the la sals are steep

Generally speaking, folks who live in Utah don't go to Moab in the summertime, unless they are full-time residents.  It's just so darn hot - better to leave it to the tourists (like we were, the first time I ever went to Moab on one of our exploratory trips before we moved).  On the one hand, it isn't nearly as crowded as it is in spring and fall.  On the other hand, it's just so darn hot.

So we went to Moab over the Fourth of July, making it a long (and hot) weekend.

Warner Lake (pretty but not much of a lake)

The best thing to do to beat the heat is go up into the mountains, just like we do in northern Utah.  The La Sal mountains top out over 11,000 feet above sea level, towering over the town which sits at 4,026 feet.  Up in the La Sals, it is green and cool and remarkably wet, especially with all the snow this winter.  There are even mosquitoes (!) although they are slow and not particularly ferocious - coast of Maine salt water skeeters they ain't.

Pleasant walking here

We had driven down Wednesday after work, and then didn't do much on the holiday itself, so by Friday I was antsy to hike.  We drove ten miles up the paved La Sal loop road, and then another five miles up the dirt access road to the Warner Lake Campground where there is a day-use parking area in addition to some great-looking campsites.  My thought was to attempt Mann's Peak by taking the Dry Fork trail up to the saddle and then seeing how things looked.  Starting temperature at 8:30 a.m. was 48 F.  I even wished for my gloves for about twenty minutes.

Avalanche debris in Dry Fork

The first part of the trail, from the campground to the Dry Fork/Burro Pass junction, was full of gorgeous wildflowers, cool aspen groves and full creeks.  The trail was easy to follow and comfortable to walk; you do need to keep an eye out for MTBers cruising down the Whole Enchilada trail, heading for the Colorado River 20+ miles away.  At the junction, we went left on the much fainter Dry Fork trail.  It follows a drainage with no many switchbacks, so it was fairly steep and rocky.  Soon, we had to pick our way through avalanche debris obscuring the trail: aspens (and larch?) snapped off shoulder-high.

What a bear does in the woods

There was also quite a lot of snow filling the drainage and we lost the trail after following footsteps for a while that petered out.  While we were milling around trying to pick the trail up again, we saw bear scat.  Lots of bear scat.  It was enough to give up Mann's Peak for the day - and I do think we weren't far from the saddle - and retrace our steps, whacking our hiking poles together now and again, just to be safe.

Back at the campground, it was still too early to quit so we did a side trip down (down down down) the Trans-Mountain Trail to the Oowah Lake campground (eleven sites, no water, $5/night).  This trail was very steep.  On the return (up up up), I got a rude awakening as to how out of hiking shape my legs still are.

New gaiters and new scratches

With both short hikes, the mileage was around eight miles (forgot the GPS), certainly enough to merit a beer in the still-shady parking lot.  Temperature at 1:30 p.m.:  71 F, which was amazing.  And which made for a bit of a shock when we got back to town where it was 96 F.  We had a plan for that, however, which involved a clean-up, a quick siesta, and a couple of cold beers at Woody's.