Moonshine Wash & Keg Knoll

Nick

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Aug 9, 2007
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I'm bouncing all over the place on posting trip reports, but I was sick of seeing myself on the home page slideshow so I thought I'd post a quick one to knock my ugly mug off the top! Thanks, Tim!

I thought it would be fun to try to pull off one more Backcountrypost fest to finish off the season so I posted a thread in the Meet Up section to see if anyone else was interested. To my surprise, a lot of folks were very interested in the early November dates, but sadly, when it came down to it pretty much everyone backed out.

So early on Saturday morning audraiam, neiloro and I loaded into the Taco and drove south towards The Roost for some light hiking and a night under the stars.

After leaving Green River, we decided to make the quick turn off the San Rafael Desert Road to see if we might catch the Chaffin Geyser erupting, sure enough, right as we arrived it started going off!

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We hung around there and took some photos and then made our way south to hike Moonshine Wash.

Moonshine, if you haven't been there, is one of the better non-technical slot canyons around. If you have 4WD, the approach is quite short and then you're in the slot right away. The only technical challenge is a handful of short down-climbs and some possible mud/water after storms.
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Audra soaking in a bit of sun.
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The famous Moonshine sheep bridge
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As we neared the end of the slot section, we ran into this tiny rattlesnake. I had climbed down over one side of a boulder and determined it was not the best route, so I told Audra to climb down the other side. Just as she was coming off of it, we noticed the snake. Her toes were probably 12" away from it when we noticed.


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The end of the Moonshine slot
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We took the usual exit out of Moonshine which involves hiking a while down canyon and then exiting out the left. It's not the most fun hike and in retrospect, I think it would be more fun to ascend the canyon back the way we came. Next time.

After finishing up at Moonshine, we made our way over to Keg Knoll to camp. On the drive down, I got word that Aldaron might make it out to camp with us so we decided Keg Knoll would be the easiest place to meet up. We got there with some daylight left so we hiked out to Colonnade Arch.

A cool formation along the way
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I don't care how many times I do this hike, I will never tire of it. It's views like this all the way out. We took a more circuitous route out this time as we were once again searching for the elusive 'Dragon's Teeth' formation.
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The light at Colonnade late in the afternoon was terrible. Definitely not the best time of day to be there. To make it worse, I left my camera in the car so all these photos from the hike are from my little point and shoot. But if you don't know what Colonnade Arch looks like, here are a few pics from a previous trip.
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On the way back, we split out into a search pattern and really tried to cover every nook and cranny looking for the Dragon's Teeth. I figured they must be further west than I had been told, and sure enough, I walked right up to them, approximately 1/3 of a mile from where they were thought to be.
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The scale on these things is deceiving. They're actually only 3-10" long, but still very cool.
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Look closely, you can see the Dragon's Teeth in this photo.
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Back at the truck. The late afternoon light is nice out there on Keg Knoll. What a great place to camp.
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Just after getting back to camp, Aldaron and his wife arrived. We spent the rest of the night talking around the fire and gazing at the night sky through Keith's enormous telescope. That was fun! I took this shot with my cel phone holding it up to the eye piece on the telescope!
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The next day we had intended to hike Horseshoe Canyon, but my ankle had been hurting pretty bad and none of us were highly motivated to make the slog, so we decided to just pack it out. A very nice but largely uneventful late fall trip. At the time, I thought it might be my last, but I still got out a couple weeks later for one last canyoneering trip.

Featured image for home page:
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I still can't believe you guys were getting pictures like that through the telescope with your phones!
 
Ahahaha! I thought the Dragon's teeth were 10' tall when you first Facebook'd them! Great TR. Thanks Nick.
 
I still can't believe you guys were getting pictures like that through the telescope with your phones!
I've actually had pretty good luck shooting, handheld, through my spotting telescope or other telescope. Never at night though. Works pretty good actually. Try it out. Luckily, with digital imaging you can try quite a few times since the pics are free. Vignetting and framing are issues. Especially if you have had a few drinks. The moon with a cell phone. Who would have thought. And it was even an Android phone....
 
wow. I've got to do this hike. how's the solitude?
 
Ah the Swell. I still haven't made it out there. I'm sincerely jealous. I love those dragons teeth that's a bad ass formation even if they're not 10' tall.
 
Cool TR and pictures, Nick!
Thx for sharing.
 
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