Posts Tagged With: Canyonlands National Park

2014 Trip Four, May 22, The Southwest

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

Moab Utah Thursday May 22

Moab area vista

Moab area vista

Moab matured into its modern manifestation of a tourist destination due to mountain biking. Hard to imagine, but the two-wheel mountain bike riding experience has morphed into a locale for mountain biking, river rafting, BASE jumping, rock climbing, off-road vehicle driving, along with simple hiking at Arches and Canyonlands.

Adventurous souls that we are, Thursday was our day to get our toes wet in these experiences. 7:30 to noon was riding the Colorado river on a jet boat. 1 to 5:30 pm was riding back roads on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land in a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Tag-a-long Expeditions was our toe dipper.

Our boat

Our boat

The jet boat ride begins with the group riding in a school bus and towing the boat to the Colorado. Among our group were two guys from Denmark filming a promo for Tag-a-along for the Danish market. Another couple were a mother and her adult son. The son took the place of the husband/father who was scheduled to be on the trip but on day one of their experience, he broke his right arm mountain biking. They had not yet determined who was going to drive the truck with attached tow behind RV they had here. The mother does not drive it.

Colorado river

Colorado river

Our drive took us past the uranium mining tailings reclamation site and the potash mining site. Potash used to be mined underground. After an accident causing fatalities, they decided to pump Colorado river water into the mines, allow the water to absorb the mineral, pump out the water and allow it to evaporate leaving only the potash. (They now dye the evaporation ponds blue so it is more aesthetically pleasing.)

Removing sticks from the impeller

Removing sticks from the impeller

The boat takes off from a landing spot on the Colorado River and as a jet boat does not need deep water to operate. However, the impeller does need to be free of impediments. At today’s high water level, sticks and logs in the river are a major concern. The boat operator had to stop the boat three times and let it drift in the strong river current while he removed sticks manually.

Colorado river

Colorado river

But the view is fantastic. Despite the phrasing of the tour literature, we do not tour Canyonlands National Park, we tour the canyonlands area prior to the park boundary. But the only good views are not within the park and we are enjoying the scene. There is some bottomlands but the red canyon walls are the predominant feature.

At one point, we beach the boat and hike along the bank to a site with some petrified wood and nice wildflowers. The flowers are vivid and varied, we lucked out in our timing of this trip.

On the return trip to Moab, we pass a site with Fremont Indian petroglyphs. A little further along about 30 people are rock climbing.

Ed, Chris and Kristen

Ed, Chris and Kristen

Lunch is sandwiches at the tour site and then we are off with Kristen in the 4 wheel drive vehicle. The mother and son combo are with us on this trip. It is not an extreme Jeep or off-road vehicle but a high clearance, wheel drive Suburban type. (Two of their four Jeeps are in the shop for repairs.)

Canyonlands view

Canyonlands view

Our first experience is a doozy. While we have driven curvy mountain roads with sheer drop offs, I had no reluctance to allow Kristen to be the driver on this excursion. The road was more rock than gravel, was two-way but one lane, had sheer cliffs on one (Chris’) side, and we shared it with some mountain bikes. This first drive, along with the last one, had an elevation change of about 1500 to 2000 feet of cliff hugging roads. I doubt the pictures do it justice. I am sure for many people, it would be a simple drive to work but it was plenty adventurous for us.

Mountain bikers looking at Gemini Bridges, twin arches with crevasse

Mountain bikers looking at Gemini Bridges, twin arches with crevasse

Once at the top, the road surface did not improve but now we were driving along the mesa top and looking down and across. BLM land is managed for multiple uses so this area includes marked mountain bike trails, off-highway vehicle trails, and oil drilling.

View from Dead Horse Point including potash ponds

View from Dead Horse Point including potash ponds

We did make a stop in Canyonlands Park and at a state park, Dead Horse Point State Park. From Dead Horse Point, we could view the potash mining ponds and several movie filming sites. The Moab area seems to compete with Monument Valley for film-making. Kristen said that some film makers have a hard time dealing with the cash only policy on the Navajo lands.

Driving down Longs Canyon

Driving down Longs Canyon

The final scene from “Thelma and Louise” where they drive the car off the cliff was filmed in this area as was a section of Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible II.

View from Long's Canyon

View from Long’s Canyon

Our drive home was less cliff threatening but just as bumpy, steep, and thrilling. The day was a full one with plenty of new experiences.

Ed and Chris May 23

Attached are two videos. The first is a short portion of the Colorado River trip and the second is a brief section of the drive back to Moab Thursday afternoon down Longs Canyon.

Categories: travel | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

2014 Trip Four, May 21, The Southwest

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

Moab Utah May 21

Canyonlands National Park preserves a wilderness of rock. There are three separate areas, one is completely wilderness for diehard hikers and campers. Obviously not us. The main section is called Island in the Sky and is likely to be where we spend most of our time. The Colorado and Green Rivers divide the various sections and then meet at the end of Island in the Sky.

The Colorado River is very brown with silt. The Green River originates in WY and looks green due to minerals in its drainage basin. Originally the Colorado River was not considered to start until the confluence of the two rivers. From its origin in Grand Lake CO, in the Rocky Mountains, the river had been known as the Grand River. In 1921, the State of Colorado petitioned the US to rename the upper section as the Colorado also and over Utah and Wyoming objections, it was renamed. The Green River covers a larger drainage area prior to the confluence but the Colorado’s volume is higher.

View from Mesa Arch in Canyonlands NP

View from Mesa Arch in Canyonlands NP

We began Wednesday at the Visitor’s Center at Island in the Sky and listened to a park ranger (the one from West St. Paul) discuss John Wesley Powell. Powell served in the Civil War where he lost the lower portion of his right arm. He was an adventurer from early on, traveling down the Mississippi from St. Paul to New Orleans by himself.

