thanksgiving weekend, part 2: sunny

It rained all day on Friday, tapering off just in time for us to walk to Woody's for 5 p.m. beers, and then the storm moved out of Moab, leaving mostly clear skies and chilly temperatures behind it.  Perfect hiking weather!

Boys hiking

Back in August, when we rode the Navajo Rocks trails, we discussed doing some winter hiking on the 4X4 that ran under the Entrada cliffs.  Once we got out there, however (and were only the second car in the parking lots because brrrrr), we ended up on the Ramblin MTB trail which followed the line of the cliffs but weren't right under them.  We descended wide level benches of slickrock, crossed a couple of washes (including what we think is the head of Seven Mile Canyon) and went through some rolling sandy patches before ending up at a small parking area at 313.  This would be a fun MTB ride - I think I could ride a lot of it - but it's only a little over three miles long.

Monitor and Merrimac from Ramblin

At this point, we had a decision to make: retrace our steps on Ramblin, for under seven miles total, or make a loop by crossing 313 and heading back up via Rocky Tops and Middle Earth, which would put our mileage over nine.  We didn't want Milton to overdo it but watching him out there, happily chasing a golden retriever across the rock and clearly loving being out here, we decided to take the long way back.

Views wherever you look

As far as MTBing goes, Rocky Tops is rather more technical than Ramblin; as far as hiking goes, it's terrific.  For the duration, we kept passing and getting passed by a couple groups of MTBers: they would pass us on the flats and then we would catch and pass them on the more technical sections.  There's a little bit of everything out there on those trails, from doubletrack to sandy singletrack to steep switchbacks to sidehill sandstone to rolling slickrock benches.  It would be a very hot hike in the warmer months - there is no shade out there at all - but it was fantastic in early December.

When we got back to the parking area, it was PACKED.  A big group next to us was making tailgate coffee and brunch post-ride; there were several dogs for Milton to meet; other people were just warming up and heading out on the trails.

Map from utahmountainbiking.com (great site, tons of 

information) because our GPS's batteries died mid-hike

We knew we had to drive back to SLC on Sunday but the roads were clear and the weather calm, which meant that we had time for a hike before hitting the road.  We thought we would go early-ish to take advantage of the chilly morning temperatures and walk the Hell's Revenge 4x4 Trail up at the Sand Flats Recreation Area.  This is a very popular OHV trail but those folks seem to wait until it warms up before putting their vehicles in drive.  We figured we'd get out ahead of them and that's exactly what we did.

Map from riderdestinations.com

We parked at the exit to Hell's Revenge and went around clockwise.  Hiking on OHV trails is a mixed bag as sometimes the dirt is chewed up, sloppy and difficult to walk on.  Hell's Revenge had some slippery sections but it also had firm dirt surfaces as well as slickrock stretches, so it wasn't that bad.  It did gain quite a lot of elevation, however, and despite how cool it was, we had to delayer to keep from sweating too much.

Ridge-walking

Our plan worked and we saw no one out there until we switched to the Slickrock MTB trail around the Escalator obstacle.  From there it was still two miles out to the trailhead (we would total over five miles on this one) and we saw several MTBers as the day got warmer.  It was a ghost town compared to the spring/summer/fall, however.  I anticipate more hiking up there in winter solitude.