Surfing the Wave to Moab

[woodwizard]

View attachment 4678Thanksgiving represented the first long weekend that I had since moving back to Colorado. Scout was spending the holiday with her mother in Denver and couldn’t come with me to the Wave. Putting our heads together, we came up with the plan to meet at the Gonzo Inn (http://www.gonzoinn.com/) in Moab on Friday afternoon. The thought was to pick up the highlights of the area and leave early Monday morning.

[/ATTACH]The Wave (http://www.dankat.com/swhikes/wave.htm) is a geological feature on the Utah-Arizona boarder. View attachment 4674Not on many maps, a person has to hear about it or have seen a picture and have been curious enough to chase after it. Last fall I drove right past the Wave, south on House Rock Valley Road, on the way from the Grand Staircase to the North Rim. Scout and I tried another time to visit the Wave when she lived in Phoenix. We made it only as far as Antelope Canyon View attachment 4662(http://www.americansouthwest.net/slot_canyons/antelope_canyon/index.html). Determined, I was going to drive then hike to it on Thanksgiving. Leaving work in Glenwood Springs on Wednesday, I had all my stuff packed and was settling in for an all night drive to Kanab, Utah. At the crack of dawn, I found myself getting the days 1st coffee at the Thunderbird Inn.View attachment 4672 By 8:30am I had made my way south on House Rock Valley Road and was in the Wire Pass parking lot at the trail head. Even at the trailhead, the Wave is not mentioned on any sign or literature.View attachment 4673 Three miles one way and a gain of 360 feet, puts you in a hidden area that the Gods have kissed. Some amount of route-finding skills are helpful, but no one gets lost. The spectacular wilderness scenery continues to amplify until it explodes when you arrive at the Wave. View attachment 4676Like nothing else that I’ve ever seen, the trail enters the feature and you find yourself standing right in the middle of the brilliant, sensuously curving sedimentary multicolored layers. View attachment 4677

The BLM (http://paria.az.blm.gov ) gives out 20 permits per day–up from the ten permit limit that had been in place until only the last couple of years. Ten are now given out through a lottery over the internet for reservations (3-6 months list) and ten walk-ups are available each day from the BLM field office in Kanab during the winter. With the field office closed on Thanksgiving, I just went for it. The hike in was quiet cloudy with the sun trying hard to appear.

 

[woodwizard]

My end of the day goal was Escalante State Park View attachment 4684(http://www.stateparks.utah.gov/park/index.php?id=ESSP) in Escalante; Utah. The back roads to Escalante were quiet. A backtrack, north, on House Rock Valley Road for eight miles returns you to Highway 89. Turning east and looking at the massive expanse of the Grand Staircase on the horizon, the well marked Cottonwood Canyon Road (http://www.ut.blm.gov/monument/) turns off to the north, leading to Cannonville. View attachment 4682From the south, you enter into a wider canyon until you come upon the Coxcomb and Cad’s Crotch. View attachment 4679View attachment 4680View attachment 4681The length of the road has no technical challenges unless it becomes wet. At that point it turns into baby *@#!! Then you just sit still long enough for the ground to firm up and you’re off. At the northern end lies Grosvenor’s Arch and Kodachrome Basin State Park (http://www.stateparks.utah.gov/park/index ). View attachment 4683At the turn-off for Grosvenor’s Arch there is a more technical route over to Smoky Mountain Road and eventually Hole-In-The-Rock Road. Driving east on 12, it wasn’t long before I was at Escalante State Park with its showers, firewood, empty campground on the lake and a wonderful hike through a petrified forest.

 

[woodwizard]

View attachment 4696On Friday I had to get to Moab by 3-4 o’clock to catch Scout and her mother, Rosa. From Escalante, I continued to travel east on 12 to Boulder. Boulder was the last town in the lower 48 states to have mail delivered by mule (http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/grand_staircase_escalante/national_monument.html). In Boulder is the western start of the well-marked Burr Trail over to Capitol Reef. Switch-backing down through the Water Pocket Fold (an uplifted geologic feature that Capitol Reef protects), the road comes to a T-intersection. To the south, the Burr Trail continues to Bullfrog Marina at Lake Powell. I traveled north where it becomes the Notom Road. The road parallels the Water Pocket Fold to Highway 24. The entire length had the Henry Mountains to the east and the Fold violently sticking almost straight up on the west—it was spectacular. By the time I hit Highway 24, I had to step on it. [/ATTACH]

Once in Moab, I checked into the Gonzo Inn. Within a ½ hour Scout joined me. From that point I parked the work truck and we began using Scout’s 2005 Toyota Solara convertible. With the heat turned up, the top pulled down and U2’s “It’s a Beautiful Day” playing, the features and places that I’ve visited many times now looked completely different from the backseat of the convertible. View attachment 4690Over the next 2 days the three of us hiked back to Delicate Arch (an amazing feat for Rosa at 79 years old). We enjoyed the sunrise at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands and chased pictographs and petroglyphs up and down the Colorado River. View attachment 4693View attachment 4692View attachment 4691

On Monday morning, over breakfast at the Moab Diner, Scout and I started to plan our next adventure—a hot springs tour, (www.olt.org) but that’s another story….View attachment 4695

 

[Pskhaat]

Some awesome info in here! I'll definetely have to try a few of these places that are new to me!