RockyMtnFamily
Explorer
I arrived in Moab the Saturday before my trip to explore Arches National Park with my children. Upon checking into the Park's campground I saw the weather forecast for later in the following week and called Canyonlands to see if I could move up my trip by one day. I was assured that the storms are relatively mild up in that section of SE Utah and I had little to worry about. Monday and Tuesday were spent hiking to some of the arches and exploring a backcountry trail in Arches National Park. There are a total of 3 backcountry roads to explore and the Cache Valley trail is not the most scenic of them, though I do not regret exploring that area.
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2423379950062605357cNEpwL
Early Wednesday morning we awoke and loaded up the truck to head out from our base camp for our backcountry exploration of Canyonlands' White Rim Trail. I was given the briefing that goes along with getting the permit and was informed that the Shaefer portion of the trail was closed to passenger vehicles due to snow and ice on the switchbacks. I had two options to consider: Either head back to Moab to take the road through Potash to where it meets up with the trail (3-3.5 hours) or go the opposite way of travel (Counter Clockwise) and enter at Horsethief Trail Road, just 10 miles outside of the park entrance. I chose to do the latter. The ranger told me to take a left at the Horsethief Campground turnoff and this would take me to the trail that goes into the canyon. I left at about 11 a.m. from the ranger station and did as instucted. I found the main road to be relatively well maintained with several roads that forked off in various states of disrepair. I took road after road, after road, only to dead end at the canyon or roads I had already taken.
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2219121460062605357oCbPcy
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2607032030062605357DPfewW
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2453654270062605357YYVwwB
The areas were scenic and gave me a great chance to test my relatively stock truck's capabilities, but this was not how I had planned on spending three hours of my day. I drove East towards Highway 313 and headed back for the Park office. I found out I was misinformed and actually should have taken the Mineral Bottom Trail, which is just a turnoff with a sign .25 miles between the Horsethief Canyon Campground and Dead Horse State Park turnoff. Once I was back on track, I made up for some lost time on the well graded dirt road that led across the BLM land to the top of the canyon. Once at the bottom the road is well graded, but narrow, all the way to the first two campsites. Upon entering the park, the speed limit is 15 miles per hour, which is plenty fast for this road. I averaged about 5-8 miles per hour over my travels on this trail.
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2480384500062605357GvJFFZ
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2618627620062605357bkoQac
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2618627620062605357bkoQac
Due to my late start time. they agreed to change my campsite to Labyrinth camp area, which is quite a bit more scenic than Potato Bottom where I had originally anticipated camping. As you can see this is a wonderful place to camp, but there is not any protection from the wind. My young campers helped me set up the tent and we got dinner cooked and cleaned up while the sun was setting. Shortly afterwards I noticed that my camera battery needed to be recharged, so I was not able to take pictures with the camera for the remainder of this trail
.
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2159117290062605357LxBIpZ
The following day we broke camp and hit the trail at 9 a.m. We stopped along the way to explore slot canyons, other backcountry campsites and even saw two golden Eagles soaring together above one of the many canyons. I used the 4WD low to go easy on the brakes going down the hills that wove in and out of the canyons and only needed 4WD one other time to get up the muddy and snowy hill that lead to Murphy's Hogback camp sites. This was one of the nicest campsites I saw along the trail as it is perched at the top of the canyon walls overlooking two great areas! We made it to our second camp at Gooseberry B that afternoon at 4 p.m. and set up camp. As I was getting ready to put the rain fly on the tent the sky started to get dark and the wind picked up a bit. I had my son help me get the rain fly on and was in the process of getting the tent tied down with the guylines that were provided when the next gust of wind hit, tearing the tent mounting points off and sending the tent hurdling 100 yards from our camp. I chased after it and caught it within 50 yards of going off the next canyon rim. After inspecting for damage I could see that we were not going to be able to set it up again that night.
With a packed camper, I elected for us to head back to Moab and our base camp. Within a couple miles of leaving camp we ran across a couple from Scotland who were out touring with a friend from Colorado in his Full Size truck. The friend asked how far the highway was, and looking at my odometer I informed him it was 73 miles or about 12 hours away. They had left Moab earlier in the afternoon and been on the trail for 5.5 hours. Upon finding the Schafer trail portion closed, they elected to head the other way instead of turning around. They did not have any food, water or other equipment aside from the truck they were in. I told them they should turn around and gave them some water and some food to eat. We got back into Moab at 9:50 that night and made it to Burger King just before the dining area closed for a bite to eat. We got back to our base camp and awoke the following morning at 7 a.m. to the sounds of rain on our pop up trailer's roof. An hour later it was snowing, then the sun came out and it got nice again about 30 minutes later.
I look forward to doing this trail again now that I have a 12 volt camera battery charger. Next time I will either pack lighter so I can camp out of my truck or get a better tent to make the trip with (or both).
