Road Trip to Utah - Part 5 - Canyonlands

We both woke up rather early since we had fallen asleep rather early the night before. The plan for the day was to take in as much of Canyonlands National Park as we could in one day. Neither of us like to rush our visits to anywhere, especially a national park, but we wanted to see Arches National Park the next day and had reservations for a guided 4-wheelin' adventure and rock-crawlin' the day after that and Michael had to be back home in 4 days so we had to make the best of it.

I made a cup of coffee in the motel room, but only drank half of it and made a mental note to not do that again. After another breakfast at Love Muffin (a big slice of yummy fresh Banana Bread and a good cup of coffee which I drank all of and wouldn't have minded another), we headed back up Main Street/Hwy 191 for 11 miles to once again turn left on Hwy 313, but this time, we drove on past the turn to Dead Horse Point. About 19 miles after turning onto the highway, we arrived at the northern entrance of the park. 

The entrance fee is $25 per car, which I consider very reasonable for the sheer awesomeness of the park. However, if you are an American citizen aged 62 or more, you qualify for what I think is the absolute best senior discount ever, the National Park Senior Pass. This pass gets you and everyone in your car free entry into any National Park plus a 50% discount on other fee's within the park like camping, tours, transportation and on some concessions. The pass is also recognized by the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and Corps of Engineer parks. And the cost? How about a one time fee of $10! For me, my National Park Senior Pass is one of the best things about getting old!

Breaking out my Senior Pass, the Ranger welcomed us with a friendly smile, provided maps and park information, invited us to have a nice visit and waved us on in. Driving down Grand View Point Road, we entered the park and soon came to Island In The Sky Visitor Center. Of course we had to stop to buy park t-shirts (yes, I now have a pretty large collection of shirts from most of the highlight places I've been - "been there, done that, got the t-shirt!") and little knick-knacks to bring back for the girls we left at home. 

To say we enjoyed our visit to Canyonlands would be an understatement. To be honest, this park might not be for everybody. The land is a maze of rock layers and dirt that are the products of erosion by ancient rivers and seas that once covered the region. The climate is dry, vegetation sparse. Deep canyons and sheer cliffs dominate. I have a long-time close friend, my "brother-from-another-mother" who I would not trade for the world, but he likely would not be crazy about this place. He calls land like this a "desiccated, wasted land." If it doesn't have trees and greenery, he's not a fan.

In quiet contemplation

For me though, I love the sparseness and rugged starkness. To me, it's a place of beauty and wonder perfect for calm introspection and relaxation. I always come away feeling peaceful and relaxed; contentment in my soul. I found it to be one of those all too few places that when you leave, part of you wants to tell everyone about it, but part of you wants to tell no one.

One day is not near enough time to see all there is to see. The two short hikes we took only served to expose the vastness and glories of the park. I'll be back and next time, you can be sure it will be for multiple days with no set deadline for leaving.

So many places and such little time! Lord, why couldn't I have been born rich with nothing to do but travel and see the world's wonders? I'm not sure even a full lifetime would be enough.

View point from Island In The Sky

The awesome Rim Trail we drove

Feeling small in the vastness

Road Trip to Utah - part 4

The Colorado River along Scenic Hwy 128

The sun was shining bright and we were happy to put behind us the yellow school bus and its content of hollering teenagers. From the trail's parking lot, we turned right heading northeast on Scenic Hwy 128 to mile marker 14. We were enjoying the scenery so much we almost missed our turn to the Moab Film and Western Heritage Museum on the Red Cliffs Ranch.

The museum houses memorabilia from all the films that have been made on the ranch over the years. Mostly it's been westerns like Wagon Master, Rio Grande, Son of Cochise, The Commancheros, Cheyenne Autumn, and Geronimo, but other famous movies such as City Slickers and Thelma and Louise have been filmed there as well. There have also been over 100 commercials shot there.

I'm sure it is very interesting, but we didn't get to see it because as we tried to pull in, we were stopped near the entrance to the property as a movie was actually being shot at that time and there were large trucks and equipment blocking the road. We sat there on the road with a few other cars for almost an hour watching cameras being wheeled around on tracks and watching people climb around rocks fiddling with huge lights. We never saw anyone we recognized and the guys who stopped us wouldn't say what movie they were shooting. At the 1 hour waiting mark, we were still not allowed to proceed and we were really bored watching them doing nothing so we followed the lead of several others - pull a u-turn and get back out.

Rest area on Hwy 313 on the way to
Dead Horse Park

We had planned to spend probably several hours there, but decided to head back to Moab for some lunch and then over to a Utah state park with an intriguing name - Dead Horse Point. After a good Santa Fe burger (love green chili's on a burger!) with so-so fries at Milt's Stop & Eat, an old-fashioned burger joint that's been around for over 60 years, we got on Hwy 191 (Main Street in town) and drove north for about 11 miles along the southwest border of Arches National Park until we came to Hwy 313. We turned left and drove 18 miles to the park. This was a really nice drive with lots of cool scenery along the way.

