Final (?) installment of my recap...
The mighty Colorado River (6th largest in the US, so google tells me) makes its way from Grand Junction (google also tells me that a portion of the river used to be called the Grand River) and continues on a path it carved right through present day Moab. After it crosses highway 191, it goes through what is now referred to as The Portal. On the southeast side of The Portal, one can drive on Kane Creek Road, while one drives on Potash Road on the other side of the river.
On Wednesday, The Diceys and I drove to the first parking area on Kane Creek Road (only a ten minute drive from the campground!) and headed up the Moab Rim Trail (on foot!). While there is a trail for hikers, on the way up, we followed the Jeep track. After ten minutes or so of hiking, I mentioned something about the possibility of Jeeps coming up behind us, and Mr. Dicey pointed to the rock beneath his feet, and said, "They drive on THIS?" I nodded. Again, "On THIS??" I answered, "Yep!" Again, "They drive up here???" I assured him that yes, they do, as almost anything goes in Moab! I told him that we will probably see some vehicles up here soonish. (We had seen three tricked out Jeeps in the parking area, along with a film crew. With the aid of my binoculars, I could see that they were still in the parking lot, but I was pretty sure they'd be making their way up the trail before too long.) As we spotted black residue from tires and the telltale drip drip drip of engine oil or brake fluid, Mr. Dicey was beginning to believe me--that vehicles actually do crawl up on this trail. :)
When we got to the top of that section of the trail, we were rewarded with a spectacular view of Moab. We could even see our campground and the high school right behind it. Also visible was Arches NP off in the distance--including one of the very wide arches and the famous Balanced Rock. I also pointed out the Portal Overlook that oneday and I had hiked to two days prior.
When I commented that, during the First Moab Meetup, I had brought a group up to this spot on the Moab Rim Trail, Dicey perked up and said, "This is where the group stopped?" I responded that yes, we had turned around at this point and gone back down. Dicey: "Then let's go farther!!" I was finding out that Dicey had a bit of a competitive streak!! :) So we did go about 3/4 of a mile farther, and would have kept going except that the clouds were beginning to look a bit ominous and we weren't really prepared for rain, as it hadn't been in the forecast!
On our way back, we heard car engines, and sure enough, the three Jeeps were on their way up. We were a bit interested in seeing how they would navigate a few tricky spots (high ledges), so we watched for a couple of minutes. I was surprised to see that one of the drivers was of the female persuasion!
As we continued our descent, Mr. Dicey suddenly said, "There are vehicles over there!" And sure enough, we spotted a Jeep across the river, way up on top of the huge rock wall. I believe we were seeing them at a place called the Little Window viewing deck, which is accessible from the Golden Spike Jeep Trail.
A little later, Mr. Dicey (clearly the most observant of our group!) said, "There are people up there!" Sure enough, we saw two small dots way on top of the rock above the Portal Overlook (where oneday and I had been two days earlier)!! I was amazed and couldn't imagine how they hiked up there. Then, one of the people opened up some kind of parachute! With the help of the binoculars, I could now see that the people were both paragliders! WOW. We watched the first person jump off the rock and go pretty much straight down. At one point, the person seemed to lose control and was sort of tumbling. Mr. Dicey and I feared the worst, and I wasn't sure I wanted to watch anymore!! But then the person righted herself and continued a safe (we hope, as we couldn't actually see the landing from our vantage point) descent. It turned out that the person was doing mid-descent acrobatics!!! The second person did the same thing. Again--confirmation that one sees just about anything in Moab!!
