Colonnade, Keg Spring, Bull Bottom

Udink

Still right here.
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At the risk of being shut down by heavy rain or washed-out roads, I took the pups for an overnighter in the San Rafael Desert. There were storm clouds visible as I hit the gravel road outside of Green River but the sky cleared up as I made my way south. Ninemile Wash wasn't flowing as I'd expected and I only encountered one small washout in the road that was easily passable. I parked near the end of the road on Keg Point where there was already a rental Jeep Patriot, whose tracks I'd followed in from Green River. As I was readying myself and the dogs for a hike the vehicle's occupant approached from the direction of Colonnade Arch. He was, I assume based on his accent, German. We conversed about where he'd hiked and where I was planning on hiking. He had a printout with photos and GPS coordinates for the points of interest in the area, one of which was the Dragon Teeth formation that I was hoping to find on this trip. I'd gotten coordinates for the rock from @Nick and didn't know they were already available online. It would have helped to know that the formation is also called Crocodile Rock (no doubt after the Elton John song). The guy was justifiably concerned with getting back to town before any possible rain storms hit and he hurried away quickly after our brief conversation. He would be the only person I'd see until getting back to the pavement the next evening.

Seeing a storm on the horizon while passing this sign wasn't comforting
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Ninemile Wash crossing
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San Rafael River running high and silty
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The worst washout I encountered, which wasn't bad at all
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Parked on the slickrock for the start of a hike
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I started hiking with the dogs leashed up but soon let them off once I made sure there was plenty of water in potholes for them to drink. They could exert themselves to their content without depleting the 5-liter supply of liquids in my pack. My objective was to find two natural arches that I hadn't seen on my previous trips to the area, and to find the Dragon Teeth formation. After a short hike I arrived at the first and larger of the two arches, and just around the corner I found the second pothole arch. I approached the coordinates for the Dragon Teeth from downhill and knew I'd find it easily when I spotted a few broken shafts of sandstone. I started climbing the slickrock toward the coordinates but got sidetracked by a small cave/alcove. Inside there was soot on the ceiling and a lot of animal bones, many of them charred, but no other solid signs of Indian habitation nearby. Up the hill farther I found the Dragon Teeth exactly where Nick's coordinates pointed me. There were a lot of broken "teeth" on the ground, but I also noticed that the more erosion-resistant teeth extended deeper into the base sandstone, meaning they'll continue weathering out of the rock even after being broken off.

Boulder and Torrey as we begin hiking
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Natural arch
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Torrey and Boulder drinking from a pothole
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Pothole arch
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Small cave/alcove
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View out of the cave/alcove
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Dragon's Teeth
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Having found what I was looking for, I headed northwest to explore closer to Keg Spring Canyon. I followed the base of a low ridge of sandstone looking for Indian writings and alcoves that might hold something of interest. As I descended toward Keg Spring Canyon I found pools of water and an alcove with soot on the ceiling that was probably occupied at one point, all while the sky was darkening. I reached the rim of the canyon just as the lightning strikes got too close for comfort. It was time to find some shelter, and I took a different route away from the canyon rim toward Colonnade Arch. I was hoping to find an alcove to shelter in but there was nothing suitable as I made my way uphill to the southeast. The rain started and I hurriedly donned a poncho, which the wind whipped around quite a bit but it kept my pack and camera dry. I got to the top of the ridge along Keg Point and I was still a mile from the Jeep while Colonnade Arch was only a quarter-mile away. Easy choice, there.

