summer desert meanderings

Where did June go?  I mean, first H's folks were here, then there was some work travel for H, then I went back to Maine for some family stuff and then, holy moly, it's almost July.  June just went so FAST.  I couldn't keep up.  So here's a photo dump of our last long weekend in Moab because that's pretty much the only thing I have to share.  We haven't even been MTBing in Park City yet (!) because gas costs so much ($5.19/gal.!!) that we can't bear to drive that far.

Impassable pour-off #1

It is full-on summer, though, which means southern Utah hiking needs to be as early as possible and/or near a water source.  Easier said than done with the water, though.  From previously hikes along the Steelbender 4x4 trail, I knew that branch of the Millcreek creek was worth exploring.

Looking down at Steelbender

On Saturday, Milton and I drove out to Ken's Lake, drove up the dirt road towards Steelbender and parked at the cattleguard around 7 a.m.  We walked down to the creek - lots of lovely, cool water - and turned right.  Instead of crossing the creek on Steelbender, however, we kept going straight, and crossed the creek twice (once quite slippery but we persevered), continuing out the road until a very imposing gate covered in NO TRESPASSING signs cut us off.

Yucca is sharp

We took our time working our way back, following dead-ending washes, wading in the creek, and then following a faint trail on the other side of the creek up as far as we could go.  I might have been able to scramble up further myself, but it wasn't great for Milton so we didn't make it up to the ridge.

Taking in the view

Sunday, we went back only turned left instead.  We followed the dirt road out, pausing to follow a faint trail on the hillside opposite the creek up to a Spanish Valley overlook.  There was one creek crossing, this time with stepping stones: I kept my feet dry but Milton splashed on through; on the way back, he watched me and followed along on the stepping stones himself.

Mining remnants, I'm guessing (?)

Once across the creek, the road didn't go much further, access ending at an imposing gate festooned with NO TRESPASSING signs.  Exploration along the cliff wall showed four or five man-made caves, two of which we peeked in, three of which bear further investigation later when H is with us.  (He was concentrating on road riding this weekend, getting out onto the bike path by 6:30 each morning.)

These were up a little higher in the wall

After that, we walked up the creek a ways, following a group of canyoneering types into a side canyon.  It was very pretty with several arches high up the walls and lots of birdsong echoing off the rock.  Again, we had to turn around when the canyon got boulder-y: again, I think I could have gone further, even without canyoneering gear, but I didn't want Milton to risk blowing out a knee.

Two arches

We explored a little more on the far side of the creek, wandering around on the sandstone swells and following little washes.  Luckily we could always see the dirt road leading up the hill towards Ken's Lake so we always knew where we were.

Millcreek 

We also managed to squeeze in a quick Millcreek Canyon hike, while some of the canyon was in shade.  We timed it so that it wasn't at all crowded, and managed to bump into our neighbor Amelia (and her good dog Moscow).

That's it ... now we have to get out and DO something!

holding the place

 We did get away to Moab and we did get out and do some things to share here - but sometimes life gets in the way of the blog.  So here's a recent photo and a promise to have more content up here as soon as possible.  Please check back!

Gorgeous desert morning - wish I was back there

dropping the ball

 We have had some wildly fluctuating weather around here in Utah over the last week: unseasonably hot temperatures, where it felt like being in a blowdryer outside in the hot wind, and then also cold (44F in the morning) and wet, with rain (yay!) in the valleys and actual snow up in the mountains.  Because of this, we have not at all started working on our list of hikes; and because gas prices are $5+/gal. these days, we haven't been inclined to drive over to Park City to do any MTBing.  Last weekend ended up being somewhat of a wasted weekend: early both mornings, before it got hot, H did local road rides while Milton and I did our Dimple Dell walk; middle of the day, before it got really hot, we spent some time reading on the still-shady patio; afternoons and evenings, it got very hot and we skulked around inside the house.

