Moab 2017 - Bucket List Trip - Cross Country Rock Therapy Adventure

*fistbump*

 

Wow Mike AWSOME report. I'm still working through the videos. Great job. I'm hoping to get set up and get out there this summer.

 

Moab Rim updated with more photo's from Karen's phone.

 

Great write. That is a hardcore drive just to get there.

 

Yeah buddy @cynicalrider

 

Day 7: The most epic campsite I ever had.

I woke up late the next morning, still hurting from the festivities from the night before. It's Sunday at this point and since most of the people who came to Rock Therapy live anywhere from 4-7 hours away, they all started their journey home so they could make it to work on Monday.

I on the other hand had still a full week of time off from work, and had much more adventuring to do. @NYCO was one of the last to leave the dunes, and i asked him for some recommendations of what would be good trails to hit for someone rolling solo. He recommended checking out Dome Plateau, and showed me some paths of which ways to go for me to afterwards, including a drive on Winter Camp Ridge that runs behind Arches National Park. I made some lunch, and very very sluggishly packed up my shit, got some gas in Moab, and started following the Colorado River up 128 back to Dewey Bridge. I aired down at Dewey at around 2-3PM and remember getting butterflies in my stomach and feeling the nerves and excitement start to hit me.

Back home I have dome some solo wheeling, but it was a joke. Random spurts of offroad areas in sprawling urban areas, to some solo stuff in the pine barrens in the sugar sand on stuff you barely need 4WD for. This was a whole different animal. I was about to set off onto a trail that will be the most remote I have ever been thus far. I remember the start of the Dome Plateau trail because we actually came down it when we all took the Kokopelli into Dewey. This made me feel a little better since I would at least know some of the trail and what to expect.

The only difference now is that I was alone, and had no one to rely on but myself. I also remembered that when we rolled through here, we barely saw anyone on these trails. This added to my nerves as well as my excitement. Since I have barely any photos of the drive out to the Plateau, I will re-use some shots from the Kokopelli on the way in.

Here you can see Dewey Bridge in the distance, I was coming the opposite way on this leg:



Climbing up these ledges at the beginning of the trail did freak my out a little. I was trying to take it easy, taking the easier lines just to not put myself at any additional risk. I'll pick the hard lines all day when I have a crew to bail me out, but not this time, at least not at the beginning of this journey.

I remember once or twice needing to lock the rear and I was surprised I even needed to do that It reminded me heavily of the TOTW trail with undercut ledges and some loose dirt. Need to use my locker at all had me rethinking if this was even a good idea.

IMG_7986 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_7984 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I pressed on though, knowing I was kind of running out of time. The goal was to find a camp site before it got dark, and I was running out of light. The book said that there are a ton of trails here that can make it easy to get lost, and could potentially tack on a ton of time. I followed Bob's advice and the GPX files he sent me. We discussed two potential camp sites, one at the popular spot on Dome Plateaus overlook, and a less popular one on Winter Camp Ridge.

IMG_8259 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Thankfully some of the roads were pretty smooth and I could really bomb the fuck out of them. This saved me a bunch of time. On the way, I decided to stop at La Boca Arch since it was one of the major attractions according to the book. This was pretty sweet for me since it's really one of the first Arches I've seen up close.

IMG_0393 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0392 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

It was at this point that I had to make a decision. Go to the shorter distance camp site, or go for the longer one. I decided to play it safe and go with the shorter one, and I was happy I did.

I got to the overlook and saw trails basically went all the way to the edge. I was like fuck it, I'm here, I'm camping as close to this edge as possible as long as the wind's not bad. And holy shit, the view here was amazing. It made me forget every concern I had about going solo. It made me realize if I didn't take this risk today, I would have not seen what I saw. Excitement far over powered fear, and I wasn't even worried about basically another 6 hour drive through the offroad trails the next day. I was ecstatic. I called my wife, sent her photos and we both were just so happy I made it to where I did. It was a true feeling of accomplishment.

I set my truck up in a way so I could access everything and used whatever brush I could to shield my tent from any wind. Realistically I didn't feel much wind but I also have had nights on this trip where heavy winds didn't kick up till 2 AM, so I was being cautious regardless.

IMG_0396 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0398 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

As the sun went down, the photographer in me came out, and I captured every moment I could of the sun setting in the valley below:

IMG_0401 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0405 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0403 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0406 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0408 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0409 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0410 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0411 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0418 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0419 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I made myself some chicken and mashed potatoes, and drank a few beers by the fire, admiring the view and watching the headlights wind through the roads next to the river below. It was a truly amazing campsite and one of my most peaceful nights.

IMG_8267 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

It's also funny because I learned months later, that @Blackdawg @Digiratus and @turbodb just a few weeks before I had. Always cool staying in epic sites where other TW member's you follow have stayed.

 

Something about beimg out alone is really humbling. It really gives you a chance to reflect on so much.

That spot is on my list to camp at. I ththi the view rivals that of TOTW.

 

One of the best ever campsites for sure.

 

that's awesome man! glad that worked out for ya

 

Awesome. Looks like you went the opposite direction on Dome Plateau trail than we did, but it doesn't matter when you have a campsite like that!

 

Definitely do it. It's so worth it.

100% agreed. I think the only thing that can beat it is @Squeaky Penguin's site on HITR. Another bucket list trip for me now.

Thanks for the advice and maps! It was a huge help dude.