The Colorado River over eons has carved a channel over 2,000 feet below the surrounding landscape. Standing at the top looking down, you will see the different colors of the geologic layers and by looking to the horizon, you will see nearly 5,000 square miles of rugged canyon country with sculpted pinnacles and buttes. The 5,250 acre park holds awe inspiring scenery most everywhere you look, contains one of the most photographed scenic vista's in the world, and is well worth a side trip if you are in Utah mainly to visit the various national parks. But Dead Horse Point? How did it get it's name?

A narrow neck of land only 30 yards wide connects the the point with the rest of the plateau. In the late 1800's, the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top.  Cowboys would herd them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point and the neck was then fenced off with branches and brush to make a 40-acre corral. They would choose and cut out the best horses and then remove the brush gate to let the rest go free. One time though, for some unknown reason, the brush gate was not removed and the horses not chosen were left corralled on the water-less point. The whole herd died of thirst within view of the life-sustaining Colorado River 2,000 feet below.

A little bit of trivia here - If you've seen the famous movie, Thelma and Louise, then you no doubt recall the climatic final scene where they drive off into the Grand Canyon. It wasn't the Grand Canyon where they drove over the edge, it was Dead Horse Point State Park. Why? Because the director, Ridley Scott judged the scenery to be more spectacular than the actual Grand Canyon.

A pile of evidence below the entrance sign
proves there are still horses very alive here!

Like the Moab Film and Western Heritage Museum, we had thought this would be a nice little side trip, a day of taking it rather easy and getting back to the motel early to rest up before spending a day visiting Arches National Park and hiking several more trails. Once again though, Mancation Rules #2 and #3 proved wise - "There will be no hard and fast time schedule" and "Take advantage of any unexpected interesting opportunity." 

We thoroughly enjoyed the park and wished we had skipped our aborted trip to the museum so we would have had more time. As it was, we didn't leave until the sun died and we drove back to the Bowen Motel in the dark. In our camera's, we both use high capacity digital cards (plus a backup) but they were so full of memories from the day that we both took the time to download the pictures to our laptops to make sure we had plenty of room for the next day. 

We ordered a large Supreme from Pizza Hut (one of the few places we found in Moab that delivers), took showers, set up our electronic things to charge overnight, called the wives and kids, and turned the TV to a movie. I can't tell you what movie it was as I must have fallen asleep about 10 seconds into it. The world could have come to a fiery, explosive end that night and I seriously doubt I would have known it until the next morning. When you get to a certain age, you know you've had a good night when you sleep all the way through, wake up alive with daylight coming in around the curtain edges and find your pillow wet with drool. Mark it on the calendar!

            (go to part 1)

Road Trip to Utah - part 3

I woke up just before the sun did, looking forward to our day's adventure. I like to sleep in a room that's a little bit cooler than my buddy Mike likes (he say's Eskimos would complain) so he always grabs all the blankets in the room and hides under them during the night. I fumbled my way to the bathroom and flipped on enough lights where I could see to turn on the heat so the room would be just short of hellish and I wouldn't have to listen to him bitching about the cold. The shower had plenty of hot water and nice, fluffy towels so I took my time conducting my morning ritual. 

Walking back into the room, there was no Mike up and at 'em, but there was a lump under the pile of covers on his bed so I grabbed the approximate place where I judged his toes to be and gave a good tug. "Get your butt out of bed, Dude, daylights a burning" A few mumbles of protest later, he crawled out.

While he took his turn in the shower, I spent the time outside standing on the 2nd floor walkway watching the new day be born as the sandstone hills behind the motel across from us changed from dark red to bright orange. This early in the morning, there wasn't much vehicle traffic, but I noted lot's of tourist-type businesses up and down Main Street. Nowadays, Moab is in the tourist business; its sole purpose seems to be in getting thousands of tourists each year to part with as much of their money as possible, but I thought of what Moab must have been like in years past.

In the 1830's and 1840's, travelers crossed the Colorado River just north of present-day Moab. In 1855, members of the Elk Mountain LDS Mission built a settlement here, but were soon driven out by Ute Indians who did not take kindly to uninvited outsiders taking over their land. In the 1870's after the Utes were driven away, a ragged collection of rustlers, drifters, outlaws and broken Civil War veterans began settling at the formerly abandoned site. Eventually, another group of Mormons came in and established a settlement with laws, homes and businesses.

