Exploring the Maze in Utah

[killer]

I had been out in this area a few days before (ride tale to come) and discovered it's much bigger than it looks on the map


So on this day - 5th November 2007 - I got out of the house a bit earlier to cover some more ground.

Also available on my Blog

Rather than unloading outside the park this time I drove in and found a parking place at Frenchman's cabin, that eliminated some of the less interesting sand road but it did mean driving the truck over some rough rocky road with the CRF in the back. In case you are wondering the CRF is street legal so is allowed to be ridden in the park. It was still 11:30 before I mounted the bike, it's about 130 miles from my house to Frenchman's Cabin. No messing about with viewpoints today, straight off to find the Flint Trail.

The Flint Trail, this is the view from the overlook, the steep part of the trail is on the right side in the shadows and continues out into the valley.


Halfway down the trail, it has come from the left of the picture, zig-zagged around the central buttress and then back to the left. The trail's surface comes in many varieties from solid rock steps to loose rocks to quite deep sand which I really didn't expect to find on a trail this steep. Compared to the zig-zags on the Burr Trail it is twice as steep, half as wide and ten times as rough!


At the bottom, the viewpoint is just to the right of the central buttress on the cliff top, the trail comes from behind the large bump on the left, across the central buttress and back again then across the tallus in front of it and back again.


Out on flat land there was quite a lot of petrified wood.


Of course the flat land tended to end rather abruptly...


There were several minor descents on the way out to the Maze.


Good thing the brakes work, and it's not a KLR.


This panorama was made from 12 full shots in 3 rows, this was my first view of the north arm of Horse Canyon which runs down to the Green River.


This is another small arm of Horse Canyon.


And finally I reached the Maze Overlook.


Brimhall Point - in order to bring you the best views possible I jumped across the gap between these two tops, it's only 640 feet to the canyon bottom...


The next jump seemed a little too challenging, maybe if I hadn't hurt my knee!


Here's a satellite view of Brimhall Point, you can actually see the rocks I jumped between and the lonely rock.


The Chocolate Drops, looking over the south fork of Horse Canyon.


Closer to the drops, strange spire in the background.


Chimney Rock - I wonder why they call it that?


Looking more to the west, there is a hiking trail from here to the canyon bottom.


The bottom is actually quite inviting, there was a park ranger out here, he told me that the trail involves some 'hand over hand' climbing, maybe next year. He also told me that it wouldn't be a problem to drive the Tundra out here, he was in a Chevy Silverado, on the other hand I had found his spare wheel in the middle of the trail a few miles back, he didn't even know he had lost it.


The topo map makes it quite obvious why this area is called The Maze, Brimhall Point is right at the top with the Chocolate Drops directly south of it.


Here's a satellite view of the same area


I wandered around Brimhall Point for a while taking lots of pictures but all the turns in a maze look the same.

So it was time to head back, the sun was getting low anyway. This rock face would prove interesting for a long vehicle like a Tundra.


But the sun's not completely down - so I turned off on a side route that looked interesting. It skirted along the north fork of Horse Canyon which came up close to the cliffs up to the next level, at some points the road was cut into the cliff face.


I didn't really know how far this road went and after a while it became obvious there was a lot of country out there, this is as far as I got, looking out on the unexplored territory.


That's the way back.


Bagpipe Butte


By the time I got to the top of the Flint Trail the sun was well low, it was still several miles back to the truck and it was almost dark by the time I got there.


In the dark it took me an hour to cover the first few miles out from Frenchman's Cabin, the road is very rough and I really didn't want to launch the CRF out of the back of the truck, it was after 9pm when I got home, long day but well worth it. There is still a lot of country to explore in the Maze, the intriguingly named Doll's House for instance.

The Route

[Sombeech]

Very cool write up! Excellent pics. Some of those are worthy to go in our Home Page Slideshow.

We've gotta resurrect that thread, by the way. It's time to add some new pics.
http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4491

[killer]

Very cool write up! Excellent pics. Some of those are worthy to go in our Home Page Slideshow.

Thanks, if you want an unframed version just remove the _f from the file name and the 'framed' from the path, next time I'm not going to bother with the _f which will make it even easier.

[fourtycal]

Great trip report! Nice bike too.

[accadacca]

Good looking red bike. Man that looks like an excellent place to ride. Wish I was closer. . .awesome trip report.

[asdf]

very nice