The long weekend of 12 Nov 10, Tracy and I explored around Moab, UT. I had just gotten
back from going to Tennessee on Monday, and Thursday was a holiday, so we left on
Thursday morning. We headed straight to Moab, and checked out the Kane Springs Road.
We had tried to drive this road once before, but it was raining and it was Jeep week, so we
didn't drive it. We did some hiking at Hunter's Canyon (Google Map) to see an arch, and we
just drove around exploring. We started from Moab, and we didn't think we could make the
loop up Kane Springs back to the highway, and we didn't have enough time to continue up to
Hurrah Pass, so we ended up just turning around and heading back to town. After getting back
to Moab, we figured we had enough time to drive up to Fisher Towers (Google Map). By the
time we got there, we just had enough time to get out and take some pictures, and then we
headed back to town around dusk.
On Friday we got up early and hiked the Moab Rim Trail (Google Map). This trail started out
really steep, but it topped out with a great view over Moab, Arches, and the La Sal Mountains.
We continued in to the Behind the Rocks area, and this area was pretty nice. We only hiked a
couple of miles past the overlook, so we didn't get into the heart of the jumble to reefs that
make up Behind the Rocks, but it was still pretty nice. We didn't really see many people, but
since we had overlooked Moab on our way in, I never really felt remote. We might go back to
check out the Behind the Rocks area by starting south of Moab in Spanish Valley, but I prefer
more remoteness when I go to Southern Utah. After hiking, we drove up to Willow Springs
Road (Google Map) and checked out some dinosaur tracks. After that, we just sat in the
desert for an hour or so and read, and then headed back into town for the night.
On Saturday I decided that I had had enough of the touristy feel of the Moab area, so we
headed down Dubinky Well Road (Google Map). We tried to do some off-roading on the
Crystal Geyser Trail that I thought was going to be pretty easy since it was only rated a 3. A 3
trail was described as "Difficult terrain, 4WD, good clearance, low gear essential." But then we
hit an area that just had a really abrupt rock climb, and I didn't think I had enough clearance in
my Xterra to clear the rock. That was too bad, because we had already done some tough
stuff, but we ended up having to turn around. I found a way around that area on an easier
trail, and we intersected back up onto the trail again, and continued on. We eventually did
some hiking on the slickrock above Ten Mile Canyon. We had been on the other side of this
canyon before, and we really liked it. We enjoyed it this time, also. From there we went to the
other side of the canyon where we had been before and did some reading. Then we drove out
to a very small arch, and then hiked on out to a great overlook of Ten Mile Canyon. We hiked
around for nearly a couple of hours, and then we made a mad rush on down the road to
overlook the Green River before it got dark. The Green River looked bigger and the canyon
looked deeper than we expected, so we were glad we had made the drive. We debated
camping out, but since it was going to get dark around 5:30, and it was going to be cold, and
since we would only be able to explore around for about 4 hours on Sunday before having to
head back home, we decided to just go ahead and head back on Saturday night.
This was a great trip, and I'm glad I'm learning more about Moab. Moab is amazing in that you
can participate in just about any outdoor activity in an incredible area within an hour of
downtown. However, it'e a little too touristy for me for southern Utah. Southern Utah is so
remote and so isolated, that I hate to sacrifice any of that by spending a lot of time in Moab. Of
course, Moab is about the only town in southern Utah with any resources, but resources are
something you don't really want when you're looking for remoteness. I do enjoy the
remoteness around Ten Mile canyon, though.