I love desert riding. But, admittedly, in the last decade, I haven’t given Moab a whole lot of love. A handful of years back, Frank and I rode the Whole Enchilada – a great ride for sure. But, everyone else thinks that too. There we were along for the ride with about 1000 other friends. Maybe it wasn’t that many…. but the constant stream of people was relentless. When we finished the ride, we spent hours looking for a campsite. We were over it, and retreated to Fruita for a bit more solace. Granted, it was a weekend… But that experience turned Frank and I off from adventuring in Moab for a long time.

Enter job flexibility. No longer having to only have “weekend” trips actually be on weekends means I can go to places during the week and skirt the crowds. I’m not going to say Moab still wasn’t crowded – it was. Most campsites were still full. But, the stream of people on the trails was much more manageable and definitely an improved experience.

I had actually never explored the Navajo Rocks area before. Natalie insisted we go there, and now I see why. The riding there is really fun – technical features, but not too technical. Pretty much everything is rideable. And, it’s incredibly scenic. I would happily ride there again!

We ended up riding the typical Chaco Loop. But, we actually did it as a figure 8 instead of a loop. We started at the middle parking lot, did a clockwise loop to the east and then a counter-clockwise loop to the west. It was a great way to connect these trails together!

And now, for the pics…

And one shot of me….

Navajo Rocks is a great area for intermediate riders and above. So, check it out if you haven’t. I certainly intend to go back!

Map of Navajo Rocks Figure 8

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We awoke to crispy frost on nearly every surface possible, even after resisting the need to emerge out of the sleeping bag like a tortoise out of its shell. Our tent made crunching noises from ice chunks that speckled its exterior as I unzipped the fly, despite the fact that it had been baking in the daylight for well over an hour. Frigid air clung around us, and the breeze seemed to be winning the battle for coolness over the warm sun.

But, such is life in November in the desert. Just to stay warm, we hurried to get ready. Movement was key. Without it we were cold. It was time to return to canyoneering in Arches National Park.

We then headed to the start of Lost and Found Canyon, which has the same start as the two canyons that we’d ventured into the day before. But, this time we knew we did not want to do the same climbing exit, and decided to leave a car at Lost Spring for a hiking exit instead.

We walked a ways to get to the start of Lost and Found, eventually funneling into a wash requiring some canyoneering moves.

Unlike rock climbing, canyoneering moves seem less graceful – well, at least to us as novices.

The canyon was very “slotty”.

The first rappel was aesthetic, dropping down a donut hole in the rock into the chasm below.

And then there were some more canyoneering moves.

A few more slot moves got us to the 2nd rappel. Natalie getting ready to drop down.

Me.

Frank on the 2nd rappel.

Natalie certainly made some of the canyoneering moves look a bit more natural.

This tricky spot led us right to the top of the third rap.

The third rappel.

Natalie dropping down.

This last rappel was a good one, and required two ropes. Frank.

After packing up from the third and final rap, we headed down the narrow canyon.

The canyon quickly emerged to a much wider canyon, which we also followed downstream.

I guess it’s only appropriate that we spied an arch. It IS Arches National Park afterall!

After awhile, we met up with another canyon that merged from our right and began following its wash upstream toward Lost Spring where we’d left our car.

Eventually, we were “wash-whacking”.

A split in the washes again brought us to a dry stream bed that was laden in quartz.

We still had to climb out of the canyon, but we found a fairly easy spot to do so.

Alas, a view of the La Sals.

Though it was time to wrap up out weekend adventure, I wouldn’t be surprised if we started making this an annual fall event! But, its on to the next season of us now. Plenty of white stuff in the high country to begin quenching our thirst!

Want to do these canyons yourself?

Knowledge of rappeling, anchor building, and rock climbing is a must. But, we found a lot of useful information on roadtripryan.com.

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I mean, what’s not to like about canyoneering into slot canyons? You end up in crazy places where people probably “don’t belong”, venturing into desert oases are full of life and color. And as an added bonus, there are plenty of opportunities to spike the heart rate while scrambling and rappelling deeper into the canyons themselves. So when our friend Natalie and new friend Kate invited us along, we jumped at the chance even though the backcountry ski season was firing up in Crested Butte.