A bit later on our descent, we spotted three more vehicles making the slow but sure trek up the perilous Moab Rim Jeep Trail. We also saw several people outside of the vehicles. We weren't sure if they were spotters for the rigs? Or just hikers who were observing? But then we saw that one of them seemed to be injured. His leg was all wrapped up, and he was being assisted by someone. The injured dude was leaning on the helper, and was hopping on one leg. We then saw that there was one, no--two!, more injured people! The three of us were concerned and also a bit curious about what had happened! All three people had leg injuries. Had they been in a Jeep accident? Fallen off of some ledge while hiking? And where were the emergency responders? Well, as we got closer to the scene, it finally became clear that the whole group of people was part of a Wilderness First Aid class, and they were simply learning about and practicing rescue maneuvers in the backcountry! WHEW! When we got down to the parking lot, we saw the whole group there, and told them how glad we were that they all made miraculous recoveries!! :)
When we returned to My Rig at about 1pm (if memory serves), Dicey announced that she was ready for more adventure. So I suggested that we hike to Bowtie Arch and Corona Arch. The trailhead for these was on the Potash Road, on the other side of the river. Since we weren't up for a swim, we drove back into town, drove north on 191 for just a couple of miles, and then turned left onto the Potash Road. (By the way, ever curious Dicey did end up googling "potash" later...) The hike to Bowtie and Corona was much shorter than I remembered, which was good, because we hadn't really prepared for a long day and didn't have much food with us. We opted to not do the extra 1.2 mile hike to Pinto Arch, but we sure were curious as to where it actually was hiding. When I took some MMMers to Corona Arch back in 2019, the trail was absolutely mobbed with hikers. I believe this was partly (mostly?) due to a Fall Break for schools in the local area. That is why I try to be careful when picking dates...
The Diceys and I enjoyed getting to Corona Arch, and the hike included using a "cable handrail" to climb some slickrock and also climbing a ladder that had been bolted into the rock. Fun!!
But The Diceys were up for still more adventure! So we drove farther down the Potash Road and stopped to see Jug Handle Arch and some impressive rock art. Thankfully, this rock art is pretty hard to get to, so it has not been vandalized, as far as I know.
When I said that I thought that Potash Road dead ended at the potash facility, Dicey because quite curious to see it. So on we drove. Also, we had seen the railroad tracks that exist for the sole purpose of taking the potash from the facility up to I-70. As we neared the facility that was belching fumes, the afternoon light was fading, and I thought the scene was getting a bit spooky. However, I tried to focus on the beautiful light on the walls of the canyon that had been carved by the river. Also, with the help of my "spy glasses", I spotted an overlook (with a fence, etc.) way up on the top of a canyon wall. I had thought that it was one of the overlooks in the Canyon Rims Recreation Area (south of Moab), but I was way off. It was actually an overlook accessed via the Amasa Back Trail (a black diamond 4WD road/bike trail).
Urged on by Dicey ("Let's go just a little bit further"), we continued on the paved road for a mile or so past the potash facility and ended up at the Jackson Bottom boat ramp. We also noticed that the paved road ended there and became a dirt road. According to one of my Moab maps, that road becomes the Shafer Trail, which eventually climbs up to the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park.
After this afternoon full of fun exploration and discovery, we headed back to the campground. After we ate dinner, we gathered at Chez Dicey for one last campfire (including s'mores, of course).
I was scheduled to go back home the next day, but The Diceys were up for one more adventure in the morning. So we drove a couple miles up highway 128 (along the Colorado River) and hiked the Grandstaff Trail in order to reach the Morning Glory Bridge. It is called a bridge and not an arch because it was formed by water. It spans 243 feet, and is the 6th largest natural rock span in the US.
The Diceys were good sports about having to cross the stream numerous times. We also had to navigate some other rocky obstacles on the trail. But the end result was the magnificent bridge, and we when arrived, there were only a couple other hikers there, so we had it almost to ourselves. Morning Glory Bridge is truly glorious!!
Again, Mr. Dicey spotted something very interested along the hike to the bridge. He saw one person perched on slickrock way up behind the bridge. Must have been an amazing view of the bridge from up there! We were curious, of course, as to how that hiker had gotten there. Looking at my map, it appears that if one goes out on the Sand Flats Road, and then turns north onto a 4WD road (not named on my map), one might be able to access that area. I'm eager to try that sometime.
When we returned to the parking area, it was time to say our goodbyes. :( We all promised to stay in touch...on the forum and in real life!! :)
I need to post this, but I'll be back with some final pictures, videos, and thoughts!
Thanks for reading!!