Gas costs too much for unnecessary driving, so I didn't make a run to our local Asian market, which I had hoped to do as I haven't been there since pre-pandemic.  It was too hot to bake but I did find a receipe (and actually had the ingredients on hand) to make these scrumptious vegan peanut butter/chocolate no-bake cookies, replacing half the oil with applesauce and adding some hemp seed in an attempt to make them slightly healthy.  Delicious!

Another SLC thing that we didn't do but looked fun was 2022's first Yappy Hour at Libery Park (Liberty Bark?).  Four of these dog-friendly events happen throughout the summer at different downtown parks, and each has food, live music, cold beverages and activities for all.  There are three more - perhaps we'll get to one of them.

And perhaps we'll get our acts together and do something worth posting about soon ...

reunited

 It had been since October 2019 that we'd seen H's folks.  When we asked if they would be comfortable flying out for a week at the end of May, they readily agreed.  They arrived in SLC on the Wednesday before Memorial Day weekend; as soon as I could get out of work on Thursday, we all climbed into our rental minivan (minivans are not cool but wow, are they convenient, easy to see out of and hold a lot of stuff) and drove down to Moab.

White Rim Road down below

L and P have visited us in Moab before - it helps that L likes the heat.  The weather this time around really cooperated: it was hottest on Friday, and we had off-and-on rain and short hailstorms on Sunday, but otherwise it was quite comfortable for Moab at the end of May.  No complaints!

The gang at Grand View

Each morning, H got up and did a road ride on the bike path (plenty of room to bring his road bike in the minivan, even with all our stuff and food and dog) while Milton and I did short hikes - two in Millcreek Canyon, one up the Moab Rim trail and one along the Pipedream trails - about an hour and a half each time, just enough to get our exercise on.  H and P managed to get walks in almost each morning as well.  Then it was back to the house for a quick breakfast, loading up the cooler and heading out for excursions.

A rare photo of both of us

We went up to Canyonlands on Friday, figuring it would be the least crowded on that day, plus perhaps cooler up on the mesa.  We had to wait maybe ten minutes at the entry gate, so that wasn't too bad.  Our first stop was Mesa Arch.  It's only about a quarter mile in to the arch and we all hiked in, dodging all the oodles of other people heading there as well.  

Dunno what it is but it's cool

Next, we tried to stop in at Upheaval Dome but couldn't get a parking spot, and then swung by the Grand View point.  It was pretty clear and the view down to the White Rim Road was its usual spectacle.  The national park was too busy for lunch so we cruised over to Dead Horse Point State Park where we were able to get a covered picnic table.

YGP new goat residents

Other activities over the lond weekend included a visit to Woody's (hoping for the Yankee game but settling for a barn-burner of girls' collegiate softball instead), checking out the Moab Arts Fest and the Main Street shops (shout-out to Moab Rainbowls for a delicious smoothie!), a La Sal loop road scenic drive and drives down Kane Creek Road and the Potash Road.  We also attempted the dinosaur tracksite at Mill Canyon but that is still closed for site work.

Moab Rim in the morning

We spent some time along the Colorado River as well: lunch at the new picnic spot just a few miles up Route 128, watching the rafts/kayaks/SUPs float by, and venturing out on the footbridge.   After the rain and hailstorms, most of the wind had moved on too and it was quite pleasant - unusually cool for the end of May but most appreciated.

Local screech owl skeptical of me, P and Milton

Since we are all about avoiding the crush of post-long holiday weekend traffic, we all got up at the crack of early Tuesday morning and drove back to SLC then.  L and P stayed with us for a couple more days - I had to go back in to work and H had to do some work-from-home, so many thanks to L and P for the weeding and pruning they did in the front yard!  We had dinner at Grid City on our last night together and then they flew back to upstate New York Thursday morning.

The gang along the Colorado River

It was a really good visit - here's hoping not to have to wait two+ years for the next one!