We awoke after a cold night and traveled to the start of MMI canyon, on the north side of Arches national park. After a short hike, we found ourselves at the top of the canyon.

I can’t imagine being a canyon explorer, not knowing what you might find in these canyons. Once you pull the ropes on on of these overhanging cliffs, you’re pretty committed. In our case, of course, we knew what we had in front of us. Brittany dropping in to the known unknown…

The first rap is actually a bit tricky, going under, over, and around some chockstones.

After the first rap, it was mostly a scenic hike for a while.

The second MMI rappel was short and quick.

The third rap was the fun one:

After the third and final rap, the MMI canyon is basically a nice scenic hike, especially since it’s still fall in the bottom of the canyon.

There was still plenty of evidence of the flooding which struck the Moab area a couple of times this summer.

Don’t step on the crypto!

At the bottom of MMI, you can either do a tough to protect 5th class climb and loop back to the car, or run a shuttle. Even though we ran a shuttle, we ended up doing the climb out at the same time as a large group was using the same exit from another nearby canyon (which we would do the following day). I was really wishing I had some sticky rubber approach shoes, since every step I took would let me slip just a little bit on the climb out. I actually found it a bit terrifying at times.

We still had some daylight, and there was another short canyon (Winter Camp Wash- Lost Spring) nearby, so we went back for more. This one had just one rappel at the start, and Brittany ended up pulling the rope while Kate, Natalie, and I did the route. Where are we going?

This rap was as fun as a rappel can be. Once you go off the jammed log, the canyon tightens and it gets very dark, very quickly, and the last 50′ or so are free hanging.

The canyon was quite a bit tighter than MMI, but was free of obstacles once we were in there. Very scenic.

We looped back around to the car as the sun was setting.

At the end of the day, I have to say that I was OK with our choice to head to the desert instead of getting my first backcountry day under my belt. It was a fun intro to canyoneering. Day 2 was even more fun, but more on that later…

Static rope is a good idea in canyons (and the Lake City ice park)

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My friends, Jen and Jonathan, who live in the Salt Lake City Area, planned a great ride for us when they heard I was visiting. Part of that ride entailed the scenic Wasatch Crest Trail. But, we made the Wasatch Crest into a loop rather than the traditional shuttle, beginning at the Guardsman. It was a beautiful ride on a beautiful day.

Jen, Jonathan, and me on top of “Puke Hill”.

Me, happy to be here

The Wasatch Crest Trail was incredibly scenic. I couldn’t help but stop to take photos every few minutes.

The wildflowers decorated the trail abundantly with their hues.

Jen and Jonathan on another break to enjoy the views.

Beautiful Lake Desolation below.

The aspen forests were inviting too.

View of Square Top.

Red Pine Lake.

Jen with wildflowers scattered about.

Jen with Big Cottonwood Canyon below. If you look into the distance, you can see the slight outline of the city below. Other than the fact that the trail had many riders on it, it was hard to remember that we were only a few miles from a major metropolitan area.

Upon exiting the Wasatch Crest, we headed down into the Canyons, meeting up with the Mid-Mountain Trail which took us toward Park City. This section of trail traversed through a lot of lush forest.

We had some great views of Park City.

At Park City ski area, we began to ascend Powerline, which took us by these mining ruins.

But then it continued ascending through this aspen forest.

We ascended to the ridge to intersect again with the Wasatch Crest, and then descended Scott Hill to end up back where we started, completing our loop.

Although sometimes crowded the Wasatch Crest is an amazingly scenic trail that is not very technical – I’d put it at intermediate level. It was great to see so many people enjoying some of the best that the Salt Lake City area has to offer. Thanks to Jen and Jonathan for taking me on a fabulous ride!

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Some of the PNW volcanoes are covered in glaciers to varying degrees. Although I am not sure of the exact routes or even exactly which peaks we will find ourselves on the top of, it’s best to be prepared for all kinds of travel. Traveling across glaciers requires a certain set of skills that we don’t have much opportunity to practice here in Colorado. So, I prepared the best way that I could- I read books. My favorite one is this:

Practicing self-arresting is always good. But when you know you could be responsible to hold a crevasse fall of an entire rope line, it is essential. So, Frank and I refreshed our skills by watching this video:

And then we headed out to practice for real after work one day:

Monday, after skiing Baldy, I left the land of lupine and green speckled with white…

And I headed west…. to the desert…. to stay the day in Salt Lake City.