Charlie Steen (file photo)

Moab continued to be a sleepy little hamlet miles from anywhere until 1952. It probably would have stayed that way if not for the atomic bomb. As part of a nationwide search for uranium, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) established a very generous fixed price as an incentive for miners. A down-on-his-luck Texan named Charlie Steen discovered a big strike just south of Moab in an area the AEC geologists had declared "barren of possibilities." Steen, his wife and 4 sons went from living in a tiny tar-paper shack where they had been barely subsisting day-to-day into a mansion on a hill which cost $250,000 (over $1,300,000 in 2017 dollars) to build. The mansion included an in-ground pool, green-house and servant's quarters. He named his mine Mi Vida (my life) and before it was closed, over $100 million of uranium was pulled from it, making the Steen's very rich. It also led to a huge increase of Moab residents which overnight became "The Uranium Capital of the World." The town owes much to Charlie Steen as he donated most of the money for the hospital and donated money and land he purchased for the building of schools and churches.

The mansion he built in 1953 still stands and has been converted into a restaurant called The Sunset Grill. I kind of wish we had dined there as the view overlooking the hills and town is supposed to be spectacular, but we didn't. It was only open between 5:00pm and 9:00pm and we were always busy doing something at that time or were real tired after a full day and just wanted to chill in the room with pizza delivered. Plus it's pretty darn expensive (as in $40 - $50 per person) and the food is stuff like Wild Mushrooms Vol au Vent, Escargot Kathleen, and Raspberry Duck with basmati rice. Not only did we heathens not know what that stuff is, with food like that, we didn't know if they would even let us in wearing jeans or shorts and t-shirts, the only kind of clothes we had brought.

Between 1980 and 1990, the population of Moab doubled as entrepreneurs bought surplus army rafts and converted them to river-running boats and surplus Army 4-wheel-drive Hummers which were converted for back-country and rock climbing adventures. From 1995 through 1999, the population doubled again as mountain biking the slick rock trails became hugely popular. Today, over 5,225 souls call Moab home.

The Bowen Motel didn't have a "free" breakfast so after Mike was finally ready for the day, we walked next door to a little café called Love Muffin. It was better than expected. Good blueberry muffins and a really good cup of coffee. Good enough that we agreed to eat breakfast there again the next day.

Colorado River along Scenic Byway 128

With water bottles full, camera gear strapped on, a handheld GPS, light jackets and hiking shoes on our feet, we set off northwest through town on Hwy 191 for 2 miles and turned northeast on Utah Scenic Byway 128. Scenic is a good word for this road as it winds its way through red rock canyons following the Colorado River. Several times we stopped in pullouts to walk around and take pictures. Just 3 miles traveling on Byway 128 brought us to our destination, the Negro Bill Canyon trailhead. The 3-mile moderately difficult trail is considered to be one of Utah's most pleasant day hikes. It parallels a beautiful little year-round creek beneath high cliffs and ends up at Morning Glory Arch in the northern end of the Sand Flats Recreation Area. The canyon was named in the 1800's for African American pioneer William Granstaff who grazed his cattle there. Although now politically incorrect, it has retained its name for historical reasons.

Trailhead information sign

Turning into the paved parking lot, we were surprised to find nobody there. After grabbing our hiking sticks and making sure we had everything we needed, we marked our position on the GPS, set it to drop breadcrumbs, read the trail information sign and headed out. Right out of the gate, there's a stretch of uphill going in an open, rocky area. With no trees for shade and even with a chill in the morning air, it got real warm real quick and it was easy to tell we did not want to be doing this in the middle of the summer! Within a few hundred yards though, we picked up the gently gurgling creek and the trees and grasses growing up on either side. The trail wasn't marked, but we had no trouble following it as it went along next to the stream. There were a couple of places where we had to cross the creek due to tall, sheer walls of rock blocking the way on one side. Mostly the water wasn't deep and we were able to take big, quick steps to keep our shoes mostly dry, but in one place we took off our shoes and socks and waded across as the water was up to our shins and too wide to jump.

Open area at the start of the trail.

About 1/3 of the way along, we entered an area where the sheer cliffs soared hundreds of feet above us on either side. We had not seen another person along the trail. We felt very small, totally alone in the world, and the silence was deafening. We didn't talk much and when we did, it was almost in whispers. We took breaks every few hundred yards, not because we actually needed it, but because we wanted to sit and try to take it all in. No people, no rustling animals, no birds, not even an airplane flew overhead to disturb our reverie. It was one of those times which are hard to explain to others, but you will fondly recall for the rest of your life. It made me wish I was a poet.

