HomerJ
Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2012
- Messages
- 1,199
During spring break of 2009 everyone at the University was furloughed to save money because of budget cuts. Instead of sitting around all week doing nothing a buddy and I planned a little vacation to Southern UT for some much needed warmer weather!
Our plan was to explore the country around the old Paria movie set east of Kanab, including some slot canyons. Well, the weather decided to change our plans as the forecast showed rain. We checked St. George, it was the same, as was Grand Gulch on the east side of the state. Then we checked Moab and it was BLUE SKIES the entire time!! We quickly researched some places that night and headed off later the next morning!
We decided to camp up the Colorado River from Moab at one of the campsites along the river. We drove up the canyon a ways scouting for campsites and settled on one near the "Big Bend" area.
Later that evening I took a few photos.
Later the moon came up and lite up the cliff making for some cool photos!
The next day we drove up Castle Valley, found a side road and drove up it just exploring. We found a cool place and went for a hike, exploring the area.
Castle Rock
This guy let me get really close and never moved!
View into Professor Canyon
After exploring the area for a few hours we heading over to Mill Creek Canyon just east of Moab. This was an area I wanted to explorer.
Mill Creek
After Mill Creek we headed to the south entrance of Canyon Lands. We had to hit Newspaper Rock along the way. I had never seen it and was amazed at all the Petroglyphs! I was shocked and extremely disgusted to see that they had been defaced in places. Senseless acts like this make me so mad!
I cropped out as much of the graffiti as I could and then photo-shopped the rest out.
By now the sun was getting close to setting and we needed to find a campsite so we headed on. From our research we knew there was one just outside of Canyonlands so we headed there. This was one of the coolest developed campsites I have stayed at! It's called Hamburger Rock. There is the out-crop of red rock with all these pockets around the edge where the campsites are. It's almost like there's no one else camping there when you're back in the pocket!
After quickly setting up camp and getting a fire going to cook our tin foil dinners I grabbed my camera and climbed up on top of the rock out-crop to take some photos of the sunset.
The tin foil dinners were so good! They were one of the best I'd ever had!!! After eating I took a few camp photos as the fire was lighting up the rock around us nicely!
The next morning we drove over to an area that interested us and started exploring the area. It was a blast going from area to area not knowing what you'd find next!
PUSH! PUSH! Put your back into it you wimp!
Rock:1, Alan:0
The day before, on the way down Indian Creek to our campsite, we saw a bunch of cars parked at the mouth of a side canyon (Donnelly Canyon). We wondered what was up that canyon. So after exploring the area around our campsite we decided to go and see what it was all about. The parking lot was near full again, but we found a parking space and were soon starting up the canyon. All of a sudden we noticed that there was a group of rock climbers on the side near the mouth of the canyon! Then we noticed another group and another and another. Both sides were full of groups climbing different routes up the red rock cliffs!
Rock climbers
We continued up the canyon for quite a ways, exploring different branches of the canyon. We didn't see a single person after the rock climbers.
After we had our fill of Donnelly Canyon we headed back to Moab and then west on Kane Springs Rd and over Hurrah Pass. WOW, what a view!!!!
We then drove south, exploring a few spurs off the main road. As it was getting dark we drove up to a large red rock out-crop and setup camp. It was really windy, but about an hour after dark it died down and it was a really nice evening!
The next morning we decided to checkout the out-crop we had camped at. As we got around to the other side we found that there was many caves that had been eroded by the weather. Many of the caves were inter-connected and we had a great time exploring them! We decided to name it Cave Butte! LOL!
After exploring Cave Butte and an area near there we headed back over Hurrah Pass, to Moab, and back up the Colorado River. I wanted to hike to Professor Creek Falls.
The trail to Professor Creek Falls is 4.3 miles from the TH. A tip for those wishing to hike it. Don't try and keep your shoes dry as the wash slots up and there is no way to make it without getting your feet wet. We spent forever trying to stay out of the water and wore ourselves out from constantly jumping over the stream with a daypack on.
View of The Preacher and the Nuns with Castle Rock on the left.
Slot area of Professor Creek.
Eventually we made it to the falls. There is actually two falls, but you can't see the left one as it's hidden behind the rock. The falls where putting off a mist and I didn't want to get close enough to take a picture of them both. They are about 20 feet tall.
Zoomed in.
It was dark by the time we made it back to the car. Our plan had been to drive back up Castle Valley and find a campsite there for the night. But being wet and tired we didn't want to try and find a campsite in the dark and then try and setup camp and cook dinner, so we hit the road and headed home. We stopped in Green River for gas and grabbed a bite to eat at Arby's. Everyone was looking at us weird as we were covered in wet red mud! We finally pulled into Logan at around 2am Sunday morning!