I found that this trail should be a must do for people at least once in their lifetime if back-country travel is your thing. This was my first 4WD based backcountry trip as I have done other road trips, hiking and rafting trips in the past. I look forward to more great adventures in the future.
Kevin
Grand Junction, CO
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2423379950062605357cNEpwL
Early Wednesday morning we awoke and loaded up the truck to head out from our base camp for our backcountry exploration of Canyonlands' White Rim Trail. I was given the briefing that goes along with getting the permit and was informed that the Shaefer portion of the trail was closed to passenger vehicles due to snow and ice on the switchbacks. I had two options to consider: Either head back to Moab to take the road through Potash to where it meets up with the trail (3-3.5 hours) or go the opposite way of travel (Counter Clockwise) and enter at Horsethief Trail Road, just 10 miles outside of the park entrance. I chose to do the latter. The ranger told me to take a left at the Horsethief Campground turnoff and this would take me to the trail that goes into the canyon. I left at about 11 a.m. from the ranger station and did as instucted. I found the main road to be relatively well maintained with several roads that forked off in various states of disrepair. I took road after road, after road, only to dead end at the canyon or roads I had already taken.
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2219121460062605357oCbPcy
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2607032030062605357DPfewW
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2453654270062605357YYVwwB
The areas were scenic and gave me a great chance to test my relatively stock truck's capabilities, but this was not how I had planned on spending three hours of my day. I drove East towards Highway 313 and headed back for the Park office. I found out I was misinformed and actually should have taken the Mineral Bottom Trail, which is just a turnoff with a sign .25 miles between the Horsethief Canyon Campground and Dead Horse State Park turnoff. Once I was back on track, I made up for some lost time on the well graded dirt road that led across the BLM land to the top of the canyon. Once at the bottom the road is well graded, but narrow, all the way to the first two campsites. Upon entering the park, the speed limit is 15 miles per hour, which is plenty fast for this road. I averaged about 5-8 miles per hour over my travels on this trail.
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2480384500062605357GvJFFZ
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2618627620062605357bkoQac
http://family.webshots.com/photo/2618627620062605357bkoQac
Due to my late start time. they agreed to change my campsite to Labyrinth camp area, which is quite a bit more scenic than Potato Bottom where I had originally anticipated camping. As you can see this is a wonderful place to camp, but there is not any protection from the wind. My young campers helped me set up the tent and we got dinner cooked and cleaned up while the sun was setting. Shortly afterwards I noticed that my camera battery needed to be recharged, so I was not able to take pictures with the camera for the remainder of this trail
.http://family.webshots.com/photo/2159117290062605357LxBIpZ
The following day we broke camp and hit the trail at 9 a.m. We stopped along the way to explore slot canyons, other backcountry campsites and even saw two golden Eagles soaring together above one of the many canyons. I used the 4WD low to go easy on the brakes going down the hills that wove in and out of the canyons and only needed 4WD one other time to get up the muddy and snowy hill that lead to Murphy's Hogback camp sites. This was one of the nicest campsites I saw along the trail as it is perched at the top of the canyon walls overlooking two great areas! We made it to our second camp at Gooseberry B that afternoon at 4 p.m. and set up camp. As I was getting ready to put the rain fly on the tent the sky started to get dark and the wind picked up a bit. I had my son help me get the rain fly on and was in the process of getting the tent tied down with the guylines that were provided when the next gust of wind hit, tearing the tent mounting points off and sending the tent hurdling 100 yards from our camp. I chased after it and caught it within 50 yards of going off the next canyon rim. After inspecting for damage I could see that we were not going to be able to set it up again that night.
With a packed camper, I elected for us to head back to Moab and our base camp. Within a couple miles of leaving camp we ran across a couple from Scotland who were out touring with a friend from Colorado in his Full Size truck. The friend asked how far the highway was, and looking at my odometer I informed him it was 73 miles or about 12 hours away. They had left Moab earlier in the afternoon and been on the trail for 5.5 hours. Upon finding the Schafer trail portion closed, they elected to head the other way instead of turning around. They did not have any food, water or other equipment aside from the truck they were in. I told them they should turn around and gave them some water and some food to eat. We got back into Moab at 9:50 that night and made it to Burger King just before the dining area closed for a bite to eat. We got back to our base camp and awoke the following morning at 7 a.m. to the sounds of rain on our pop up trailer's roof. An hour later it was snowing, then the sun came out and it got nice again about 30 minutes later.
I look forward to doing this trail again now that I have a 12 volt camera battery charger. Next time I will either pack lighter so I can camp out of my truck or get a better tent to make the trip with (or both).
I found that this trail should be a must do for people at least once in their lifetime if back-country travel is your thing. This was my first 4WD based backcountry trip as I have done other road trips, hiking and rafting trips in the past. I look forward to more great adventures in the future.
Kevin
Grand Junction, CO
