September 30, 2003—Red Rocks and Gold Trees, Fall Days 

The days remain languid here in Moab. Each afternoon the heat is nearly as oppressive as if it’s summer, but then all the west has remained hot this month. Clear skies greet us each morning, with a blue so startling; you’d swear it’s not possible. Trees in the valley still wear their summer’s green but far up in the LaSal Mountains the aspen have started their death knell to winter and the yellow clad mountains beckon to those who enjoy fall.  

Marc and I recently had a long ride through the LaSals, starting off Hwy. 128 and Castle Valley, and traversed a back road which then led through progressively harder terrain to finally bring us back to a previous ride we had done along Onion Creek. Since there’s some awesome scenery included along these routes, we will feature a potpourri of pictures, which should give you a greater understanding of the beauty and variety of this place. After nearly a month here, we’re still not tired of the red of the rocks or the blue of the sky and the never ending chance to explore every back road we possibly can.

Marc took on the Klondike Bluffs trail by himself, mainly to see what riding the slickrock was like and to get photos of the fossilized dinosaur prints for me. He said the prints are of the same animal, which looked like it was just walking up the hill. But of course, it wasn’t a hill when this dinosaur forty million or more years ago, thundered along making these prints.

                                                     Slickrock ride at Klondike Bluffs

         View from Klondike Bluffs                                        Dinosaur foot print

Next, was our ride a week or so ago along Onion Creek. The road is rated as easy and for the most part it is. It follows and crosses, 27 times, winding Onion Creek through red rock canyons, multi-colored mineral hills, and sulfurous canyons with stinking creeks. It’s a popular trail for the rental ATVs which are led by a guide and there are many primitive campsites along its length.

          Trail above Onion Creek                           Can you see the alien in the rocks?

                                                                            Mineral colored hills

            Unexpected valley

Both of us gave up on the Metal Masher, a hill so boulder strewn on the Flat Mesa trail as to be impassable to motorcycles. Before it gets to that point, however, there is a parking spot which affords a wonderful view of the valley back towards Moab with this unique balancing rock, obviously made of different types of rock.

Probably one of the most renowned Jeep hills in the entire area is known as The Lion’s Back. The road to the base of this rock hill is privately owned, so the tariff is a steep $10 a climb for the opportunity to wreck your vehicle. Standing at the bottom of this rock, looking up at its steepness and narrowness is enough to convince us that anyone who tries to climb this piece of slab is well, probably not operating on all cylinders! Tragedy does occasionally strike here as witnessed by this nearly new Toyota 4 Runner which became a permanent canyon ornament when the “Lion” decided to roar. You can get an idea of the size of this slab in the first photo by noting the small tent in the upper left corner which adds some scale.

        Lion's Back rock                             The start                 Toyota takes a short cut down

How can anyone not like fall best? There aren’t many places in the west to enjoy the sumptuousness of color that emblazons the east every year at this time, but occasionally we get small glimpses of what it must be like. Such is our ride on this beautiful day, which takes us up a small paved road in to the LaSal Mountains, changes to wide gravel road, and then disintegrates in to rough dirt road, sandy trail, and a little bit of cliff-hanging hell just to keep things interesting. After 90 miles of this fun, I’m ready for the adventure to end, as it eventually does with us arriving back home safe and sound and worn to a frazzle.

                                                         LaSal Mts.

The ride changed dramatically once we turned from the mountain sides to ride along the canyons and cliffs. Eventually, after one last very hairy climb out from a canyon, we met up with the end of the Onion Creek trail which we had previously ridden. Familiarity in this case is a good thing!

      Valley view from LaSal Mtns.                                         Along the trail

             The trail cliff hangs                                     View from our lunch spot

                                                    Last steep hill