IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

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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Wednesday, October 6, 2010 | Day 5

Wednesday…another day and another morning of waiting in the tent until the rain stopped. Luckily, once it stopped, the sky actually started to clear up and the sun came out as we were packing up camp. From camp we headed down the Colorado River to the trailhead for Corona Arch. This hike was on my to-do list for this year and I was planning on hiking it in November, but since we were here unexpectedly I figured it would be a good time to check it out. Our goals for this day would be to find some arches, petroglyphs and pictographs near Moab that we usually bypass on our way to other destinations.

We manged to arrive at Corona Arch while there was still some nice early sunlight on it, so we took advantage.

Corona Arch (Little Rainbow Bridge)

We also stopped at Bowtie Arch and Pinto Arch on our way back down.

Bowtie Arch

Pinto Arch

Next we continued on down the road to Jug Handle Arch to find some petroglyphs underneath it.

Jug Handle Arch

We scrambled up near the arch and found the petroglyph panel for some photos.

The large panel

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Monday, October 4, 2010 | Day 3

OK, before I get started on Monday’s trip report, it appears that my memory may be incorrect and I jumped the gun on Sunday’s trip report. Jared has informed me that it was the night before Monday that we had the vehicle driving down the Hole-in-the-Rock Road that woke us up with it’s constant buzzing sounds. So instead of fixing the previous report, I’m just going to insert this correction here. Now onto Monday!

Monday morning we woke up to rain. We had a quick breakfast inside the Jeep to stay dry. The sky to the south looked clear, so we headed in that direction to hike down Willow Gulch to Broken Bow Arch. When we arrived at the Willow Gulch trailhead we got lucky and the sky was indeed clear here with the sun shining….so we grabbed our backpacks and headed down canyon.

Mortar Board Rock

View into Willow Gulch as we descended

A short ways down Willow Gulch we headed up a side canyon and found some petroglyphs.

There were quite a few petroglyphs, but most of them were fading away pretty good. After taking some photos we continued on to Broken Bow Arch which required some bushwhacking along the creek.

Broken Bow Arch was pretty impressive when we reached it

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Since Amanda had to work today, it was up to me to figure out what I was going to do. While having breakfast this morning, I figured I would head up on the Uncompahgre Plateau to explore a few roads I haven’t been on yet. I started out on Divide Road and made a large loop all the way back home. Here’s a few pictures from my day.

Stopped in a large grove of aspens on Campbell Point

Coming down the other side of the plateau, there were great views of the La Sal Mountains

Drove through a historic uranium mining area…..I will have to spend more time here in the future

Near Mesa Creek

Found a few petroglyphs

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This last weekend Amanda and I decided to head for the Henry Mountains. I have skirted around them many times in the past, but for some reason I had never made the time to stop and check them out. This was my weekend to correct that little problem 🙂 Last week was very hot and sunny around here, so I thought the weather would be perfect when I started planning the trip. Unfortunately, there was a cold front that came through and screwed up all that nice weather while we were out exploring. We managed to still have a great time, even with the cooler temperatures, rain and snow.

We left home early Saturday morning and stopped in Hanksville to fuel up before heading to Starr Spring Campground. This was our planned camping location for the weekend. When we arrived, we were disappointed to find all the sites full. We decided to do some exploring and find a campsite later. Before heading out, we stopped to check out the never completed Starr Ranch house.

Starr Ranch house with Mount Hillers in the background

The stone cellar behind the house

We then headed west on Clay Point Road to reach the Bullfrog Road.

Mount Hillers in the background

Headed towards the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef National Park.

On our way back towards Bullfrog to loop back around, we took the side loop around Big Thompson Mesa to some overlooks of Halls Creek and the Waterpocket Fold

Great view of the Waterpocket Fold over Halls Creek

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