Southern Utah in Summer

[Kokopelli]

Everyone else goes to the desert in the fall or spring. What better way to see the desert then in its prime, in the summer? Given a preference, I probably would have gone in the fall or spring, but the week my daughter and I had to go there was the end of June, beginning of July. “It can’t be too bad” I said. We had had a very cool spring in Colorado and I was hoping the weather would hold, but the week before we left it started heating up.

Headed west out of Blanding on Utah 95. First stop was Butler wash ruins and a short hike to the ruins.

It was starting to heat up with temps in the 90’s. Met a “local” from Moab in the parking lot with long pants on, “oh this isn’t hot”. Guess its all relative. It was hot for this mountain boy. Hiked to the ruins overlook

There are much better ruins to explore in the area, but it was a nice stretch of the legs. Some interesting rock formations in the area.

On to Natural Bridges National Monument where we hiked down to several of the bridges. This is Sipapu Bridge, the second largest natural bridge in the world (only Rainbow Bridge in Glen Canyon is larger). It has a span of 286’ and is 220’ high.

The trail down was complete with old Indian style ladders. It was hot, but tolerable as our elevation was 6,500’.

 

[Kokopelli]

Continuing along hwy 95 we passed though Hite Crossing and the northern edge of Lake Powell. Temp at 5pm 99 degrees. The rocks were like heaters and it was hot in the sun.

On to Hanksville and north on Utah 24 about 25 miles to Goblin Valley State Park. Took a right on a dirt road for 30 miles to the trailhead for Horseshoe Canyon, a section of Canyonlands National Park. Worked on leveling the truck, popping the top, getting some shade when I realized my daughter was no where to be seen. Walked over to the edge of the canyon and saw her catching the last rays of sun on top of a rock spire (the middle one):

Cooked dinner outside in the shade of the camper and enjoyed the evening. At dusk we saw a young coyote run through the edge of camp.

 

[Kokopelli]

Got up early the next morning to beat the heat and started hiking the 6.5 miles round trip to the Great Gallary, a collection of 3,000 year old pictographs. Hiking down the 750’ trail to the canyon bottom we say this scurrying across the trail:

Not exactly sure what that caterpillar was doing on top of the scorpion, but it made me feel good to be off the ground in the camper, instead of on a tarp in the sand. The hike through the canyon bottom was shady and nice.

Made it to the Great Gallary, an impressive collection of 10’ tall figures on the wall.

The most interesting grouping includes the “Holy Ghost"

Hiking back down the canyon we noticed a pipe going straight up the canyon wall to the rim. Followed it to its source when we got on top and it want into a large tank, and into this trough:

 

[Kokopelli]

I guess the ranchers in the 1920’s pumped water out of the canyon for their cattle. Dry for a long time, the cattle we saw on the drive in were all clustered around water tanks filled with trucked in water. Drove through a small sand dune area on the way back.

My daughter ran out to play in the sand in her bare feet, and came running back feeling like she had been running on burning embers – the sand gets hot during the summer!

 

[craig333]

99? Thats not hot. Nice report. How was it for sleeping in the camper?

 

[Kokopelli]

Back to the highway and across to Little Wildhorse Canyon, a slot canyon in the area. Figured a slot canyon would be a little cooler place to hike in the heat of the day.

After that we found a track leading off the main dirt road to a nice quite camp site for the evening:

 

[Kokopelli]

Next morning we headed towards Grand Staircase Eacalante National Monument. We were going to take the Bull Creek Pass Scenic Backway over the Henry mountains, but the folks at the BLM office told us it was a tire eater and to expect a flat. Still having the original tires on my Frontier, I decided to wait on this trail until I replaced them with beefier tires. So we headed west at Hanksville and started down Notom-Bullfrog road. Found a shady tree for a nice lunch spot. Shade is very important this time of year!

Sandy Ranch was lush and green from all the spring rains. Henry mts in the background.

The road was in good shape and quite scenic:

And soon enough we got the Burr trail. You can see it winding up the hill in the background.

On top we took the 4x4 road up Muley Twist Canyon to the ½ mile trail to the Strike Valley Overlook – viewing what we had just driven through:

Thought about the Woolverine Loop road, but with temp in the upper 90’s and baking as we stood on the rock, I didn’t want to get stranded out there and bake to death, so on up the Burr Trail to Boulder:

 

[Kokopelli]

Hwy 12 from Boulder to Escalante is very scenic:

We camped at Calf Creek Recreation are and did the 6 mile hike to lower calf creek falls the next morning. The Canyon is a real Oasis in the desert with year round water and a real riparian habitat.

At the end of the canyon lies the falls – a beautiful spot to cool off after a hot hike

Yours truly enjoying the water.

 

[Kokopelli]

From there onto Bryce. Bryce is, well Bryce…….

Nice view for a lunch spot while hiking

The local wildlife was used to human foot and was running all around and over us trying to get our lunch as we ate.

It was nice to camp in the trees and shade for a few days. Afternoon rains kept it cool and the Kelty Carport with an extra set of poles let us stay out of the sun and rain.

 

[Kokopelli]

Plan was to go hike in Kodachrome State Park and then take the Cottonwood Creek road down to Hwy 89 and Page, and then work our way home. The BLM office said the road was rough and recommended high clearance 4WD. Said the road hadn’t been graded since May 2008 and was a bit rough. No problem for the truck and FWC right? Had a nice hike in Kodachrome State park with clear skies and not too hot.

