Late September found me in southern Utah, as usual. This time I spent much more time exploring back roads, canyons and desert areas. I still visited favorite places such as Arches, Canyonlands, Capital Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, although It was snowing at Bryce (8000 feet) and too windy and cold to stay.
But... I found lots of new places to hang out. Moab, just south of Arches National Park is a truly beautiful area. I followed Potash Road along the Colorado River to an active salt company. Continued past it onto a dirt road that wound thru 5-7 miles of company land. But what land, beautiful red sandstone cliffs, bluffs and rock formations.
Then I got to the Shafer Trail, a popular biking area, and for good reason. Nearby red sandstone cliffs rise up 1000+ feet in the air. Deep canyons drop down 1000+ feet to the Colorado River way, way below. I parked the truck and walked the road for 5-6 miles out and back. The next day I drove to where I ended the first walk and continued walking from there. I did this four days in a row and would have continued except I came to a steep, rough section that put too much strain on my 4 cylinder, 2WD truck. Some of the best scenery I've seen anywhere, including the national parks. You can be sure I will return for more of the same. This is one of the few times I really wished I had 4WD.
Kane Creek Road follows the other side of the Colorado River in Moab. After a few miles it drops down into a steep canyon and then out into a wide open plain with more sandstone cliffs around. Several arches in the area too.
Nearby LaSalle Mountains offered a completely different environment. I was treated to great fall foliage on a 30+ mile drive through the mountains. Plenty of camping and hiking up there too. I spent about 6 weeks just hanging out and hiking in Moab.
Cedar Mesa is more desert area with lots of cliff dwelling to hunt out. Had the first of two minor disasters in this area. Was hiking a trail and the branch of a cedar tree hung out over the trail. Someone had pruned a twig off the branch leaving a sharp little nub. I stepped right up into it and it sank into my skull about 1/8th inch or so. Lots of blood but no gray matter leaked out... probably because I'm down a quart or so of that stuff. Good thing I had a baseball hat on.
The water level at the 180 mile long Lake Powell in south central Utah is way down from where it was even in the spring. North part of the lake was all mud flats and the Colorado River is only 15 feet or so wide now. Really sad as this is one of the top paddling areas in the country if not the world. When they originally built the dam in Page, Arizona it took 5-10 years to fill the lake up. There's still plenty of water left but the 90+ major canyon walls are much higher too.
Hit the north rim of the Grand Canyon in mid-November. The north rim is usually snow bound in the spring so fall is the best time for me to get there. Unfortunately it was a cold, windy and stormy day. I just wandered around on the rim for a while and did the scenic drives but did get some interesting photos of storm activity on the many peaks. Cold and windy on the south rim too a couple days later so I just did the scenic drive there and kept on heading south.
I spent December thru February just wandering around Arizona trying to keep warm. Pretty easy to do unless you wander up into the mountains. Arizona is experiencing the driest spell in 1500 year so there's little snow in the mountains but it is cold.
Spent a lot of time in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge between Yuma and Quartzsite on AZ-95 in southeast Arizona. This area is about 12X50 miles with the jagged Eagletail Mountains following much of the distance. I got back in there for over a month. I'd find a cool place to camp and then walk or run the roads in either direction and then move on to another cool spot. If I didn't feel like walking or running I'd just wander off into the foothills or desert for a few hours and rely on the GPS to get me back.
Didn't see much wildlife although there's desert big horn sheep in there. All I saw was a couple of jackrabbits and a tarantula. The Tarantula just came walking by as I sat on my camp chair reading a book. He missed my foot by about 6 inches. He was a little guy, only about the size of a child's hand. Still haven't seen any rattlesnakes, scorpions, gila monsters or other creepy crawlies.
One of the places I visited was Organ Pipe National Monument, smack dab on the Mexican border, the site of my second mini-disaster. I took a 50 mile scenic drive over back roads in the park. I got turned around somehow and the road became impassable. I was driving along a fence beside a highway with cars and big rigs zooming by. I found a hole in the fence leading down a wash to the highway. Thinking it was AZ-85 I drove through.
After 10-15 miles I see a sign with an arrow that says USA (thataway). Oops! I had popped into Mexico onto MX-2. Being in Mexico is no big deal. Being there illegally is. I got to the US border crossing and explained what had happened. He thought it was hilarious until he saw a car of Federales coming. Then he told me I was really, really luck they hadn't got me and to get moving, NOW!... and I was outa there!
I found out later a park ranger had been killed right near that hole in the fence a week or two earlier. A week or two later a border guard shot an aggressive motorist crossing the border there at Lukeville. And about the same time at the same crossing a dog sniffed out 6 tons of marijuana in a tractor/trailer. Doesn't sound like a fun place. I saw several different groups of Hispanics walking along the side of roads in the middle of nowhere carrying gallon jugs of water. Illegals? What else?
Hope everyone stayed slim and trim during the winter, unlike me. I put on 10 pounds but have worked about 5 pounds back off. Was trying to run 1 hour per day but the legs just wouldn't hold up so I'm back to walking when I'm not hiking. Must be old age :-(.
Getting ready to cross over into southern California. I'll be working my way north along the eastern border, through Death Valley, Yosemite, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, the Cascade Mountains, etc. Will probably shoot off into Idaho and then back into Oregon and Washington. Dunno if I'll really have time for all that.
At some point I'll swing over to the coast for my first look at the Pacific Ocean. Hope its in July or August because those are the only months its not raining in Washington and Oregon. I finally expect to do a lot of paddling. I think I'm building calcium deposits or something in the shoulder joints and I've been saving them for some really good paddling in Puget Sound, San Juan Islands, etc. This may be my last hurrah in a sea kayak. Back to a canoe, a sailboat? Who knows?
Lots of new photos and trip reports on the website.
Happy paddling, hiking or whatever!