September 14, 2003—Back country Moab

The gusty wind of Saturday had died to a gentle breeze by today so we decided to do some back country riding. For those of you coming to Moab, there are two maps published, called East and West Moab, which detail both topography and trails of the entire area, including the national parks. An added benefit is that they are plastic coated for easy travel. They are a great help to have along if you are planning on any back country travel. In addition, there is a locally available book called Moab, UT Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails, written by Charles Wells which has maps, GPS way points, photos and narrative on practically every major trail and dirt road in the area. By looking up a trail in advance, you can note whether it has been rated “easy” “moderate” “difficult” or “suicide”. Just kidding—the last category is not really rated by the book but seemed appropriate for me to add given some of the hair-raising trails we’ve seen in the area!

If you look at the photo of Portal RV Park, we face west directly to the portal in the name. The Colorado River runs through this portal, with roads on both sides. We first selected Kane Creek Road, the southern route, which is a tiny paved road which turns to dirt within about six miles. The dirt road is generally ok gravel for another few miles, with some rough spots, then as it forks for the spur over Hurrah Pass, it degenerates to a moderate rating. Which if you ride like I do, translates to some testy riding.

                Portal RV park                                           Along the Colorado River

           Kane Creek turns to dirt road      

Along the paved section, there are a number of BLM campgrounds and we also came across several cave homes. This one was just in the process of being built; and you must admit, it’s a pretty fascinating idea.

                BLM Campground                                                 Cave House

As Kane Creek Road splits and  both sections become much rougher; with Hurrah Pass becoming a moderate rating and Kane Creek a difficult rating, you start climbing fairly rapidly. Hurrah Pass climbs along a cliff face and hides amidst the red rock. By looking, you could never tell a road was there. The precipice here drops to the valley below, where the small ribbon of road runs in the top of the photo. In the center of the photo of all the red rock, you might see the tiny figure of Marc zooming back down on his motorcycle, after having pre-scouted the trail for his height challenged wife. At the passes summit,  4780 feet, we stop and savor the view of the panorama before us. The commercial mining enterprise across the Colorado is the Moab Salt and Potash factory.

                       Rest stop                                   Precipice from Hurrah Pass road   

          Hurrah Pass Road hugs canyon                       Marc returns from scouting

                                                              Panorama from Hurrah Pass

Highway 279 

Later in the afternoon we ride a little north of Moab for the turnoff on Hwy. 279 which leads 20 miles to the potash plant. This road is wide, gently curving, nicely paved and very scenic. Along the way are towering rock walls being climbed by avid adventurists so we stop to take some pictures. If you wonder why the rocks appear dark and tar covered, that’s desert varnish. This is a thin coating on the rock formed from a chemical/oxidation process involving microorganisms. The process takes thousands of years and is usually seen on vertical surfaces of Wingate sandstone.

Passing a dirt road, we decide Marc wants to do a little of the difficult trails so I wait and take pictures while he disappears up a suicide trail for half an hour. The rocks here are towering, to the point where it does me no good to take pictures without some human scale. See for yourself. Can you tell these fallen boulders are the size of small RVs? Or that overhanging rock at cliff top is the size of a freight car? I’m finally reduced to taking pictures of the interesting layers of sedimentation.

                    Jug Arch road                                   Wall near Jug Arch

                                                                                      Sedimentation

The paved portion ends at the Moab Salt and Potash factory. We travel beyond here for a few miles but the road gets rougher so Marc goes ahead to snap pictures of the settlement ponds used in the processing of potash, which is a main ingredient in fertilizer. I again wait. After that, it’s time to head for home since we’ve driven nearly 100 miles today and developed sore butt syndrome.

                  potash plant                                         salt settlement ponds