Moab Day #14 - Dellenbaugh Tunnel & Secret Spire

This was our last day in Moab - at least for this year. We ran 19 trails in 14 days - not too shabby a record. With departure tomorrow morning, today was a busy day. Therefore we chose to run a short, moderate trail.

Secret Spire is surely a mystery - how it stands against the elements.... Today was a windy, blustery day. In was difficult for us to stand still when the wind gusted.

The Dellenbaugh Tunnel is an underground arch. This was the entry. And this was the exit.

Light is from the opposite end

Tombstone Rock is an impressive monolith

Moab Day # 13 - Top of the World Trail

This day's trail required a drive of 29 miles following the Colorado River while having towering red sandstone walls on either side. We passed a winery and restaurant, orchard and elegant dude ranch for a short distance when the valley widened.The trail itself was miles of large stones, boulders and broken ledges to climb. It was slow going. Arriving at the top made it all worthwhile. We could see for miles - typical of the Colorado Plateau. It was dizzying to go anywhere near the edges as the drop was about 2,000 ft.

The color of each area is in huge contrast with the one next to it.

Funny, just when we think we have the entire world to ourselves, along comes someone else. It's rather nice to be alone but there is also the fact that there is safety in numbers. Knowing there is someone else in the vicinity if we have trouble is comforting.

Hoodoos 2,000 ft below. This is the first we have ever looked down on a formation of this type. They usually tower hundreds of feet over us.

On the trip back down, the terrain turns pale.

Back at the beginning of the trail is the historic Dewey Bridge. A ferry operated at this site on the Colorado River until the building of this suspension bridge in the early 1900s. There was even a school to educate the children of the ferry operator. When this bridge was built the ferry operator lost his job. There were no longer any children to educate and the teacher's job also went away. Now there is only a sign to commemorate what once was. Of course there is a massive bridge to replace the original.

Moab Day #12 - Elephant Hill

The entrance to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park is a 75 mile drive from Moab. This district is 194 square miles alone. I've run out of superlatives. Words can't adequately describe what we've experienced.This is the first part of the Elephant Hill climb. This may have had the most difficult challenges of any trail so far and much more of the beautiful scenery we've come to expect.

The beginning of the descent

The zigzag descent had one switchback too narrow to allow a jeep to swing. This sign gives directions on what to do to continue.

One of the first views of the Needles

The above photos show the squeeze in Devil's Pocket.

A half mile hike took us to these stairs. They led to a crack or joint between rocks with light streaming in from above.

Cryptobiotic soil crust takes decades to mature. It is a living soil that makes an otherwise unstable surface impervious to both wind and water erosion. Cyanobacteria is one of the oldest known life forms and binds together lichens, mosses, green algae and fungi which comprise the knobby black crust.

A barberry on the trail

Needles of Cedar Mesa sandstone

S.O.B. Hill begins with a steep, rocky climb behind the Jeep before reaching this 90-degree turn.

It's a tight squeeze - an s.o.b., for sure.

Vic had to do this twice - once downhill to get to the Joint Trail and this return.

And then the Silver Stairs.....

......which went on and on.

And back up the Elephant Hill switchbacks after completing the loop.

And the final descent to the parking area

Newspaper Rock was a must-see on the return route to Moab. It's one of the largest panels of petroglyphs on the Colorado Plateau. Some of them were found to be 1,500 years old but most were carved more recently over a few hundred year span.