revisiting seven mile canyon

We've been very lucky to be able to get down to Moab so much recently, luckier than most and we realize that.  The drive is long, however, and even though we've done it enough that we don't really think about it, taking an extra day to make the trip a long weekend can make a big difference.  We were able to do that last weekend, taking heading down Thursday after work.  This enabled us to take advantage of the recent lower-than-normal temperatures, at least for a day before things started heating up again.

Heading towards the buttes

On Friday we were thus able to go back to the north fork of Seven Mile Canyon for a short hike with Milton.  It was a gorgeous, cloudless day and temperatures were amazingly cool.  We parked at the cattle guard at the big bend on Route 313, climbed over the fence and headed up the wash.

Sun's out, tongues out

We had the canyon to ourselves.  There were a few footprints in the sand but we couldn't tell how recent they were.  The wash itself showed evidence of how high the water had been not so long ago, with bent branches, debris and water remaining in some potholes.  Milton made good use of that water although we did shoo him away from the pools with tadpoles swarming in them.

Burned-out tree

When we explored this fork of the canyon last time, we turned around without getting to the end of the far right branch due to boulders in the wash and cryptobiotic soil on the upper levels.  This time, however, we found some well-beaten cowpaths on the other side of the wash that brought us all the way to the head of this fork of the canyon, right beneath the Monitor butte.

Dressed in desert colors

Range cattle do tend to trample the desert to bits but their paths do allow further exploration without us doing our own damage to the landscape.  This let us experience this pretty little bowl.

It would be fun to see the pourover in the rain

We retraced our steps, poking around in the other canyon branches.  There wasn't as much water there because they are sandier but we did find this sap-covered tree that other hikers had adorned with bleached cow bones.  The desert is weird sometimes.  ☺

Bone tree

After our hike, we drove to Ken's Lake for beer, sandwiches and swimming with Milton.  Or rather, wading with Milton because when we encouraged him to go deeper, we learned that he doesn't know how to swim: he paddles with his front legs but curls his hind legs up beneath him - so he looks like a seahorse - and then his butt sinks.  He got extra dog biscuits for giving it a solid try though.

Hike stats:  4.74 miles; moving time 1:59/speed 2.4 m.p.h.; overall 2:24/2.0 m.p.h.; 530' elevation