Hiking Around Moab

Sadly, our road trip is coming to an end. We didn't get any more rock climbing in due to rain in the Sedona area and a sinus cold that kicked the crap out of me while we were in Moab. After our hike in Fish and Owl Canyons I did manage to drag my ailing body around several short day hikes in the Moab area in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks and Dead Horse Point State Park. (Big thanks to whoever invented sinus meds and to Andrew for his patience!) These are a few random photos.

Potholes in Canyonlands

The rim hike at Dead Horse Point had fabulous views! 

And an interesting story . . . 

These ponds looked rather out of place. They are solar evaporation ponds for mining potash. 

At Arches National Park we did a guided tour of the "Fiery Furnace" area with a Park Ranger, hoping to learn more about the geology of the area. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as we'd hoped and there were about 20+ other people on the tour. Oh well, still interesting!

Tracks from a lizard?

Twin Arches

The tour route had lots of twists and turns and a few challenges for some people.

 After the tour we went to the Delicate Arch view point.

Photo yoga.

We splurged and stayed a couple more nights at the 3 Dogs and a Moose cottages. 

Bogie's Bungalow

The Devil's Garden

Back in Moab we decided to check out Arches National Park. We drove the scenic road, stopping at a few of the view points along the way, and then hiked the 12 km Devil's Garden Trail. Most people don't do the whole loop but we would highly recommend it!

Balanced Rock in the sun.
(Total height 128 ft or 39 m; boulder height 55 ft or 17 m; boulder weight 3,500 tons)

Double Arch

"Landscape Arch is the longest arch in Arches National Park, and the longest national arch in the world according to the Natural Arch and Bridge Society. It is 290 ft at its longest section. More recently, several chunks have fallen from it, and the trail leading below it has since been closed for safety reasons, but you can still get fairly close from the designated viewing area." (From everytrail.com)

Landscape Arch - about the length of a football field.

Lunch with a view. 

Rows and rows of rock!

Double O

The first part of the Devil's Garden Trail is along a well established path. The second part, which comes with many dire warnings, is a "primitive trail" and involves a bit of hands-on scrambling and trying to follow cairns through a maze of rock formations. Lots of fun and great views!

More rows of rocks and a maze to get out of.

Syncline Loop Trail

Enroute to somewhere, anywhere, that was warm enough to rock climb we decided to stop for a couple nights in Moab, Utah. Although not quite as warm yet as we had hoped, a long day hike was in order to break up the driving part of the trip.

One of the few loop trails (rather than out and back) was Syncline Loop Trail in Canyonlands National Park. In addition to the sign that said "this trail is strenuous and difficult to follow" there was also a sign that advised more people get lost on this trail than any other in Canyonlands.

Map & compass?  Check.

GPS? Check.

SPOT? Check. 

All the other essentials? Check.

After a couple false starts leaving the parking lot, trying to figure which trail actually went anywhere, we were on our way. It was -5 C but as we got lower in elevation and the sun got higher, we stopped a couple times to strip off layers. 

The views were fabulous! Various shades of red and brown; caves high in the rock walls; sheer cliffs; and bits of ice clinging to moss on the walls.

Neither Andrew nor I found the trail to be particularly strenuous or difficult to follow. The first half was all downhill and although there was a relatively short section of steep uphill coming back around the other side of the loop, it was mostly fairly gradual uphill and then levelled off near the end of the loop.

There was snow on the trail in the shady aspects so we could follow footprints on occasion and there were a lot of cairns. If you weren't paying attention it probably would be easy to lose the path. The trail is 13.3 km and took us five hours.

At the lowest part of the loop. No flash floods today!

A marker showing the way through a little scrambly part.

Crazy shades of rock.

Out of the sun.

We saw a few small birds but the only other signs of wildlife were rabbit tracks and a small burrow and tracks possibly from a fox or something like that.

This differed from our past few days of driving during which we saw snowy owl, ravens, hawks, deer, antelope and wild horses. (Links are to Andrew's blog and photos.)

In Moab we're staying in Bogie's Bungalow at 3 Dogs and a Moose Cottages. Very unique and within walking distance to restaurants, coffee shop and grocery store. A soak in the hot tub after driving was good too!