Half way through the hike, we started to hear rumbling, but it was still clear. Soon enough the clouds started rolling over the cliffs and the rumbling intensified. By the time we sprinted across the parking lot to the window and jumped in the car, we were looking at this:

We drove out on the park road to see this:

And continued to the turnoff for Cottonwood Creek road. Bed looks like it’s got a lot of gravel in it. Can’t be too bad can it???????

 

[Kokopelli]

Now I understand what impassible when wet means………..

This was the Paria river just up the road from Cottonwood. After seeing this I decided I needed a better shovel then the wimpy 3 fold army shove I had. Can you imagine being on the other side of this when it came and having to dig out the drop off the river created to get back to this side? We bagged the idea of the Cottonwood road, and headed back home through Capital Reef and pavement.

 

[Kokopelli]

Wanting a mountain fix on top of the desert, we headed over to Lake City, Colorado for a view of our next objective: Uncompahgre peak at 14,309’

Drove up Henson creek for 5 miles then 4 miles up the rough 4x4 road that follows Nellie creek to the trailhead. This was the roughest road I had taken the camper on. It sure is different driving with 1,000# in the back vs unloaded, but went slow and all was well. Did have to use the rear diff lockers several times though. At the end of the road, at 11,400’, we found a nice level spot for dinner and the view.

Watched the sunset, and hit the sack for an early start the next morning.

The night was clear and cold, 39 degress in the early morning – felt spoiled having a heater camping in a spot like that. Woke up at 5am to rain and spotty clouds. Left anyway at 6:30am and hiked into the upper basin for our first view of the peak.

 

[Kokopelli]

At about 13,000’ we looked down the hillside and saw this working its way up the slope:

It was oblivious to us and walked 10’ in front of us before circling around, and over the ridge. Not sure if it was deaf, ignoring us, or so intent in it’s hunting it didn’t even see us.

Climbing around the back side of the mountain we were walking over fresh snow that had fallen when it was raining on us that morning.

The views got better the higher we got,

until we hit the summit.

A nice conclusion to a great week of exploring. Camper worked great in the desert and the mountains, the hot and the cold. Fridge and heater worked fine at 11,400’ and the fridge kept up with temps in the upper 90’s as long as when I stopped I parked so the fridge side was in the shade. Got the camper in Feb, and this was out 14th night in it. I couldn’t be happier with the arrangement and freedom it gives us and look forward to continued “Wandering”.

 

[Puffins]

Great photos and trip. Really makes me miss the desert.

 

[kcowyo]

You covered a ton of ground in one trip! I was going to mention one place as my favorite, but I think you hit several of them actually.

Great photos and details. A shining example of what the Four Wheel Camper is made for and where you can go with it. And I'll totally back you on the road up Nellie Creek, that one is a real bugger. Congrats for bagging the most spectacular 14er in Hinsdale County. Well done.

Thanks for posting and sharing so many photos and thoughts. To me, that's the good stuff.




.

 

[Alaskan Snowbirds]

Rick,

Great trip report! Thanks

Those Dad/Daughter trips are special stuff anytime and the one you two had looks like top of the line...lots of good memories made on that one.

Happy Trails!
'birds

 

[Kokopelli]

kcowyo,

Thanks for your write up from your trip in the spring. That's what inspired this trip, and I feel like I only touched the surface. Ready to go back when it's cooler and explore more in depth. Wish I could spend a month poking around the area.

Craig,

The camper has such good ventilation it cooled down pretty good. Temps at night got down to low 60's, so nice sleeping weather. Wasn't too comfortable in the camper until the temp dropped to 80. Would probably be tougher now as it's quite a bit hotter then a month ago. I did bring and try the Swampy MightyKool cooler http://www.swampy.net/wb.html that has been mentioned on the forum. While it's not an air conditioner (they call it a personal cooler as it just blows moist air on you) it did take the edge off. A couple of nights I put it up in the bed blowing on my head and chest while I lay on the sheets and it made the difference between being able to sleep comfortably and just lying there being hot. It's small and light, doesn't use much electricity and for these conditions worked well.

Did do most of the cooking outside as it was too hot to cook inside.

Travelling during the day I left the front slider open and it kept the camper temp no hotter then ouside air, so didn't have to cool down too much once we made camp.

 

[SunMan]

Bravo! What a GREAT report with stellar pics. You really covered a lot of ground. Thanks, I really enjoyed your report.

 

[ednotes]

Plan was to go hike in Kodachrome State Park and then take the Cottonwood Creek road down to Hwy 89 and Page, and then work our way home. The BLM office said the road was rough and recommended high clearance 4WD. Said the road hadn’t been graded since May 2008 and was a bit rough. No problem for the truck and FWC right? Had a nice hike in Kodachrome State park with clear skies and not too hot.

Half way through the hike, we started to hear rumbling, but it was still clear. Soon enough the clouds started rolling over the cliffs and the rumbling intensified. By the time we sprinted across the parking lot to the window and jumped in the car, we were looking at this:

We drove out on the park road to see this:

And continued to the turnoff for Cottonwood Creek road. Bed looks like it’s got a lot of gravel in it. Can’t be too bad can it???????

Thanks so much for your awesome trip report. I don't think I stopped with the ahhhhhs, and uuuhhhhhhs.

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

Dear Rick--

We're heading that way soon, so your report is timed perfectly.

Edna's over in her chair whooping and hollering, "Babe! Look at that one!" as she scrolls down to the next installment.

Thanks a plenty big bunch.

Mark & Edna

EDIT: Oh, erm, I guess you knew that about E already, huh...