Iconic

the air was full of sound

One more MTB, back at Moab Brand trails.  It was actually cold in the morning so H delayed his road ride to 7 a.m., as opposed to 6.  We thus got to the trailhead around 10:30 and found it sunny, the clearest day we'd had, and not very windy.  There were around twenty cars in the lot but we only saw five folks out on the trail.  We did our usual loop and, once again, I managed to ride a rollover that had been plaguing me for quite a while.  The sego lilies were now out in force up on Lazy EZ and the Copper Ridge road area, despite not having been apparent a week ago.

Sandy, but we were on foot so that was okay

The next day, after H's road ride, we took Milton for a hike at the Moab Rim.  H did confess that he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to be out for, given all the miles he's put on his legs lately.  But we did the whole lollipop: up the Staircase, out counterclockwise up and over Tire Test Hill, down Sand Hill and out through the wash, and returning down the 4x4 road to the truck. 

Milt found himself a pothole

It was a gorgeous morning, clear with a slight breeze, and starting to warm up on the descent.  We saw only a handful of other hikers out there but as we paused for post-hike beers, there was a fair amount of entertainment: three side-by-sides successfully going up the Moab Rim trail and one side-by-side attempting to go up, but then thinking better of it.

Truth

We returned to Woody's one more time, via Schwinn cruiser and longboard, and then had a very pleasant firepit under the light of the full moon.  The next morning, before we had to head back north, H did his longest road ride to date.  And then we bid farewell to the desert.

Shadow-boarding

Ride stats: 12.83 miles; 1:25:00 hours; 9.0 m.p.h. average speed; 23.0 H's max speed

Hike stats: 5:47 miles; 2:02 hours/2.7 m.p.h. moving; 2:07/2.6 overall; 1,350' elevation

Additional ride stats:  26.22, 28.10 and 30.49 mile road rides.  Beast!

the sky with no clouds

 The next MTB we did was up at Dead Horse Point State Park, which was not too busy (seeing how it wasn't a weekend).  It was mostly sunny and windy, but not as windy as it would be later in the day), with very pleasant temperatures.  We did our usual loop and saw fewer than fifteen people.  I didn't do the Twisted Tree loop due to some cumulative fatigue, so H did it alone and then caught back up to me just before the last long climb on Raven Roll.  It was really nice to be able to ride my MTB as opposed to just pushing it through deep sand; I even managed to ride one corner that has given me trouble for years.  In the afternoon, the winds really picked up, blowing so much dust into the area that the La Sal mountains were completely obscured from view.

Left fork

It was much less windy the next day, clear and sunny but cooler than it had been.  After H's road ride, we set off for a Grandstaff Canyon (left fork) hike, arriving at the parking lot around 9:30.  There were several other cars in the lot already but it wasn't packed; it would be overflowing by the time we got back from our hike.

Cacti (not prickly pears)

Grandstaff really is such a beautiful canyon.  (They could use a few more directional signs around the creek crossings, however.)  We turned onto the social trail into the left fork and the canyon just opened up in front of us.  There were lots of flowers but still a little too early in the season for prickly pears.

Discussing creek things

  We went about halfway up (the upper half would have brought us out on Fins 'N Things) and then retraced our steps.  Milton enjoyed wading in the creek and chasing critters - there were lots of lizards.  Back on the main trail there were many more people coming in as we went out, although certainly not to weekend levels.  Lots of dogs too, and mostly well-behaved, although Milt did get hassled by a grumpy Boston terrier.

Oh lawd he comin'

After easing ourselves out of our parking space, we drove down the river just a little bit to a new picnic area on Route 128, overlooking the Colorado River.  This used to be an unimproved dirt lot but now has picnic tables and a couple of sun-shelters.  It's a great spot and had been much needed as pretty much everything else along the river is a campground and not accessible for day use.

Heading back out

Ride stats: 16.85 miles; 1:57 hours; 8.6 m.p.h. average speed; 19.6 m.p.h. H's max speed

Hike stats:  6.24 miles; 2:27 hours/2.5 m.p.h. moving; 2:44/2.3 m.p.h. overall; 840' elevation

Additional ride stats: H did a 22.19 mile road ride before our DHPSP MTB ride and a 24.06 mile road ride before our hike