IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Sunday I was on my own. I didn’t want to get too far away from home, but I really had no idea of where I was going when I left the house. I pointed my Jeep towards Moab and started driving. Along the way I decided to stop at Onion Creek to hike the narrows.

When I was done hiking I figured that I would head up into the La Sal Mountains to see if I could find any remaining fall colors.

View back to Castle Valley as I headed up the Loop Road

Pinhook Valley was pretty colorful…it’s slowly returning after the fire a few years ago

Colorful scrub oak in the burn area

Still some patches of golden aspens

Haystack Mountain in the clouds

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Saturday, October 23, 2010

On Saturday morning Amanda and I headed to Green River to follow the San Rafael Desert Loop. With all the rain the area had received lately we were a little worried about the condition of the roads in the area, but we lucked out and most of them were in good shape. As we made our way south from Green River the roads were a bit muddy from the recent rains, but not too bad. We did come across an abandoned camper on a muddy hill that someone couldn’t get out. The further south we got from Green River, the drier the roads were. Our first destination was the old Chaffin Ranch to see the cold water geyser. We hung around until it started to spout water.

While we were waiting for the geyser, I took some photos of the colorful mineral deposits surrounding the opening.

Just starting to erupt

There we go

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Sunday | October 10, 2010

Sunday morning we were up early, had some breakfast and packed up camp. We would be heading home today, but not the way we came. We would be heading out through Canyonlands National Park’s Needles District.

Warning sign before dropping down into Bobbys Hole

The trail down into Bobbys Hole wasn’t bad, just a little rough

Welcome to Canyonlands

The Needles

We stopped to take a hike on The Joint Trail to Chesler Park. Amanda really enjoyed this hike since she had not done it before.

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Saturday | October 9, 2010

After a cold night of camping we had some breakfast and started the day out by heading up Beef Basin Wash. The first few miles of this road had been recently graded and it was in good shape, however at the first gate is where the recent maintenance had stopped. As we continued through the gate we noticed that no one had been down this trail since the last storms had come through. When we reached the first wash crossing we were met with some cut banks on both sides. I thought I could drive through the crossing, but soon found out that I was wrong. I managed to get stuck in some deep sand along the wash. It had been a while since the last time I got a vehicle stuck anywhere. With nothing good to winch to, Amanda and I spent the next 45 minutes to an hour digging and stacking rocks. Luckily I was then able to back out of this situation. Once out of the sand, I parked the Jeep and we hiked the rest of the way along the road to the cliff dwelling I had set out to visit.

By the time I reached the ruins I was a little too late and there was a shadow cast onto the top of them.

Closer view

After hiking back to the Jeep we continued on back to the Beef Basin Loop and checked out the Calf Canyon Spur followed by a drive up into Ruin Canyon. While in Ruin Canyon we stopped at the large ridge-top ruins.

Back at the 5-way intersection

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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 🙂