As I mentioned, before the Giant April Storm inundated the northern part of Utah, we went down to Moab for the weekend. Having had such a snowy winter meant that we really didn't get any valley inversion/pollution in SLC - which was frickin' fantastic - but it also meant that we've barely seen the sun. Almost all of my [admittedly very few] ski days have been overcast. I don't think either of us has seasonal affective disorder but, man, we really wanted to have some sunshine.
We didn't get any sun on the drive down: rain and spitting snow and some road slush, not enough to be too sketchy for driving but more than enough to coat the Subaru with salt and dirt. And our neighbor Amelia said that Moab had gotten some hard rain over the last couple of day - the ground was quite soft, perfect for pulling weeds (sigh).
Friday was quite nice, however, with just a few clouds in a nice, blue sky. It was warmer than we'd been in weeks, although with the breeze, it was cool if the sun went behind a cloud. Milton and I had convinced H to go for a hike with us and I didn't want to get wet, so we went over to the Moab Rim trailhead to scramble around on the rocks.
There were just a few cars in the lot when we got there, but we knew the trail would see some action as this was the first weekend of Moab's April Jeep Safari. We powered on up the Stairmaster hiking trail, pausing to de-layer about halfway up. At the top, we continued out along the 4x4 trail and before we got to the Tire Test Hill climb, we veered off into a wash. We'd seen people with climbinb gear heading out there in seasons past and had wanted to check it out. Before long, the wash was full of water so we had to climb up onto the sandstone domes in order to keep going.
When Milton made moves like he was going to chase a squirrel, he got relegated to being on leash, at least while we were near the cliff edge. We were up above the Kane Creek road, looking across the river at Wall Street; below us, the wash we'd been in ended in a dramatic pour-over. I'm guessing that's where climbers go but no one was there at that time so we couldn't confirm. As we were climbing the sandstone, H exclaimed, "It's a lake!" And true enough, hidden in a pothole on top of those cliffs was a tiny, ephemeral pond. It was full of water, ostensibly from the recent rains but judging from the water weeds, it must hold onto its water pretty well.
We continued on away from the cliff's edge - allowing Milton off-leash again - and made our way across the rock back to the 4X4 road. There are more washes that I want to explore out there but we saved them for another day, heading back on the road. As we descended the steep rock ramps of the Moab Rim 4x4 trail, we passed a couple of Jeeps on their way down. Back in the parking lot, they stopped to chat with us for a bit: they were in town (from Missouri and Texas) for the Safari. They were also very charmed with Milton, who was just glad to have parking lot people to meet again.
Hike stats: 5.68 miles; 2:12 hours / 2.6 m.p.h. moving average; 2;16 / 2.3 overall average; 1,600' elevation gain
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