After another 1/2 mile or so, we came to a place where we had difficulty proceeding due to another stretch of high stone walls so we decided to cross over to the other side of the stream. After walking a few feet through some tall grass, we were surprised to run into a Park Ranger squatted on the ground working on some steps cut into a section of the trail which rose about 12 feet. We stopped to talk and he told us a recent heavy rain has caused the creek to rise high enough that it washed away the cut tree limbs placed as footsteps to help people get up the steep incline. He had a saw, hammer and shovel and was replacing the steps. He said we were the first people he had seen since another ranger had dropped him off that morning. "Isn't this beautiful?" he asked. "I really do love my job." We made it up the slick incline by holding onto tree limbs and he told us to watch out for a spot a little ways on where the trail had been washed out. "Just keep going and you'll be able to pick it up again a ways on."

Along the trail

We came to a point where we had to climb over and crawl through a bunch of boulders to keep going. There was still no trail markers and we had to stop, study and backtrack a couple of times before we made it through. It was hard enough to be a bit challenging, but not so bad that we got lost or needed a break afterwards.

We had gone several hundred yards beyond "the boulders" when we heard a noise behind us. The noise quickly got closer until we saw an absolutely beautiful girl jogging on the trail toward us. Right behind her was a huge German Shepherd dog. Wearing black-and-gold skin-tight jogging pants, black shoes, body-hugging sleeveless white top, a multi-colored sweat band around her head and her pony-tailed blond hair swinging to-and-fro, this absolute vision of loveliness who could easily have been a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model simply said, "On your left" as she ran past us. The dog didn't say anything and neither did we as she went around a curve and out of sight. Mike and I looked at each other for a few wordless seconds with what I'm sure were amusing looks of extreme surprise and shock. After we found our voices:

Mike: "Where'd she come from?"
Me: "She was jogging this thing!"
Mike: "How'd she get through those boulders?"
Me: "Don't know but with a body like that, she must be a triathlete."
Mike: "Probably. Looked like she has about 0% body fat."
Me: "She was fit, that's for sure."
Mike: "I guess she'll be coming back. I'll say hi and maybe she'll stop and talk."
Me: "Right. We're like 3 times her age and hundred dollar bills are not exactly falling out of our pockets. Besides, did you see what she had in her right hand?"
Mike: "No. What?"
Me: "Looked like a can of mace or pepper spray."
Mike: "So?"
Me: "So she would most likely spray your ass and that dog will have your gonads for his mid-morning snack."
Mike: "Whatever... I sure am looking forward to her coming back."

About 30 minutes later, she did. Still jogging, still gorgeous, still not sweating, still holding that little can of pepper spray and still accompanied by that big dog. Mike and I got in a single file on one side of the trail and this time as she passed by, she gave us a quick look, a Mona Lisa smile and said "Hi" as she quickly passed by. I think we both fell in love with her a little bit right then. We didn't say it, but I'm sure we were both thinking the same thing - oh to be young again. And then she was gone.

The stream along the trail

Eventually we came to a large open area and there about 100 yards in front of us was Morning Glory Arch and the end of the trail. With a span of 243 feet, it is the 6th longest natural rock span in the United States and we were standing there looking at it. Before proceeding through the tree's and bushes to the arch, we found a large flat-topped rock, climbed up and sat down resting and looking around, marveling at the beauty which surrounded us. Mike went on ahead and I stayed behind, lost in my own thoughts and feeling a desire to spend a little time alone in this beautiful, isolated spot. On the one hand we still had to make it back to the trailhead, but on the other hand it felt like the end of a wondrous adventure. Thornton Wilder said, "We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures" and in the moment, I was keenly aware of the treasure I was experiencing.

Me on the trail

About an hour later, we began the hike back and somehow lost our way at the washed out spot the Ranger had warned us about. When I noticed I didn't recognize where we  were at, I looked at the GPS and found we had gotten about 100 yards down a side trail. We followed the barely visible trail, probably just an animal trail, for a way to see where it took us, but it ended in a little grove of trees and thick brush we couldn't get through so we backtracked until we found a place where we could cut over and get back to the right trail. We arrived at the place where the ranger was and found he had completed his repair work. Since it was now later in the morning, we thought we would surely encounter other hikers, but it wasn't until we arrived within a quarter mile of the trailhead that we ran into a group of other people. Once we passed them, we found a good number of folks hiking in.

When we arrived at the parking lot, it was almost full of cars, people were milling around all over the place and a school bus had pulled in and was off-loading about 30 laughing, boisterous, loud teenagers accompanied by 3 adults. Don't get me wrong, I like to see young folks all happy and having a good time, but my relief at not having shared the trail with all these yo-yo's destroying the peace and tranquility cannot be overstated.

Morning Glory Arch at the end of the trail

After a quick trip to the restroom, we dumped our stuff in the truck, grabbed a fresh, cold bottle of water from the ice chest on the back floorboard and headed a few miles further up Scenic Byway 128 to our next stop at a ranch where at least 9 movies and TV shows have been filmed. As they say in show business though, that's a story for another day.

(Go to part 1 here)