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Tag: castle rocks

Utah Rims: Zion Curtain Trail to Point 5482

After Work Adventures | Friday, April 19, 2024

Since I was going to be staying closer to home this weekend so Diane and I could go to a concert on Saturday night, I decided to head out after work on Friday for a late afternoon hike on part of the Zion Curtain Trail to a highpoint in the Utah Rims area just west of the state line and Rabbit Valley. After driving west into Utah on the old 6 & 50 Highway, I headed south on a narrow Jeep track to the rim of the mesa above McDonald Creek and then hiked west along the Zion Curtain Trail to Point 5482. I was hoping that the sun might peek out from behind the clouds for to add some nice light to the landscape this evening, but it stayed pretty cloudy throughout my short hike.

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Lower Knowles Canyon via McDonald Creek

Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness
Saturday, April 11, 2020

Ever since Diane and I spent a nice weekend exploring the upper reaches of Knowles Canyon within the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness area a couple of years ago, I have wanted to get back to explore the lower parts of the canyon. Now that I am stuck staying closer to home for the time being, I thought this would be a great time to finally get there to check it out, especially since I figured it would be a good place to practice social distancing, too!

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Social Distancing: Rabbit Valley Ridge

Sunday, March 22, 2020

This weekend we were originally supposed to go to a concert in Salt Lake City, but that obviously didn’t happen because of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Then I figured that I would be able to spend the weekend in the San Rafael Swell or Robbers Roost areas to socially distance myself and get in some hiking and exploring, but then the Southeast Utah Health Department cancelled those plans for me. No big deal I thought, I’ll just stay closer to home and hike some canyons near the state line. Well, then the weather intervened with snow and rain making the roads and ground wet and muddy in the area that I wanted to hike in. I actually still drove out there on Saturday morning hoping for the best, but decided it wasn’t worth it when I arrived and headed home instead.

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Jouflas Horse Trail

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Back at the end of September I hiked part of the Jouflas Horse Trail to an overlook of Ruby Canyon after hiking to the nearby summit of PT 5239, but I was short on time that day and was unable to complete the entire loop. This afternoon Diane and I headed back to Rabbit Valley to finish hiking the Jouflas Horse Trail from the other side. We started at the McDonald Creek Trailhead and followed the trail to the Black Rocks Overlook (which is where I stopped in September) and then returned back the way we had come. It was a pretty easy hike and a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.

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PT 5239 in Rabbit Valley

Saturday, September 24, 2016

I was originally planning this hike for Thursday after work, but the weather made me change my plans that day. Since we ended up staying close to home this weekend because of the weather, I decided to head back out to Rabbit Valley after the rain stopped late in the morning and hiked up to the summit of PT 5239. I’ve been trying to explore more of Rabbit Valley lately and this short summit away from the more popular trails looked like a good place to check out.

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