professor creek - maryjane canyon

We just can't stay away from Moab.  And why would we, when we're still finding new and different places to explore?  Case in point, we managed to get back down there mid-August, just for the weekend, arriving Friday night.  We were wound up from the drive (and Milton needed to sleep off the stress of the drive) so we swung by Woody's for a beer.  We talked to some other folks at the bar and voila!  They gave us intel on a brand new hike for Saturday morning: Mary Jane Canyon, a/k/a Professor Creek, out Castle Valley way.

We drove 18.4 miles out Route 128 and then turned right onto a dirt road: Ranch Road.  You drive by an excellent private ranch and the road terminates at the Sylvester trailhead parking lot.  The trail for Mary Jane Canyon is not marked by a sigh but it starts across the parking lot from the Sylvester kiosk.  I had screenshotted the first part of this post describing the hike so we knew that the trail crossed the wash and went up the creek.

The trail goes creekside for a while and then drops down so we were walking in Professor Creek itself.  The water wasn't more than mid-calf deep and felt very refreshing.  We took Milton off his leash as soon as we got away from the parking lot and he was obviously enjoying running through the water.  I hadn't screenshotted the whole post, however (and there were no bars out there), so we missed the part about "don't take any of the dry forks." 

So when we got to a fork where the main wash - dry - went right and the creek itself, in a narrower wash, went left ... we went right.  This meant we didn't make it to the narrow slot with the waterfall but it also meant we saw nobody for the whole hike.  Nobody except a few birds, plenty of lizards for Milton to chase and one nearly 3' long snake (non-rattler) that I nearly stepped on.

It was a terrific hike.  The footing was pretty firm as we were mostly walking on packed sand and dirt and it was a very slight uphill since we were walking up the creek.  We did see footprints (people, dogs/coyotes, deer, possibly raccoon) so we weren't the only ones who'd ever gone up there.  In some spots the wash was wide, shallow and sandy; in other places the red rock canyon walls were tall enough to shade the width of the drainage.

We followed the wash all the way up to its end at a vertical wall.  For the last several hundred yards it was very narrow and we were scrambling over rubble.  It took us about two hours to get out there.

The way back was a bit quicker (about 1:45).  The sun was getting higher so we didn't want to dawdle too much.  Milton, who had run ahead a lot for the outbound leg, wised up on the return, stopping to wait for us whenever shade presented itself.  He still managed to chase any lizards he saw, despite the fatigue setting in.

When we got back to the actual creek, the wading felt fantastic, the still-cool water refreshing on hot feet.  During our post-hike parking lot beers, all the other hikers came over to talk with us and meet Milton (including a husky puppy and a frugle - French bulldog/beagle mix).  Milton enjoyed the attention but enjoyed resting in the shade more; he had to fight to keep his eyes open on the drive back to town.  We may not have done the hike we intended to do - but now we can go back again and do the right hike.  (And the Sylvester trail looks good too!)

Hike stats: 8.87 miles; 3:05 / 2.9 m.p.h. moving; 3:31 / 2.5 m.p.h. overall; just 710 feet of elevation