Powell gathered together an expedition, funded by himself, family, friends and donations, some left over US government property after the Civil War. He and 9 others, none with previous whitewater river experience, left Green River WY on May 24, 1869 to explore the previously unmapped and never successfully journeyed section of the rivers from Green River down to the Grand Canyon. When they reached their end point, they had 10 pounds of flour left. One of their group left early on, three others left and were never heard from again.

Powell’s exploration opened up this area of Utah, previously marked on maps as “Unknown”. He had advance thinking and suggestions for his time, suggesting that the river resources should be husbanded and shared. Most suggestions were ignored.

Mesa Arch

Mesa Arch

After education, it was time for exploration. One of our first stops was Mesa Arch with a great view of the La Sal Mountains in the east. However, the wind was ferocious and it was like being sand blasted. We put up the hoods on our windbreakers and stood with our backs to the wind to ease the hassle.

Green River

Green River

Lunch was peanut butter and crackers at one of the overlooks and then it was on to the Green River Overlook. All of these views are from higher elevations looking down at the rivers. In fact, once the Colorado leaves the town of Moab and enters the “Portal”, it is surrounded by cliffs for something like 500 miles.

Green River

Green River

You look down into this great, deep valley/canyon and can see the river in the distance with these steep cliffs descending from your location. It is quite an amazing sight.

Our final stop was at Grand View Overlook. It is the farthest point south casual visitors can go at Island in the Sky. In the far distance is the confluence of the Colorado and the Green followed by Cataract Canyon where the whitewater rapids are especially potent as the combined volume rushes through a narrow canyon. Todays flow was quite strong as the mountain runoff in Colorado is strong but not yet at its peak.

Vista from Grand View Point

Vista from Grand View Point

Dinner was at a local BBQ restaurant which we chose since it had local musicians playing that evening. The food was fine, the music just bearable. Tomorrow morning we get up early for a full day of adventure.

Ed and Chris May 22 9:15 pm

Categories: travel | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

2014 Trip Four, May 19-20, The Southwest

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

Moab Utah Wednesday May 21 for Monday-Tuesday May 19-20

sunrise Monday showing left and right mitten

sunrise Monday showing left and right mitten

We left Monument Valley Monday morning. We had heard it stated that 80% of the visitors there were from foreign countries. It would not be hard to believe. U.S. National Parks, and Monument Valley is similar to one, seem to have a great attraction for international visitors. Japanese tour bus groups compete with French and German language visitors. Sometimes it makes our interactions with U.S. travelers more memorable.

The drive to Moab

The drive to Moab

The pharmacist at the Moab drug store was born in Kenyon, MN. We met two couples from Tallahassee FL and discussed with them our recent visit there. A park ranger born in West St. Paul, MN. A couple from Lincoln NE who raved about the quilt museum there that Chris has wanted to see but has not made it into our schedule yet.

Winslow Arch along the drive to Moab

Winslow Arch along the drive to Moab

But the Monday drive was less about people and sights than just plain travel. One of us was a little more concerned about the low engine coolant light. The drive from Monument Valley to Moab goes through territory that can safely be described as sparsely settled. After two hours we reached a town large enough to have an auto parts store and I purchased a container of pre-mixed coolant (rather than buying anti-freeze and mixing it with distilled water). Of course, you can not remove the coolant cap when the engine is hot so the actual addition occurred later in Moab but we had the material just in case.

Balancing Rock in Arches NP

Balancing Rock in Arches NP

This area of Utah is part of the Colorado plateau which encompasses large portions of CO, AZ, UT, and NM. Much of the land is high (altitude) desert with varying degrees of vegetation. We left the red rock and little vegetation of Monument Valley and have encountered mountains, some irrigated land, increasing vegetation, and more red rock.

rock formation with small arch

rock formation with small arch

Moab is at a lower elevation than most of the surrounding area. The Colorado River runs through it. Tourism is the main business now, but mining is still occurring on a limited basis. This town was a big uranium mining locale. The mines have shut down and in classic U.S. fashion, the mining company declared bankruptcy and the U.S. is in the early phases of a 20 year plan to remove uranium mining tailings and ship them by rail to a more isolated site 30 miles north of town.

We are in Moab because Arches National Park is about 5 miles north and Canyonlands National Park is about 30 miles southwest.

landscape along ranger hike

landscape along ranger hike

Tuesday was our first day for Arches. The park was crowded but we took in a ranger hike and several hikes to view the park. Arches is smaller and more compact than Canyonlands. It is supposed to have over 2000 arches-which by definition must have an opening at least 3 feet in diameter. Bridges (like Rainbow Bridge) are formed by moving water. Arches are formed by wind, ice, water and upheaval forces working at the varying rock layers.

Landscape Arch

Landscape Arch

Turret Arch

Turret Arch

Landscape Arch, one of the longest in the world, had a large section of its lower arch fall in 1991. No one was hurt. Another arch fell down in 2008, heard but not seen by campers as it occurred. I did not hear or read about any new arches being formed/discovered.

North and South Window arches

North and South Window arches

Hike to Landscape arch

Hike to Landscape arch

Dinner Monday was at a local Italian restaurant and Tuesday night we went to a restaurant located in the former house of the geologist and prospector Charlie Steen who first found significant uranium ore in Moab and became a millionaire. The house/restaurant are on a hill overlooking Moab. The food was excellent and features numerous local recipes. We were pleased.

Ed and Chris May 21 8 pm

Categories: travel | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Blog at WordPress.com.