rewind: amasa back

On the Friday of our Moab vacation week, it was overcast and cool, so we were looking for a dog-friendly hike to do with Milton, preferably something not too cliffy since he tends to pull on the leash.  (At some point we will take him to obedience classes - just haven't gotten around to it yet). 

That is an excellent sign

We decided to head out to the Amasa Back area which has a number of options for hiking, MTBing and jeeping.  We loaded up the truck at 8:45 a.m. and drove out the Kane Creek Road to the trailhead where there were only a few other vehicles.

Water break

There are lots of trails in this area and to be honest, we found the trail maps a little confusing.  We picked the Hymasa Trail for the outbound trip since it is a MTB trail and would keep us out of the way of any motorized vehicles, at least for a while.

At the overlook

Even with the gray sky overhead, it was really pretty out there.  We followed the jeep trail up out of the creek, then jumped on the singletrack as it wound its way around and up the sandstone levels above the Cliffhanger jeep road.

Would you think something could drive up this?

A few MTBers passed us on our way to the Dead Horse Point overlook, which is where we took in the view before heading back down.  To make a loop, we descended via the jeep road.  This turned out to be a great idea as we paused for quite some time at this one obstacle (see the photo just above with me and Milt) to watch two sets of vehicles go through.  The first group of rockcrawlers had no trouble with the giant steps but the second group was all jeeps and one guy (see photo just below) nearly rolled before bringing it back from the brink.  It is truly amazing what these folks can do with their vehicles.

Driving up those steps

We walked out on the increasingly-rough jeep road as more and more MTBers and off-road vehicles were coming in.  Back at the parking lot, we hung out for a while talking with people: a group from Calgary who have been coming to Moab for 20+ years; and a father and adult daughter who had MTBed past us on our way up.  Milton enjoyed meeting several dogs as well.

Kane Creek canyon

When we got back and cleaned up, we thought we would try someplace new for a drink and went to the Moab Garage Company because their ad said they had a "beer garden."  Please note: it is not a beer garden but an entirely indoors room with a bar and you have to order food.  The hipster dude there was a little snooty about it too so we went to Zax's instead where we sat at the bar and talked to a couple of Arizona dude ranchers instead.  That's really more our style: cowboys, not hipsters.

Hike stats: 6.6 miles; 2:21/2.8 mph moving and 3:18/2.0 overall (there was a lot of watching the jeeps); 1,010 feet of elevation