Moab Boot Camp - Chapter 2

Hike Hard - Part II

It is hard to believe that we have been back from vacation for 2 weeks. I figured I'd better get my Moab posts finished before I forget everything that we did!

The Amasa Back Trail (also known as the Cliffhanger!)

The day after we got back from our canoe trip down the Colorado River, we did the Amasa Back Trail. It is actually a mountain biking trail but in talking with someone who has done it, I figured I would be carrying my bike most of the way and not too much fun in that. Hiking it was challenging enough. We hiked 25 km with an elevation gain of 766 m and I was one very tired girl at the end of the day.

From the guide book - "The Amasa Back Trail is a jeep trail that climbs just over a thousand feet to a mesa top overlooking the Colorado River and the Kane Creek Anticline. The trail surface is mostly Kayenta Sandstone and has many small ledges (less than 1’) and a few bigger ones. Challenging and fun for experienced mountain bikers only a short bike ride from town."

We took a couple of trails that branch off from the Amasa Back (Pothole Arch, Rockstacker and Jackson Loop and made a loop.

Some of the views on the way up the Amasa Back.

There is no way I could ride my bike up that (and that was a very tame section of the trail.)





Jackson Hole

Pothole Arch

I was a little too short to actually climb up Pothole Arch and take a look inside but Tim had no problems getting up. He said it was like sitting in the bottom of a bowl.

From Pothole Arch, we started our trip back down via the Rockstacker and then eventually Jackson Loop.

From a guide book - "Jackson’s is etched into the chalky red-rock cliffs high above the Colorado River. From the top of the Amasa plateau, Jackson’s sweeps off to the right and rolls along the mesa. After a few delicious high-speed downhill corners, the trail bends around a corner and everything closes in as it plummets toward the river bottom. Cliff walls loom to the right, a 100-foot drop hovers to the left and steep, dusty trail lies ahead. At some points the trail is no wider than a handlebar.

After emerging from the tightly wound cliffside stretch of trail, riders are rewarded with a fast, serpentine romp across rolling hills that slide into a broad floodplain. Here the trail is tacky and fast and ideal for opening the throttle and loosening the grip. Blood can finally return to the knuckles."

And it was just as scary hiking it.!

At the very end of the hike you have to cross a small tributary of the Colorado and at certain times of the year, it can be quite dangerous. Before we started, I walked the trail backwards for a ways until I reached the river and could verify that yes, we would have no problems crossing it. Imagine my surprise when we get to that point on our way down and it is not the same spot I had already checked out. This river before us would have been very difficult to cross. There was a pipe crossing it and Tim took a few steps onto it and I knew I would not be able to do it. I figured there had to be another way, there was no way other people had crossed here (I don't know how you would carry your bike across.) I look to my right and I could see a worn path on the rock around this hollow. So we climbed up it, stepped carefully across, hopped up to this little trail and there it was, the path that I had seen that morning. I was a little tense though, there was no way I was going to be able to turn around and hike the whole thing back.

It was a tough day. I didn't have enough water and it was sunny and warm but the thought of the yummy Mexican restaurant kept me going. We had gone there the night before and had Moabs (Mother of all burritos) and they were delicious!

And yes, Tim did get a new hairdo in Moab from Norm the barber.

Arches National Park

We saved Arches for our last day because we had heard from so many people how spectacular it was and they were absolutely right.

There were quite a few hikes in the park so we tried to figure out which ones we would have time for and which ones had the most to see.

We started at the Devils Garden Trailhead and just as we arrived there, so did 3 buses full of high school students from Korea. It felt like being in China all over again with all the crowds!

The first arch we came across was the Landscape Arch. It is considered the longest natural arch in the world. Since 1991, three slabs of sandstone have fallen from the thinnest part of the arch. You can see the pile of rocks on the ground on the right side of the arch.

From Landscape Arch, we continued north up some large steep rocks until we reached a little trail that branched off to Navajo and Partition Arch.

The next arch on the trail was the Double O Arch. I found this part of the trail a little hairy as it was along the top of fins which to me, seemed very narrow. But again, they don't look that narrow in the pictures!

As you can see by my face, I am not enjoying this particular part of the hike. I think once Tim took the picture, I fell to my knees because my legs were shaking so much!

I look a little less scared in this picture. Maybe because there was only a drop off on one side!

Double O Arch

From Double O Arch, it was a short hike to the Dark Angel.

We decided to take the Primitive Trail back Private Arch and the sign says it all. Of course, I didn't realize the sign said it all until we had gone about half way. At the beginning it wasn't too bad so I figured I must be an experienced hiker if they think this is difficult hiking. Boy, did I soon learn how not an experienced hiker I am.

This doesn't look all that bad.

Oh, wait a minute. What's this??? I actually made Tim come and walk beside me on the right so I could put my feet beside his so he could stop me if I slipped.

We had another difficult part. There was a bowl in the rock and the path went through the bottom of the bowl but it was full of water. The options were to go through it or to scale the edges of the bowl around it. We ran into one woman who went through it and she said it was up to her mid-thighs. I wasn't sure about that so I decided I would try to scale the edges. I probably should have gone through it. Tim went across first because he wanted to take a video of me. crossing it The sides were extremely steep and sandy, which made them very slippery. I managed to make it part way and then there was a part where you had to climb over this hump and I lost my footing. I thought for sure I was going down. The cameraman had to abandon his camera and come to my rescue. He grabbed one hand and then a stranger came and grabbed the other and they pulled me up to safety. Of course by now there was a crowd around to view my fall from grace. It wasn't that far of a drop but I would have been very wet if it wasn't for Tim and the kindness of this stranger. Too bad I don't know how to post the video.

From that point on it was fairly easy, some uphill and some sandy sections but not anything that made me feel like my life was in danger!

The next spectacular arch was Delicate Arch. It was a 5 km hike, 2.5 km up and then 2.5 km down. Most of it was on slick rock, some of which was very steep. Going up was no problem, it's the going down that bothers me. At the end of the trail, just before you get to the arch, the trail goes along a rock ledge for about 200 yards. My legs were a little shaky walking that part.

I was all ready tired from the earlier hike so I found this one to be quite the grunt. However, even in my tired (and Tim would probably add miserable) state, we still managed to pass quite a few people on the way up. I felt pretty good about that.




The last few arches we wanted to see were just short hikes, a couple of kilometers or less so we plugged away until we had seen everything we had wanted to see. There was still so much that we didn't have time for so I can foresee a future trip back to Moab.




North and South Window

Double Arch

Balancing Rock

This was our last day in Moab. At the end of the day we left and drove a couple of hours to Price, Utah. We figured just cutting a couple hours off the next day's drive would help. We had to make it to Missoula, Montana in good time the next day because that was the shopping day and I had been looking forward to that the entire trip. Price is just a small town in the middle of nowhere and we figured we would have no problems finding a hotel for the night. Boy were we surprised when that was not the case. There was a lot of highway construction in the area and the hotels were full of construction workers. We eventually got a room but it was a little dicey for a while. We thought we might have to drive a couple more hours to get to Provo and both of us were a little too tired for that.

I also have to mention the burger and fries I had for dinner at Ray's Tavern in Green River. It had to be the best burger I have had in a long time.

Two more chapters left of the Moab saga - Canoe Hard and Shop Hard.

Stay tuned!