hidden valley

We went to Moab and the sun came out!  It wasn't that warm - a cold front had moved through Thursday night and the daytime temperatures barely reached the mid 60s - but it was wonderful to see blue skies.  It was still chilly in the shade but out in the sunshine, it was glorious.

A and M about halfway up the climb

To soak up some of that sunshine, we took Milton on a six mile (approximate, as we forgot the GPS) to Hidden Valley.  The trailhead is on Rim Rock Road, off of Angel Rock Road, as you head out of town on Route 191, and shares a parking lot with the Pipe Dream MTB trail.  We had hiked a portion of that trail back around Christmas, when it was too icy to try the climb to Hidden Valley.  This hike is best done in the spring and the fall as it is too hot in the summertime.

The well-used trail doesn't waste any time going up via switchbacks through the rockfall below red rock cliffs.  It isn't a long climb, however, and we got up to the valley in about thirty minutes.  The valley is just beautiful: very green (this time of year) with grasses and sagebrush, with a sandy path down the center and surrounded by cliffs.  This is a popular trail but wasn't overrun with people; we maybe saw twenty other hikers and trail runners all told, of various skill sets, many with dogs.

How green is my valley?

After walking through the meadow, there is a low rocky pass that divides Hidden Valley from the Moab Rim trail.  This is where you can pick up a trail to a bunch of petroglyphs.  We hadn't done our research ahead of time, however, and didn't know about the rock art panels until after we got home.  Instead we went over the pass and down into the Behind the Rocks area, picking up a jeep road but not seeing any jeeps.  Motorized vehicles are allowed on that side but foot traffic and (I believe) MTBs only on the Hidden Valley side.

Apparently it always snows in Moab

After some explorations, we retraced our steps, going back down the way we came up.  There was plenty of parking lot activity to observe during our post-hike beers, although it started to get chilly as the sun was heading behind the cliffs.  Milton did pretty well on the hike: he pulled H a bit on the leash on the way up but decidedly less so on the way down - and he was all tuckered out afterwards.  We were very pleased with this little hike - the valley was just so pretty - and will definitely go back to check out the petroglyphs that we missed this time.