perhaps not the smartest way to choose a trail

When we'd been down by the Colorado River on Saturday morning, we'd watched those two BASE jumpers hiking up along the cliffs.  Monday morning, H, Milton and I set out to see what that was all about, obviously not intending to get up to where they launched themselves off the cliffs but wanting to check out the trail.  We parked at the picnic area, crossed the road and followed the unmarked but clear trail.  At first it was great, going along a wide rock shelf that gained elevation slowly but steadily.  But as we got higher, the footing got looser, the climb got steeper and the edge of the cliffs got edgier.  There wasn't a lot of chitchat until we three had safely gotten over the ridge and away from the cliffs.

This looks fine

Once up there and around the corner, however, it was easy walking, pretty and with a different perspective on the Moab valley than you usually get.  We never saw the turnoff where the BASE jumpers must go to get up higher on the sandstone wall, but we followed first a trail, then a game trail and then an old jeep track that connected with the Raven's Rim Adventure Tours road.  This is a private road, but there were no No Trespassing signs, plus there are connectors with the Hell's Revenge 4x4 roads so we felt okay about wandering around for a while.

I'm too lazy to look up the name of this arch

There was absolutely no way we were going to attempt going back down what we had come up as H doesn't like heights/edges and I get very, very nervous when the footing is loose.  We walked out on the Raven's Rim road, pausing to speak with a tour coming up on side-by-sides (tour guide: "This is sort of a private lane" before saying it was okay for us to walk out on it).  Just above the tour company buildings, there was an actual No Trespassing sign so we veered off onto a trail (marked "Trail") that led us down into the back of the Moab Springs Ranch Resort.  We pretended we belonged there and walked through the grounds out to the bike path, then followed the bike path back to where we'd parked.

Much less cliffy here

Note to selves for future reference:  maybe next time don't pick a trail that BASE jumpers use.  Those people have better tolerance for heights and cliffs, plus they just jump off the top and don't have to hike back down.

Sort of a private lane

Hike stats: 6.42 miles; 2:26 hours / 2.6 m.p.h. moving ; 2:43 / 2.4 overall; 930' elevation