My objective was to check out this line of slickrock leading toward Keg Spring Canyon
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Darker clouds moving in
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The dogs as we explored the slickrock
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Red-spotted toad
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Boulder in a pool
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Rain storm moving across the San Rafael Desert
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Keg Spring Canyon
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View up toward Keg Point
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Storm almost overhead--time to find shelter!
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Wet slickrock across Keg Spring Canyon
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Dark storm clouds overhead
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The dogs and I reached Colonnade and I removed all my gear to let things dry out. We relaxed there, well sheltered from the rain and wind and lightning. The dogs even curled up and slept while I sat on a rock and enjoyed the show going on outside. After about 30 minutes the sky cleared up overhead as the storm moved across Labyrinth Canyon. A rainbow appeared and patches of light played on the sandstone to the east. I loaded up and made an uneventful trek across the flat top of the ridge back to the Jeep, then drove a short distance and started setting up camp. Torrey and Boulder explored around camp while I got a small fire going and ate dinner. I spent the rest of the evening reading a book by the red glow of my headlamp and taking photos of the lightning storm passing far off in the distance to the east. It looked like Moab was getting hammered. I slept in the back of the Jeep with the dogs so there was a minimum of fuss getting beds set up. I expected rain during the night but it never came.

Inside Colonnade Arch where I sheltered from the storm
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Looking down Twomile Canyon beyond to Labyrinth Canyon
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Torrey and Boulder resting under Colonnade Arch
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Rainbow across the Green River
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Colonnade Arch and rainbow
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View toward the Maze district of Canyonlands
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Gettin' the fire going
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Thunderhead to the south and Cleopatra's Chair on the horizon
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Lightning south of Moab
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With heavy cloud cover and the longer nights of the approaching fall, I slept in later than I'm accustomed to while camping--at around 7:45 I was out of bed and preparing a quick breakfast and coffee. Torrey had been fine all of the previous day but in the morning I noticed a slight limp as she walked. I hoped she'd be fine as her joints loosened up while we hiked. I packed up what few items needed to be stowed and drove around to one of the upper tributaries of Keg Spring Canyon that had caught my eye on an earlier trip. After a short approach hike I was at the start of the canyon where it formed a shallow slot. The canyon alternated between small slots and wider, sandy sections as it dropped toward Keg Spring. There was a spot where the watercourse made a couple of tight turns as it dropped down a dryfall and I could see no way to get into the canyon below the dryfall. The canyon deepened and the walls where sheer as far as I could see downstream, so I followed the rim hoping to find a place to drop back in and then follow the canyon up to the bottom of the dryfall--I didn't want to leave any of the canyon unexplored. Less than ten minutes after leaving the watercourse I noticed that Boulder was limping. I checked her out and found something stuck to her paw, and only after I pulled it off did I realize it was part of her pad. She'd gotten a blister while scrambling on the slickrock and the layer of skin on the blister tore off. I knew that would end any more major hiking for the day since I didn't want to risk having to carry one or both dogs a long distance. I reversed course and took it slow and easy back to the Jeep.

Sunrise over the La Sals
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Start of a hike in one of the forks of Keg Spring Canyon
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Dogs in the kiddie slot
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End of the short narrows section
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Boulder doing it the hard way
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Impassable slot below the dryfall
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Wider canyon below the slot
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A piece of Boulder's pad that came off, signaling time to turn around
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Pups getting a drink
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I drove around to the lower end of the tributary canyon near where it drains into the main Keg Spring Canyon and hiked a short distance to the tributary's end. On a previous trip I'd seen from below where the tributary ends in a hanging canyon above the larger canyon, and now from above I could see that there was a tight and twisty slot before the drop. There was still more than half a mile of the canyon between where I'd turned around and here that would remain unexplored this day. Nearby I stopped to look for obsidian at a place I'd visited earlier this year. It's amazing to me that Native Americans worked obsidian into arrowheads here even though the nearest source for the rock is well over 100 miles away. I found a few large, rough pieces of obsidian and a lot of tiny flakes. Obviously somebody had made a lot of projectile points here.