Soon, I will head further west, yet again – for Volacano Ski Tour Take 2!

Check out other TR’s from this Pacific Northwest trip!
Diamond Peak
Solstice Ski on Mount Bachelor
Newberry Crater
Crater Lake
Mount Thielsen
South Sister
Volcano Travel Day
Shasta’s West Face
Lassen Peak

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Brighton is fairly small, but with 6 different backcountry access gates, it skied a little bigger. Many of these areas seemed like parts of the ski area, with a steady stream of skiers heading outside the gates, with or without gear. While Brighton was pretty fun, with steeper terrain than anything on the front range of Colorado, we still thought it paled in comparison to the areas of Little Cottonwood. Anyway, on to some pictures.

Frank:

This is the view from the top of the Great Western Express lift, looking back towards Millicent and the Little Cottonwood area. The areas in the foreground are both inbounds and slackcountry.

Brittany:

Frank (hiding in the trees):

More Frank (talk about overkill using an airbag pack in heavily used slackcountry- it’s all I had):

Brittany:

All in all, a fun but short day to end our February roadtrip.

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The White Rim is usually considered to be roughly 100 miles in length, including Mineral Bottom road and Highway 313. While this sounds like a ton of miles, they’re mostly easy road miles- in fact the only other time I’ve been on the White Rim we did it in a day. Others suggest as many as 4 days to do the loop. In an effort to make it easy for everyone to join (i.e time off from work), we hoped to do it in 2 days, although in retrospect, with our camp location at Potato Bottom, we ended up riding most of the actual White Rim road in just a day anyway. 66 miles in one day, on a bachelor party- probably not the best idea although we made it work.

A few of us left early and found a nice campsite near the White Rim with plenty of time to watch the sun go down while we waited for the others to arrive:

After a late and crazy night we did our best to get going but it was still 11:30 by the time we had our permits and rolled out from the Island In The Sky Visitor Center. Even worse, the support vehicles didn’t have enough gas so they headed back towards Moab while the rest of us rolled down Shafer Canyon.

The White Rim is a road. If you’re on this route, don’t expect to get rad. You’re just going to ride, and it’s so technically easy you won’t get off the saddle much. though you will see amazing scenery, like Musselman arch.

The bachelor:

The White Rim isn’t going to shred itself.

Scenics. Simply amazing scenery around almost every corner.

I think this is the maze district, though I can’t say definitively. So many times on this trip I found myself wondering about the earliest explorers in the desert, and how hard it must have been. Same for the Uranium prospectors.

Here’s Danny, crushing the only major climb of the day, Murphy’s Hogback.

More amazing scenic riding:

Finally, as the sun was beginning to set, we approached our campsite, Potato Bottom, on the banks of the Green River.

It should be noted at this point that the support vehicles never did catch us. Driving White Rim is barely any faster than riding it- so we had a while to wait for dinner. That would be one piece of advice for riding the White Room- make sure the support vehicles leave at the same time. In any case, after a mellow night with a bit more sleep that the night before, those of us who were still up for riding headed out for day 2. Gary on Hardscrabble Hill:

Where’s Waldo?

All that was left at this point was the final climb of Mineral Bottom. Topher topping out:

A couple of us kept riding to the highway, rather than wait for the shuttle vehicles to return from shuttling from the visitor center. Tom showed off his own “White Rim” at this point. Temps in the 90’s are hot for us mountain folk.

That’s about it for the White Rim. It’s an amazingly beautiful and scenic ride, and personally I think it’s a ride that is worth doing at least once, even if it isn’t your style to ride roads for hours at a time. One thing I learned from this trip is that if I do the White Rim again, it will be at one of the extremes- either another one-day tour or else a three/four day tour. Two days felt just as rushed as a single day, without gaining all the mellow sidehikes and desert lounging of a longer multi-day tour.

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