What an awesome trip this turned out to be! We both have brought it up how much fun we had many times since!
Featured image for slideshow:
Our plan was to explore the country around the old Paria movie set east of Kanab, including some slot canyons. Well, the weather decided to change our plans as the forecast showed rain. We checked St. George, it was the same, as was Grand Gulch on the east side of the state. Then we checked Moab and it was BLUE SKIES the entire time!! We quickly researched some places that night and headed off later the next morning!
We decided to camp up the Colorado River from Moab at one of the campsites along the river. We drove up the canyon a ways scouting for campsites and settled on one near the "Big Bend" area.
Later that evening I took a few photos.
Later the moon came up and lite up the cliff making for some cool photos!
The next day we drove up Castle Valley, found a side road and drove up it just exploring. We found a cool place and went for a hike, exploring the area.
Castle Rock
This guy let me get really close and never moved!
View into Professor Canyon
After exploring the area for a few hours we heading over to Mill Creek Canyon just east of Moab. This was an area I wanted to explorer.
Mill Creek
After Mill Creek we headed to the south entrance of Canyon Lands. We had to hit Newspaper Rock along the way. I had never seen it and was amazed at all the Petroglyphs! I was shocked and extremely disgusted to see that they had been defaced in places. Senseless acts like this make me so mad!
I cropped out as much of the graffiti as I could and then photo-shopped the rest out.
By now the sun was getting close to setting and we needed to find a campsite so we headed on. From our research we knew there was one just outside of Canyonlands so we headed there. This was one of the coolest developed campsites I have stayed at! It's called Hamburger Rock. There is the out-crop of red rock with all these pockets around the edge where the campsites are. It's almost like there's no one else camping there when you're back in the pocket!
After quickly setting up camp and getting a fire going to cook our tin foil dinners I grabbed my camera and climbed up on top of the rock out-crop to take some photos of the sunset.
The tin foil dinners were so good! They were one of the best I'd ever had!!! After eating I took a few camp photos as the fire was lighting up the rock around us nicely!
The next morning we drove over to an area that interested us and started exploring the area. It was a blast going from area to area not knowing what you'd find next!
PUSH! PUSH! Put your back into it you wimp!
Rock:1, Alan:0
The day before, on the way down Indian Creek to our campsite, we saw a bunch of cars parked at the mouth of a side canyon (Donnelly Canyon). We wondered what was up that canyon. So after exploring the area around our campsite we decided to go and see what it was all about. The parking lot was near full again, but we found a parking space and were soon starting up the canyon. All of a sudden we noticed that there was a group of rock climbers on the side near the mouth of the canyon! Then we noticed another group and another and another. Both sides were full of groups climbing different routes up the red rock cliffs!
Rock climbers
We continued up the canyon for quite a ways, exploring different branches of the canyon. We didn't see a single person after the rock climbers.
After we had our fill of Donnelly Canyon we headed back to Moab and then west on Kane Springs Rd and over Hurrah Pass. WOW, what a view!!!!
We then drove south, exploring a few spurs off the main road. As it was getting dark we drove up to a large red rock out-crop and setup camp. It was really windy, but about an hour after dark it died down and it was a really nice evening!
The next morning we decided to checkout the out-crop we had camped at. As we got around to the other side we found that there was many caves that had been eroded by the weather. Many of the caves were inter-connected and we had a great time exploring them! We decided to name it Cave Butte! LOL!
After exploring Cave Butte and an area near there we headed back over Hurrah Pass, to Moab, and back up the Colorado River. I wanted to hike to Professor Creek Falls.
The trail to Professor Creek Falls is 4.3 miles from the TH. A tip for those wishing to hike it. Don't try and keep your shoes dry as the wash slots up and there is no way to make it without getting your feet wet. We spent forever trying to stay out of the water and wore ourselves out from constantly jumping over the stream with a daypack on.
View of The Preacher and the Nuns with Castle Rock on the left.
Slot area of Professor Creek.
Eventually we made it to the falls. There is actually two falls, but you can't see the left one as it's hidden behind the rock. The falls where putting off a mist and I didn't want to get close enough to take a picture of them both. They are about 20 feet tall.
Zoomed in.
It was dark by the time we made it back to the car. Our plan had been to drive back up Castle Valley and find a campsite there for the night. But being wet and tired we didn't want to try and find a campsite in the dark and then try and setup camp and cook dinner, so we hit the road and headed home. We stopped in Green River for gas and grabbed a bite to eat at Arby's. Everyone was looking at us weird as we were covered in wet red mud!
We finally pulled into Logan at around 2am Sunday morning!What an awesome trip this turned out to be! We both have brought it up how much fun we had many times since!
Featured image for slideshow:
