Crystal Geyser & White Wash

[IntrepidXJ]

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Since Amanda had to work on Black Friday, we had to wait until Saturday before we could head anywhere on the Thanksgiving weekend. There were some trails north of Moab that I had been wanting to check out for a while and we didn't want to head too far away from home, so we ended up heading that way for the weekend. Our main destination would be the Crystal Geyser near Green River, but we would of course take the long way there ;)

We took I-70 to the Floy Wash exit just past Crescent Junction and headed south on the Ruby Ranch Road. We took a left onto the Blue Hills Road and then turned off onto the Dubinky Well Road. After looping around Tombstone Rock we started our first trail of the day....Rainbow Terrace (aka Rainbow Rocks). Since I've been on this trail before, Amanda drove the whole thing.

You can see the colors in the rocks above this trail.

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After finishing the trail we headed west to Tenmile Point above the Green River.

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Amanda taking a break from driving
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After taking in the views, we headed back to the start off the Crystal Geyser trail.

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We decided to follow the route in Peter Massey's Backcountry Adventures book backwards. Unfortunately, as we found out, that route crosses private property and we ended up on the wrong side of locked gate and had to backtrack and find a different way to the geyser. After using my navigational skills to reach Crystal Geyser, we spent some time exploring and photographing the cool orange surface in the area and hoping the geyser would erupt while we were there.

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[IntrepidXJ]

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Amanda waiting for an eruption
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About an hour after we arrived at the geyser, it finally started making some noise and bubbling pretty good. Unfortunately it did not end up reaching a full eruption and only got a foot or so hight from ground level.

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I guess we will have to head back another time and see if we can catch a full eruption.

When the geyser stopped making noises and bubbling, we decided to make our way to Green River for the night. We had dinner at The Tamarisk and spent the night at the Super 8. One note about the Super 8 in Green River......it's the nicest inexpensive hotel I have stayed in for a while. I would highly recommend it.

[IntrepidXJ]

Sunday, November 29, 2009

After a good nights sleep we left Green River and made our way to the White Wash Sand Dunes via the Ruby Ranch Road. When we reached White Wash, we followed the sandy wash around the dunes in the area. Then Amanda took over driving and drove over a few small dunes along the wash.

White Wash
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Wide well traveled wash
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After playing around in the sand, we continued on past Red Wash and arrived back at the Tenmile Point Road. From there we made our way to the Dubinky Well Road again and cut across Deadman Mesa to reach Spring Canyon Bottom.

My original goal was to finish the Hey Joe Canyon trail, however when we reached Spring Canyon Bottom, there was a slow moving Jeep heading down the trail and I was feeling impatient. Instead, we took a left at the intersection and followed around the Bowknot Bend of the Green River the other direction. It was a little narrow and washed out in places, but still very drivable.

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After heading back from the Bowknot Bend, we made our way to Moab to have some lunch at the Moab Brewery. From there we headed home across the Dolores Triangle where Amanda was excited to drive my Jeep across the Dolores River.

It was a nice relaxing weekend after Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

[offpiste]

Very cool thanks for sharing!

[accadacca]

As always your adventures are awesome. They just keep my list of things to do running longer and longer. :2thumbs: :lol8: