15 miles north of town, just short of the airport. The (very old) bike trail guide that I had made it sound like the turn off the highway was a bit tricky to find. Well, not anymore; there are huge signs on the highway for the Klondike Bluffs trailhead as well as the other popular trailheads in the area. There is a parking area right at the highway, but the real trailhead is about 2.5 miles east on a dirt road. The weather was still cool and scattered showery, when I got to the trailhead I sat in the truck and waited out one squall. The skies looked reasonable behind that one, so I unloaded the bike and started pedaling.

The trail is about 10 miles out-and-back, much of it on easy-to-intermediate slickrock. I hadn't done any slickrock riding to speak of, so this was a new adventure and quite a treat. I was really enjoying having a full-suspension bike!

The pot of gold at the end of this rainbow is a short hike (no bikes) inside the Arches NP boundary to a nice overlook of the north end of the park.

By the time I got back to the truck, the next rain squall held off just long enough for me to stow the bike and the rest of my gear; perfect timing. Back to Moab, and I felt like I'd earned pizza and beer for dinner.

Crack Canyon

Hmmm, this might be a new favorite in the San Rafael Swell. Considering that the competition includes Little Wild Horse and Bell, and Ding and Dang, that's saying something.

According to Michael Kelsey's book, Crack Canyon can be done as a 25 km loop with Chute Canyon. It was a very windy day out in the open terrain, so I figured that connecting the bottoms of the two canyons would be an unpleasant sandblasting experience. I opted to just do Crack Canyon from the top. The trailhead (well-marked) is 4.2 miles on the Behind-The-Reef road.

With 4WD high clearance you could drive another 0.8 mile or so to some nice primitive camping areas; beyond this point vehicles are not allowed.

The canyon gradually tightens up. There are several sets of narrows, with accompanying dryfall and chokestone problems. The hardest one is about an hour from the trailhead; some people can get up and down past the chokestone but it was a little bit more than I wanted to tackle by myself. As I went back up-canyon into the sun to eat lunch, I noticed the bypass route!

Eventually the canyon starts to open up again as you get down onto the valley floor. I went as far as the first side wash, and hiked a quarter-mile or so up that way just to see what was there.

Here is the bypass route (from the top) for the hardest narrows section. Go back up-canyon, back up out of the narrows about 150 yards or so, the canyon opens up. The wash makes a sharp right turn (almost 90 degrees), at the outer apex of the corner there is an 8-foot wide crack system that goes up as high as you can see. Scramble up the rockfall at the bottom of the crack to get onto the first ledge on the right. There are a few cairns here, I didn't see them the first time past but once I realized I needed a bypass I was able to find them. Coming back up-canyon, the cairns for the bypass are very obvious.

This is a popular place; on a sunny (and windy!) afternoon in early May, I saw 7 other parties in here. According to Kelsey's book, ATVs can use Chute Canyon so it is not quite as idyllic a place; I'll save that one for another day.

GPS log and photos at EveryTrail.com

Tomsich Butte

I was a bit tired after yesterday, from walking through all that sand in Wild Horse Creek. Other than a short excursion back up Wild Horse Creek to find the pictographs, a road trip is what I had in mind.  I drove up North Temple Wash, a scenic drive also known as Emery County 1013. Two-wheel drive, high clearance, that goes up to an old mining area. There are some campsites along this road, I wouldn't take my trailer back in here but some other people took theirs.

Next on the list was a longer excursion into the San Rafael Swell. I wanted to see the Reds Canyon area, and Tomsich Butte, and whatever else appeared along the way. From Taylor Flat I took the McKay Flat road (very smooth, wide open vistas) and then headed toward Tomsich Butte and Muddy Creek. The road from McKay Flat over to Tomsich Butte has some spectacular views of Tomsich Butte and Reds Canyon.

Tomsich Butte is the site of an old mining operation, and there are several nice primitive campsites along Muddy Creek. This is a pretty remote place, as places go; I could easily spend a couple days here hanging out. There were three parties camped here on a sunny Saturday in early May.

Muddy Creek deserves its name, I would definitely bring my own water rather than having to settle that stuff out. That's Hondu Arch in the distance...

I went out via the road through Reds Canyon. It is spectacular. Much of it is bumpy 2WD in a dry wash. Huge vistas, big rock walls, and buttes. You could get a trailer back in here but I personally wouldn't be happy about it.

Since this is Utah, family is important. Here is a picture of Family Butte...

Wild Horse Window

That's the view from the parking area. I planned to hike up Wild Horse Creek, not to be confused with Little Wild Horse. The guidebook I had showed a cave slightly north of the creek wash, and it turned out to be easily visible from where I parked. Okay, that might be interesting, so with no other information I forged ahead on a well-used trail, first in the sand and then well-cairned on the slickrock. Before long, I came to the cave itself, a double-cavern sort of thing that looked really nice.

But, wait, there's more! The right side cavern has a skylight! Cool!

I looked this up online, the usual name is "Wild Horse Window". That seems a bit lame to me, I talked to a few other hikers who called it the "Skylight Cave". Okay, whatever, it is a really cool place and only a mile from the trailhead. According on online sources, the roof opening is 35 feet by 22 feet.

After visiting the cave, I went back down to the wash, almost to the trailhead, in order to go up Wild Horse Creek. It is about three miles up to the top, where you can drive to the top of the wash via the Behind-The-Reef Road. Most of the walking is in loose sand, and does get tiring. There are three sets of narrows; the first one you can walk through, the others have easy bypasses around some more difficult dryfalls.

There are supposed to be pictographs and petroglyphs in this canyon. I didn't see any of them the first time through, so I went back the next day determined to find the "best" set of pictographs, that are located near the bottom of the canyon. I did find them, finally. Going up-canyon, you come to the first set of narrows (easily walkable) about 5 minutes into the wash. Above these narrows, go about 10-15 minutes walking, on the right (east/north) side of the canyon there is an amphitheater of noticeably whiter rock. Above the main white rim there is a noticeable cavern in the orange sandstone. Below the white rim, there are two distinct chambers. In the left hand chamber, below the upper cavern, the pictographs are visible with the naked eye but take binoculars for a better view. It looked like a tedious climb, maybe 100' vertical, on steep slickrock so I didn't go all the way up.

Double Ding Dang

Double because I basically did each one twice. Ding and Dang Canyons are two pretty slot canyons in the San Rafael Swell, easily accessible about 1.5 miles past the Little Wild Horse Canyon trailhead (high clearance 2WD needed).

The guidebook I was using (Michael Kelsey, Hiking and Exploring Utah's San Rafael Swell) said that the usual route was to go up Ding Canyon and then down Dang Canyon, and that you must have 2 people and maybe a short rope to descend a 3-meter chokestone and dryfall in Dang Canyon. I was solo, so I figured I would go as far as I could safely, and back out from there.

From the trailhead it took about 20 minutes of easy walking in an open wash to reach the bottom junction of Ding and Dang Canyons.

Ding Canyon is indeed a very pretty canyon with several sets of narrows sections. There is one section with two larger plunge pools (both of them keepers!) that are bypassed on the right/east side. A couple of the obstacles were challenging enough that I took off my pack and set it up above the chokestone; none required any roping of packs, but I was glad to have some basic climbing skills.

After a little over an hour I reached the top of Ding Canyon, and it took 20 minutes to follow a well-defined trail over to the top of Dang Canyon.

The first obstacle going down Dang Canyon is an 8-foot dryfall; there was a bolt and anchor in the chockstone. This seemed unnecessary, as it was easy to bypass this on the right (west) side.

The next obstacle was easy to bypass on the left (east) by walking along the ledges. Finally I came to the 3-meter drop. There was an anchor visible, with a carabiner and some webbing. There was no way that I was going to try that one on my own though.

Soooo, I turned around, went back up Dang, over to Ding, down Ding, over to the bottom of Dang, and started up Dang Canyon from the bottom. Some hikers I met in Ding Canyon said they'd heard there was a lot of water in Dang Canyon. I don't know if it was a  lot  of water, but I rapidly got tired of bridging, turned around and went back out the bottom of Dang as well. I left about a quarter-mile of Dang Canyon
unseen.

 

These are indeed very pretty canyons with nice narrows sections, easily accessible if you have a 2WD high clearance vehicle or the energy for an extra 3 miles of hiking from well-maintained road. Little Wild Horse and Bell Canyons are the canonical examples, but even Ding Canyon by itself is a nice introduction.

