Beef Basin Weekend | Friday
Friday | October 8, 2010
On Friday morning Amanda and I loaded up the Jeep and headed to Beef Basin for a three-day weekend. I had been planning this weekend for a while since I wanted to spend some quality time exploring Beef Basin. We made it to Monticello to fuel up and then took UT 211 towards the Needles District of Canyonlands, where we turned off onto the Cottonwood Canyon Road. I had been worried about the condition of this road with all the rain we had recently, but we found it in good condition and it was dried out (I’ve been on this road when it was wet before, and it’s no fun). We climbed up towards Horse Mountain until we reached the Beef Basin Road turnoff and dropped back down into House Park where we setup a basecamp for the weekend.
Once camp was setup I headed straight for Middle Park to find the granaries there. They were easily found but the lighting was bad when we arrived, so I figured I’d head back later in the evening before it got dark out. We continued on into Ruin Park and stopped at some of the ruins along the way.
A tower in Ruin Park that I planned to visit later that night
Farm House Ruin
We took the Bull Valley Spur all the way back to the Gypsum Canyon Spur where I found the arch located near the end of the trail.
The arch near the end of the Gypsum Canyon spur…..bad picture because I was shooting right into the sun
We hopped on the Beef Basin Loop Road from there and headed back to complete the Homewater Spring Loop before heading back to Middle Park. This time the light was better, so I took some photos.
View across Beef Basin
Double-Stack Granaries in Middle Park
The Upper Garnary
My favorite granary in Middle Park to photograph
Photo from further back
We headed back to camp for some dinner and to take a short nap until it was dark out. Once it was dark we headed back over to ruin park to shoot some star trails.
Here’s one Amanda composed
..and here’s mine. Probably one of my favorite photos from the weekend.
It was a good way to start a nice long weekend of camping and exploring 🙂