seven mile canyon, north fork

And now we're back to recapping our summer vacation week in Moab.  On Thursday, we got up, organized and out at our usual time for hiking the north fork of Seven Mile Canyon with Milton.  We parked at the cattleguard on Route 313, just before the road starts climbing into the hairpin turns.  We climbed over the fence and down into the wash, startling two or three young hawks who were perched in the cottonwood trees there.

Natural layers, example 1

Temperatures started cool under the light cloud cover; as the morning wore on and the clouds thinned, the heat moved in.

Milton's claws wear down much quicker when he hikes slickrock

There was no trail per se but the plan was to explore each of the three branches of the canyon, working our way up until we couldn't go any further. 

Adventure dog, off-leash

The first branch we did (bearing to the far right) was narrowest and seemed to be pointed right at the Monitor and Merrimac buttes.  When it started getting boulder-y in the wash - perfectly explorable for people but more difficult with a medium-sized dog - we tried climbing up a few levels. Up there we found cryptobiotic soil, however, and we were concerned about off-leash Milton running through it so we turned around and backtracked out of this wash.

Natural layers, example 2

The second branch we went into was shorter than the first one and we made it all the way to the end.  We heard the trilling of canyon wrens but didn't see much bird activity.  We did spot tracks for lizards and cows and possibly some coyote poop, so there are definitely critters in the area.

Didn't find the rest of the skull, just this jaw

The main branch of the north fork of Seven Mile Canyon (bear left at the main fork when you are walking into the canyon) started out wide.  We had to turn around before we reached the end because it got so choked with vegetation.  We found some sun-bleached cow bones (jaw bone and some leg fragments); they had been out there in the elements long enough that Milton wasn't the slightest bit interested in them.

When the sun came out

On the way back out, we explored another side canyon.  This one had four-to-five foot high pour-overs which were easy to get over (and Milton liked launching himself off them for grand leaps into the sand) and very nice views.

Forcing the adventure dog to pose

As it got warmer, Milton was feeling the effects of possibly having overdone it early in the hike.  He stopped a couple of times to lie down in some shade to rest.  When we got to the mouth of the canyon, we spent some time searching for pictographs and petroglyphs that are supposed to be there.  We never found them.

Classic apres pose

For post-hike beers and snacks, we drove a bit further up Route 313 to the scenic overlook just past the hairpin turns.  This gave us views of Monitor and Merrimac as well as glimpses into the canyon we'd just hiked.  We still couldn't see any petroglyphs, even with a birds' eye view.

Hike stats: 5.97 miles; 2:33 total time; 790 feet of elevation