GPS log and more pictures on EveryTrail.com

Horseshoe Canyon

After four nights of dry camping at the Cedar Mesa campground, I stopped in Hanksville for gas and groceries and then spent a night at Goblin Valley State Park in order to tank up the trailer on fresh water and unload some, um, dirty water. I did a little bit of biking just to get some exercise.

The next day I headed out to Horseshoe Canyon, in Canyonlands National Park on the east side of the Colorado River. I knew it would be a long drive, like thirty miles; what I didn't know is that it would all be very dusty washboarded dirt and sand, and that there were almost no places at all to pull off with a camp trailer. Sorry about having to replace those rivets, Scamp.

So after almost two hours of driving from the highway, I reached the Horseshoe Canyon trailhead. The last mile into the trailhead is noticeably rougher, I left the trailer out on the road. There is camping at the trailhead, I could have got the trailer back in there but would not have been happy about the experience.

The main attraction at Horseshoe Canyon is the pictographs; a 6.5 mile round trip hike to some of the best known examples of Barrier Canyon Style pictographs. The "Great Gallery" is indeed spectacular. Unfortunately, somebody left my camera in the trailer instead of in the truck where I could find it, so I don't have any pictures.  Here is somebody else's web page about Horseshoe Canyon. I spent about 3.5 hours hiking in and out, and sightseeing in amazement.

Horseshoe Canyon and neighboring Bluejohn Canyon are the area where Aron Ralston had his harrowing survival experience, as made famous in the movie 127 Hours. I thought it was interesting to note the warning signs on the BLM signboard.

After almost sixty miles of washboard dirt road, I ended up camping at a smoothed out transfer area about two miles from the paved highway. It was nice and quiet, I just wished I'd left the trailer there to begin with.

more Waterpocket Fold hiking

Fair weather had returned, and after a day of mostly driving it was time to get back to exploring the east side of Capitol Reef National Park.

First on the list was Headquarters Canyon. This is a short, one mile out, one mile back, into a pretty narrow canyon south of the Burr Trail road. The trailhead is right at where the cutoff road to The Post trailhead leaves the Notom-Bullfrog road.

This is a very pretty little canyon with some nice narrows; a good introduction to the Waterpocket Fold for light-duty hikers. The main disadvantage is that it is a long way from the highway (about 35 miles from U-24). I turned around when I came to a small dryfall; it didn't look that hard, but I was having trouble getting good traction to chimney my way up. I didn't want to push my luck, especially solo, and I had other places to go as well.

Headquarters Canyon GPS log and more pictures (EveryTrail.com)


Next on the list was Surprise Canyon. The trailhead is only a few miles north of the trailhead for Headquarters Canyon. Surprise Canyon is no surprise, you can see it from the road, it is much the same as Headquarters Canyon; a mile out, a mile back. I think Headquarters Canyon is a little bit prettier.  There is one spot that requires some difficult scrambling, but there is an easy bypass about 40 yards downcanyon on the south side.  I stopped when I came to a huge rockfall that I wasn't interested in tackling.

GPS log and pictures for Surprise Canyon (EveryTrail.com)

Finally, I had some unfinished business in Lower Muley Twist Canyon. A couple days earlier I did the loop from The Post trailhead; but that left 4 miles of canyon between the Burr Trail Road and The Post cutoff trail.

The last time I drove the Burr Trail switchbacks was probably ten years ago. That was when I hiked Upper Muley Twist Canyon. Back then, there were huge ruts and holes in the corners; it was, ahem, interesting driving it with 4WD low range. This time, the road was well-graded and much easier driving; still steep and big-time exposure, but doable with a passenger car. I was glad to have my truck though.

The upper 4 miles of Lower Muley Twist (upper lower muley twist, that seems to contradict itself) are easy walking in the canyon wash. I think the lower 8 miles have better scenery, but they require more of a commitment to get to. Going in from The Post trailhead is about an hour of uphill, I think it would be better to just go in from the Burr Trail whenever possible. If I wanted to do the loop, and I had two cars, I would go in at the Burr Trail road and come out at The Post. With only one car, just go in and out at the Burr Trail road; Halls Creek isn't that interesting. Just sayin', ya know?

GPS log for Lower Muley Twist Canyon from Burr Trail (EveryTrail.com)