Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: shafer basin

The Rim Trails at Dead Horse Point State Park

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Although I originally had a different and more local trip planned for this weekend, which I’ll hopefully be able to get back to in early December, the weather forecast made me reconsider those plans on Friday since it was predicted to start raining on Saturday afternoon and continue all through Sunday. With a partly cloudy sky in the forecast for Saturday morning I decided to get up early and head on over to Dead Horse Point State Park where I would hopefully be able to catch a nice sunrise from the main overlook and then could spend the rest of the morning hiking the remainder of the trails in the park that I had not been on before, which consisted of a loop of the East Rim Trail and the West Rim Trail along with a couple of shorter spur trails leading to overlooks along the way. A few years back Diane and I had spent a nice weekend mountain biking all of the Intrepid Trails in the park and I’ve been meaning to get back to finish up the hiking trails, so I’ve been looking forward to a return visit.

2 Comments

Moab Meanderings: Arches on Amasa Back

Sunday, March 12, 2023

I was originally planning to go hiking on Saturday this weekend, but the rain in the forecast made me change those plans late in the week. So instead, I opted to stayed home on Saturday to work on my Jeep a little and start getting prepared for an upcoming backpacking trip. The weather forecast was looking better on Sunday, so after moving the clocks up an hour for Daylight Savings Time I got up early and drove down to Moab for a day hike on Amasa Back. I had hiked onto Amasa Back with Diane over the 2021 Christmas weekend, but we didn’t make it as far as I would have liked that day, so I was hoping to reach a couple new arches this time. As I drove through The Portal and along the Colorado River shortly before sunrise, I could tell that spring break had definitely arrived since all of the campsites were occupied, which was not the case just a few short weeks ago. When I reached the trailhead at the mouth of Kane Springs Canyon I started hiking up the Jackson Trail as the sun came up over the cliffs. It was turning out to be a very beautiful morning!

3 Comments

The White Rim to Monument Basin

Friday – Sunday, February 4-6, 2022

For the past two years I have spent the first weekend in February exploring the White Rim in Canyonlands National Park. You can find those two Trip Reports here: White Crack Trail to The Confluence & Airport Tower to Monument Basin. I’ve had good weather and great views on each of those trips so I decided to do it one more time this year and grabbed a camping permit for Gooseberry and Airport back in November before the prices of backcountry permits were raised, so this was going to be my last trip at the old price. I’ve spent a lot of time exploring from the White Rim Trail over the years and am actually running out of places I want to check out, but one place I’ve really wanted to hike down to for a long time is Monument Basin, so I figured this trip would be the perfect opportunity to finally give it a try. I knew Jared would be very interested in this hike, so I made sure to invite him along, too.

2 Comments

The White Rim: Airport Tower to Monument Basin

Friday – Sunday, February 5-7, 2021

While I had an amazing time supporting Diane and Jared as they biked the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park last October, I didn’t quite have enough time on that trip to get in all the hiking that I had wanted to do because they were riding faster than I had anticipated! Since I had a backpacking trip to The Needles last spring that was cancelled because of COVID and I needed to reschedule that permit or lose in the next few months, I thought it would be nice to head back on my own to the east side of the White Rim so I could make up the hikes I had skipped out on. Last year the weather for our hike from the White Crack to The Confluence in early February was very nice, so I thought I would head back the same weekend this year, too.

2 Comments

Moab Winter Weekend 2020

Moab Area Rock Art XXXVI | Saturday & Sunday, December 26-27, 2020

Well, I guess this is it. My final trip report from 2020. After spending all of Christmas Day in Arches National Park we spent the rest of the weekend near the Colorado River south of Moab revisiting some areas I haven’t been to in a long time, plus a few new places, too. We left town early on Saturday morning, drove through Kane Creek Canyon and then headed up to Hurrah Pass so we could watch the sunrise from the top before continuing on to the Chicken Corners Trail.

1 Comment