Lower part of the canyon that I'd been in earlier
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Another impassible slot
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Here the canyon drains into the main fork of Keg Spring Canyon
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Fallen balanced rock
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Obsidian
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I learned that climbing up moki steps is easy, while climbing down is terrifying
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Eventually I drove to the main road and started for home, making a few brief stops on the way. I visited Grocery Rock, a place Alan had mentioned to me that had a lot of names carved into it from the 1930s through the 1950s. I took a side road that I'd never driven but looked interesting. My map showed that it ended at the Green River less than two miles away. The road led to the top of a stock trail that was blasted out of a cliff, and the flat area along the river below the cliffs is called Bull Bottom. The stock trail itself was very interesting, though it's difficult to imagine any livestock using it. I'd guess it was mostly used for sheep because I don't think cattle would be willing or able to traverse it. I walked along the bottom of the cliffs searching for old cowboy names and was surprised to find a few petroglyphs instead. I only explored about 1,000' of the cliffs but there's much more that I'll probably explore another time when I don't have crippled dogs with me. I made two more quick stops on the way home, one at the confluence of Moonshine Wash and the San Rafael River, and another at Chaffin Ranch Geyser where I found it gurgling and spitting. I was only slightly disappointed that I made it back to civilization without being washed away by rain or hampered by bad roads.

There were big puddles in the road that weren't there the previous day
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C. Bishop is all fancy
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Old stock trail blasted out of the cliff that leads to Bull Bottom
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View up the stock trail
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Small, faint petroglyph about 15' up a cliff
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Green River at Bull Bottom
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Petroglyph at Bull Bottom
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Lower Moonshine Wash
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Panorama of the Moonshine Wash and San Rafael River confluence
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Chaffin Ranch Geyser
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Horse Bench Reservoir
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Full photo gallery:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Udink/ColonnadeKegSpringBullBottom


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A puppy pad piece. Dang! I've never seen one off before. Great report Dennis.
 
Nice little trip. Great pics. Week and a half until i get to see some of that stuff again. You got me amped.
 
Beautiful photos. The rest stop under Colonnade Arch looked like a great place to hang.
 
I love all of your trips to the Swell. I've neglected it for far too long.

I did a few trips with my dog in the Uinta's this summer, and would like to take her a few times this fall/winter.

Great TR, and Pics!
 
Although, I cringed when I saw that piece of poor Boulder's pad. Poor pup! I'm glad you made the right choice and turned around at that point.

I cringed as soon as I saw it, too! The photo makes it look worse than it actually was, though--the piece of her pad that fell off was pretty thin and her pad was actually in pretty good shape underneath, but from the way she was limping it was obviously tender. We probably hiked another 1.5 or 2 miles for the day in short bursts and she did well. It's been six days since then and she looks completely healed.
 
Awesome man. Waiting out a storm in Colonnade would be sweet. I can't believe the road out there was in such good shape after all the rain lately. I feel for your pup, good thing you weren't like 12 miles from a trailhead like when Teak ripped her pad off last year!
 
I certainly enjoyed reading this trip report. You're fortunate to see such beautiful scenery and to share it with your 4-legged pals. Hope their paws are healing and they're ready for the next big adventure. Loved the pictures, except I could have done without the frog! LOL
 
Great report and pictures. Makes me want to head out to desert so much... I am usually so focused on doing technical canyons or through hiking, so it's very nice to be reminded there are things to explore from a car. Just camp, hike, explore and then watch sun go down behind Henries from a folding chair. Nothing's ever better.

Really enjoyed it, thank you!

P.S. Sweet number plate! :)
 
Great post, I am thinking of making a very similar trip in May. I was wondering how long it took you to drive from Green River to the Colonnade Arch starting point. I coming from SLC and I am not going to be able to leave until early afternoon. I am thinking of backpacking in and camping right by the arch, but I have heard the route can be a little tricky so I would prefer to do it in the light if possible, and although it will only take 3-ish hrs to get to green river, I have never been on the road that leads to the arch and I know sometimes those roads can take 10 minutes to go 5 miles and sometimes they can take 2 hrs, so I thought I would check with someone who has made the journey.
 
I was wondering how long it took you to drive from Green River to the Colonnade Arch starting point.
I checked the timestamps on my photos and it looks like it was about 2 hours from Green River to where I parked near Colonnade.

That's actually a really cool plan you have. I've wanted to backpack to Colonnade--even though it's a very short pack, it would be a great place to spend the night and feel like you're completely away from everything else in the world. :)
 
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