Chat
08-12-2018, 07:54 PM
12 Aug 2018
Last night I decided to do a medium hike idea I have been thinking about for months-- Its just taken a back seat to other plans till now. Got up at 5:00 and ate and loaded up the goats. Today I brought Shelby GT and Barry Goatalo. Only Shelby is old enough to carry water. The plan was to hike the red cliffs which are only a mile or two from the Morrison formation (Where I've hiked a lot recently) but very different geologically. I planned based on google map photos, which don't really tell you much about what a cliff looks like since its all overhead shots. My general plan was to go along the bottom of the cliffs, find a certain wash to the south, make my way up to the top of the cliffs, and back to the car.
The sun was just rising as we started the hike. There's still plenty of smoke in the air making the red cliffs more orange. The base of the cliffs is a series of washes and ravines, so there was some up-down-up as we crossed them. Fortunately the weren't as difficult as I had expected.
These hoodoos can be seen from the road, and I've always wanted to visit them. Note the gaps.
Looking up. The tallest part of the cliff is above the hoodoos. You cant step through the gap because there's a 20 foot drop on the other side!
At the top of those cliffs is Lookout Point, a destination later in this hike. Note the thin overhangs.
We left the cliffs and traversed a badlands/wash area with rather steep slopes and deep ravines. We worked our way down to the river and road, out and away from the cliffs and walked south toward the next waypoint.
The problem is there was a badlands hilly maze we had to pass through. There was no point in a map because you'd spend more time reading it than moving. After a while I discovered it was far faster to walk the straight top of the mounds than the winding ravines. Here you can see the main cliffs. The daunting task is to find a way up to the top. Failure to do so would mean a longer trip back around.
Its here that I found an amazing area! A miniature goblin valley, but with a more cliff-like structure and green sandstone layers on top of the red. The area is untouched, since anyone coming here would have to pass the maze and as far as I can tell, there are no roads or paths other than the wash.
There was a particularly interesting formation I took several pictures of. So cool. This area would make a GREAT camp site for a future expedition.
Last night I decided to do a medium hike idea I have been thinking about for months-- Its just taken a back seat to other plans till now. Got up at 5:00 and ate and loaded up the goats. Today I brought Shelby GT and Barry Goatalo. Only Shelby is old enough to carry water. The plan was to hike the red cliffs which are only a mile or two from the Morrison formation (Where I've hiked a lot recently) but very different geologically. I planned based on google map photos, which don't really tell you much about what a cliff looks like since its all overhead shots. My general plan was to go along the bottom of the cliffs, find a certain wash to the south, make my way up to the top of the cliffs, and back to the car.
The sun was just rising as we started the hike. There's still plenty of smoke in the air making the red cliffs more orange. The base of the cliffs is a series of washes and ravines, so there was some up-down-up as we crossed them. Fortunately the weren't as difficult as I had expected.
These hoodoos can be seen from the road, and I've always wanted to visit them. Note the gaps.
Looking up. The tallest part of the cliff is above the hoodoos. You cant step through the gap because there's a 20 foot drop on the other side!
At the top of those cliffs is Lookout Point, a destination later in this hike. Note the thin overhangs.
We left the cliffs and traversed a badlands/wash area with rather steep slopes and deep ravines. We worked our way down to the river and road, out and away from the cliffs and walked south toward the next waypoint.
The problem is there was a badlands hilly maze we had to pass through. There was no point in a map because you'd spend more time reading it than moving. After a while I discovered it was far faster to walk the straight top of the mounds than the winding ravines. Here you can see the main cliffs. The daunting task is to find a way up to the top. Failure to do so would mean a longer trip back around.
Its here that I found an amazing area! A miniature goblin valley, but with a more cliff-like structure and green sandstone layers on top of the red. The area is untouched, since anyone coming here would have to pass the maze and as far as I can tell, there are no roads or paths other than the wash.
There was a particularly interesting formation I took several pictures of. So cool. This area would make a GREAT camp site for a future expedition.
I don't drink beer, but if I did, I'd prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty my friends!