Seriously, I loved it. I wish I explored more of that area but was so limited on time.

Day 8: Getting out of Dome Plateau, Arches National Park, and my last night in Moab.

So I woke up from my night of great sleep to some incredible views of course.

IMG_0421 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_8262 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_8261 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Eventually I packed all my stuff and started on my journey out. Of course I had to take one last photo of my truck in this amazing location. Wish I took it with the DSLR though.

IMG_8263 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I got back onto the Dome Plateau trails and followed the other trails Bob had suggested I check out. The first one was the Winter Camp Ridge trail that technically brought you into the backside of Arches National Park. The overlook I stopped at let me see some arches that were waaaay off into the distance. It also overlooked this cool basin like structure formed in the rocks.

IMG_0424 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0428 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0429 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

From there I went back to the main trail and followed through Yellow Cat Mesa and a couple other things named Yellow Cat. It was a desolate ex mining area, barely saw anyone all day. If I did it was a hunter or two. Still I've never seen an old mine or mine area in person so the sites were pretty interesting for me.

IMG_0431 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0432 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0434 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0435 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0436 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

When I got to what seemed like some more major roads, I realized I messed up now that I am looking at the map. I got on the one main road and took the front way into Arches National park. If I had just made a left, I would take the back way/4wd access roads into Arches. Part of that was fear that I would not be able to see Arches fully, mostly because at this point it was already 1 PM and I had a ton of stuff to do before I left Moab.

As I was about to get off the dirt roads and back onto a paved one I saw these guys grazing off in the distance:

IMG_0439 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I whipped out the telephoto lense and got some great close ups.

IMG_0440 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

IMG_0442 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0443 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Not sure what kind of animal they were, just assumed they were a weird looking deer. (All we have back home are white tail's lol)

After that I got into Arches, ate a quick lunch in the parking lot, and literally started a very hurried trip of getting photos and checking out some Arches. I definitely need to come back here because I would love to hike more into the Arches if I can, but I was pressed on time because I needed to get a shower in and do laundry in Moab before I started my journey back to NJ.

I really loved all the needles in arches as well.

IMG_0445 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0448 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0449 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0452 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0456 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0458 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I didn't have time to hike to Delicate Arch, so telephoto lense FTMFW!

IMG_0460 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0462 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

In the last parking lot i saw a badass Hiliux so I had to snap a photo.

IMG_0466 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Then did a quick hike to Landscape Arch (a must see for me), and Partition and Navajo Arches.

IMG_0468 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0469 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

IMG_0472 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0473 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0475 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0479 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0480 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0484 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0485 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0486 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0488 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0491 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Hopefully next time I will come back with my wife and we can thoroughly hike the park. After I left Arches I hit the town of Moab to enjoy my last night there. I hit the laundromat, got showered up at the rec center, and fueled up/got groceries in town. I wanted to hit the sticker store up for stickers of all the trails I got done while in town but unfortunately they were closed. I have a friend who can get stickers made so I can at least pick the font anyway. Still undecided if I want to run the stickers up my doors or on the tailgate.

After I saw the store was closed I hit up Moab Brewery for dinner and some drinks. I brought back home with me their black imperial IPA:



And also picked up a 4 pack of their Johnny's American IPA to enjoy on the trip home as well. It's always funny when you go to a bar/restaurant solo because you get to meet so many cool people. The couple on the right of me was in Moab from AZ to pick up a rare classic car the husband always wanted. The guy on the left of me was a CO native who always comes and stays in Moab every once in a while for the hiking and biking. Moab is a town for all walks of life with so many outdoor uses and people come form everywhere to enjoy it.

I knew the next day was going to be a big day for me but also wanted to check out Needles Overlook before I left Utah. So after I left the Moab Brewery I drove late into the night to Needles Overlook Rd. I found on the topo maps that there are dirt roads leading off Needles Overlook Rd. that were on BLM land. I knew I only needed a place to setup my tent and sleep so I just picked one of the roads that dead ended on the map as a place to crash. So I got to the end of some random dirt road right by the overlook at around 10 or 11 PM, setup my tent and sleep gear and just passed out. I knew I needed to rest up as much as possible because I had to get up around 6-7 AM and was looking at a 10 hour drive the next day for my next destination. I remember hearing the faint sound of cows mooing in the distance as I fell asleep. It was weird but even though I was in some random place in the desert, at the end of a sketchy dirt road, I felt safe. And I enjoyed how easily it is to legally camp some place out West vs in the East. It was sad knowing it would be my last night in Utah, but I was excited for what lied ahead.

 

Pronghorn...they are fast little fucker too. always cool seeing them roaming the desert

 

Dude, that's awesome. Just looked them up and this video came up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHP1Ac7GX_Q

 

Not on HITR, but fairly close.

 

What dis HITR?

 

Hole in the rock trail.

This describes a bunch of what makes this trail so interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIdtNfMaMOs

 

Hole In The Rock. Name of a trail in southern Utah, near Halls Crossing.

 

Ahh I see

 

Glad you posted that. Was a good watch!

While not the location of that epic campsite over Lake Powell, HITR is well up there on my list of awesome adventures.

 

Can both be done/enjoyed on the same trip? That was an awesome awesome camp site.

Like this view blows me away dude:

Powell & More (21 of 31) by brettbjorgum, on Flickr

And that's where you camped right?