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Tag: sand flats road

Moab Meanderings: Moab Area Rock Art XLIIRill Creek and the North Fork of Mill Creek

Moab Meanderings: Moab Area Rock Art XLII

Saturday & Sunday, March 9-10, 2024

This weekend Diane and I stayed close to home and returned to Moab so we could finish what we had started a couple of weeks ago. We left home early on Saturday morning, grabbed a campsite at the Sand Flats Recreation Area and then headed out to spend the rest of the day hiking and searching for rock art. I knew we were probably pushing it trying to camp near Moab at this time of the year, but I was hoping we were still early enough in the season that it wouldn’t be too busy yet. Well, I was wrong and this will most likely be our last trip to the Moab area until next winter. Here are some photos from the weekend.

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Moab’s Old Mail Trail: Mill Creek to South MesaMoab's Old Mail Trail: Mill Creek to South Mesa

Moab’s Old Mail Trail: Mill Creek to South Mesa

Moab Meanderings | Saturday & Sunday, February 24-25, 2024

After spending a couple of days searching for rock art along the Pahranagat Trail in Nevada last week, I decided to stay a little closer to home this weekend to spend some time near Moab before it really starts getting too busy around there. Earlier this month after Diane and I had hiked a short section of Moab’s Old Mail Trail along the rim of Mill Creek, I became very interested in learning more about this route and started doing some research into it. Although I wasn’t able to find very much information about it, I think I was able to find enough to try my hand at tracing this historic route from Mill Creek to South Mesa. I really didn’t have much information to go on besides some broad locations, vague newspaper articles, the segment of the existing trail and some educated guesses on my part, so I may not have gotten it all correct. But even if I am completely wrong with my guesses, this turned out to be a very nice hike and a great way to spend the day in the backcountry. That said, if anyone out there has more information about the route of the Old Mail Trail, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

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Moab Meanderings: Sand Flats Recreation AreaMoab Meanderings: Sand Flats Recreation Area

Moab Meanderings: Sand Flats Recreation Area

Saturday & Sunday, December 16-17, 2023

Since the winter season has arrived in Moab, I decided to return to the Sand Flats Recreation Area this weekend so I could finish hiking the popular Slickrock Bike Trail just outside of town. After watching one of the most amazing sunsets I’ve seen from the Needles Overlook in early 2020, I had hiked about half of the Slickrock Trail’s eastern side but I wasn’t able to complete the full loop that day because there was just too much snow on the steep slopes of the undulating trail that made it dangerous and hard to follow. I figured this would also be a good opportunity to just spend the entire weekend within Sand Flats so I could continue hiking some of the trails in the area that I had not been on before and spend the night in one of the camp loops. It sounded like a good enough plan to me, so I left home early on Saturday morning and made my way over to Moab.

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Otho Natural Bridge & Mill Creek CanyonOtho Natural Bridge & Mill Creek Canyon

Otho Natural Bridge & Mill Creek Canyon

Moab Winter Weekend: Arch Hunting & Ancient Petroglyphs
Moab Area Rock Art XXXIV | Saturday & Sunday, December 21-22, 2019

This weekend Diane and I headed over to Moab to search for arches and rock art, like we usually do at this time of the year. The weather can be unpredictable at the end of December, but we lucked out this weekend with comfortable hiking temperatures during the day and no snow or ice on the ground yet. I’ve wanted to visit Otho Natural Bridge for many years so I made that a priority this trip and we headed there first thing on Saturday morning. I had originally planned to hike up the North Fork of Mill Creek from the bottom to reach the arch, but we were stopped by a deep water crossing near the confluence of the two forks of Mill Creek. I had hiked this canyon before from the bottom without getting wet before, but it appears there are new beaver dams along the creek which have made that impossible now. We weren’t prepared to get wet this time in these temperatures, so we turned around and drove up into the Sand Flats Recreation Area to find another way down into the canyon instead. I’d never been up this far into this canyon before and the views and scenery were beautiful as we searched for a route into the canyon. I think I ended up liking this route into the canyon more than the one I had originally planned!

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President’s Day Weekend in MoabPresident's Day Weekend in Moab

President’s Day Weekend in Moab

Saturday – Monday, February 15-17, 2014

For the long President’s Day weekend, Diane and I decided to spend the weekend around Moab. We had booked a hotel room a few weeks earlier and had no idea how nice the temperature would be this weekend. Unfortunately, thanks to the three-day holiday weekend and warm weather, Moab was a bit busier than it normally is this time of the year.

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