Sunday, December 11, 2022
I was originally planning to stay home this weekend, but after going on a short hike in Flume Creek Canyon on Saturday morning I was feeling the need to get out and explore some new territory, so I decided to head out into the Tenmile Country north of Moab for some Jeeping and hiking on Sunday. I left home early on Sunday morning and spent most of the daylight hours exploring backroads and canyons from Tenmile Point to Salt Wash. Although I didn’t find anything too exciting this weekend, it was nice to just get out to explore a couple new areas and revisited a some others with plenty of solitude.
On my way out into Tenmile Country I first stopped to search for Burrito Bridge. I have looked for this natural bridge before and come up empty handed, so I was happy to finally find it this time!
After driving out toward the end of Tenmile Point I parked off the side of the road and started by first hike down the Dead Cow Trail, which follows a nice little canyon to Placer Bottom and the Green River near the beginning of Labyrinth Canyon.
The lower end of this canyon was narrow with a little bit of flowing water.
Once I was out onto Placer Bottom I headed downstream and hiked as far as I could to the beginning of the Trin-Alcove Bend.
Then I revisited a small panel of petroglyphs including this bighorn sheep.
The bighorn sheep petroglyph was flanked on both sides by these two spear-wielding hunters.
After exploring Placer Bottom for a little while I hiked back up Dead Cow Canyon to my Jeep.
Next, I drove down the Midpoint Access Route into Tenmile Canyon to do a little more exploring.
I hiked up the canyon a bit and climbed up to explore a number of large alcoves along the way.
I only found some smoke-stained ceilings this time, but the scenery was lovely.
After a couple miles of hiking I headed back out of Tenmile Canyon.
My last stop of the day took me a bit further north towards Green River as I wanted to revisit a ‘bubbling spring’ or ‘geyser’ that I first visited over a decade ago. Thankfully my memory is still working and I found it pretty easily.
You know you are getting close to the bubbling spring when the colors on the ground start becoming a vibrant reddish-orange.
The Bubbling Spring
I assume this is a cold-water geyser, just like Crystal Geyser and Champagne Geyser which aren’t too far away from here, except this one only constantly bubbles instead of occasionally erupting. Here’s a short video clip of the bubbling.
After leaving the Bubbling Spring the sky had become completely overcast and there was no point in sticking around for sunset this evening, so I headed back home. It was a nice day exploring the Tenmile Country!
Great pics! The spring really shows off its color from the acidic waters and microbes.
Thanks Dave!