Maze TR

[ststephen]

Day 7 (Thursday April 9): Rest days are for hiking

Finally a day we don't have to move our camp. What was I thinking when I didn't plan for such a day at the onset? Anyway thanks to the poor guy who left his Cherokee at Teapot we got an extra day at the Dollhouse. I'm really loving this camp spot. At dawn the first rays of light are hitting the walls of this grotto (see pics below). But it is rather cold this AM. Hmmm...what's this thick wool blankety thing? Oh, yeah, my son's poncho. As always I'm up first looking for possible photo ops and starting coffee. As the water boils I call out "Boy, this poncho sure is nice and warm". The answer comes back "DAAAAD! You take that off right now! That's MINE!!!" I reassure him that as soon as he is outside the tent I'll relinquish it. It's actually quite a nice luxury camping item!

We have a very leisurely morning (see the photos of Robin and Aaron enjoying the sun and coffee at our breakfast nook with views out to the La Sals). But eventually it's time to pack up for hike out to sample a bit of Ernie's Country. The trail is just before the Dollhouse 3 site and we check that out. No one is there because it was to be ours until we switched. This trail really is easy walking. It's the kind of scenery that seems quintessentially "western". There are these long views along open sage brush country with first the banded Cedar Mesa rocks and great views of the Orange Cliffs beyond. It's quite easy to imagine what it was like when the Chaffin Family ran their cattle "under the ledge" back in the 1920's. Thankfully it's probably quite unchanged since then. Aaron is pushing to find more climbing or rappelling opportunities as we walk so that's why you see him wearing his helmet. In addition to the distant scenery There is a nice panel of pictographs to enjoy and even a short section of narrows formed by joints in the sandstone both quite near the start of the trail by Dollhouse 3.

Back at camp we lounge and I chat with our neighbors in Dollhouse 1. They are die-hard 4-wheelers from N. Carolina. It's a father and son and the dad is 75. When I get back I remind Aaron he will need to drive me here in another 24 years. He agrees and you can bet I'm going to hold him to that promise!

For the afternoon activity we're going to visit Spanish Bottom. Both it and Surprise Valley are geologic oddities. I'm going to bore you all with some geology here. I promise to make it brief. The whole Canyonlands/Moab area was bay area back before any of the rocks we are seeing were laid down. That bay got trapped from the ocean repeatedly and the sea water evaporated leaving salt deposits. Extremely thick deposits of salt were created. After all our favorite rocks were laid down and then the whole thing uplifted and faulted during the Larimide Orogeny the salt came under great pressure. Salt under pressure acts like a fluid and flow it did. This left big empty spaces under those straight fault lines. That caused
long straight blocks of rock to alternately slip downward to fill in those gaps and create the grabens you drive and hike through in the Needles district as well as Spanish Bottom and Surprise Valley. Here's a diagram:



The descent to Spanish Bottom is really fun. You have great views of the Colorado River gorge with Red Lake Canyon on opposite side. Don't ask me where the "lake" is! I did that trail many many years ago and now I'm finally seeing it from the other side. You can also see the exposed Paradox Formation dunes on the other side which is the remnants of the salt deposits I just mentioned. As we get lower I spot a pair of raptors circling below us riding the thermal updraft of the late afternoon. No definitely not Turkey Vultures. Too big for Red-tailed or Swainson's...It's a pair of Golden Eagles. VERY NICE! We take turns getting on them in our one pair of binoculars and enjoy watching the smaller female doing some courting dives as they ascend.

The bottom of Spanish Bottom has a lot of charred sections. The ranger told me it burned last year all due to a careless person who wanted to burn the toilet paper. Bring a baggie next time newbie! We dip out toes in the Colorado (literally that's all as it is very slippery and drops off very fast into swirling eddies). Then it's the trudge back up all those layers of Honaker Trail and Elephant Canyon formation to our beloved Cedar Mesa campsite. Robin decides to bet Aaron that she'll beat him up the trail. $10 is the wager. She loses. Give the kid some motivation and watch out!

It's calm this night and we have a more social dinner eating up our last perishable food: Chicken Fajitas. If only I had some Reposado to wash it down with, but the Full Suspension Ale is a good alternate.

[bobb169]

Started at the Maze Overlook, climb down is intersting with a pack on, went down the main canyon and ended on the Dollhouse road the first night...10 miles, 6 hours.
Day 2 went down the Dollhouse road and dropped into the canyon just past 'the wall' turned at the main canyon at about 7 miles (there are some fairly good picto graphs at the junction, came out by Chimney Rock and went down the Dollhouse road about 1 1/4 mile and camped, 11 miles, 7 hours.
Day three we hiked down the road to the Dollhouse, then out the trail towards the overlook but turning at the junction to go into Shot canyon....Bighorn was along this strectch. Camped towards the head of Shot canyon, 9 miles, 7 hours.
Day four hiked back out to the Maze Overlook, stopping at the Harvest Scene Panel, 9 miles, 5 1/2 hours. About a 40 mile trip. Camped just outside the park before the long drive from Hans Flat to home. A LONG dirt road to the highway!

I have the garmin gpx file for the route...if anyone wants them...don't know how to attach the file so email/PM me.

[denaliguide]

[ststephen]

Thanks for the Jasper Canyon pics, denailguide!

Here's my final installment:

Day 8 (Friday April 10): Exploring Sweet Alice

The plan for today is to spend the day exploring Sweet Alice Canyon and then camp at the Wall 4WD site. That will somewhat lessen the driving we have to do tomorrow. I also have a goal of finding some arches cataloged by NABS in Sweet Alice. In the morning I use the line-of-sight to the La Sals to make a cell phone call to Hans Flat and ask for the forecast. They are predicting rain/snow for tonight.

Driving out of the campsite is easier than getting in and we negotiate our way back along the Land of Standing Rocks road without incident. On the way in we noticed a small pull-out parking area very near to the Plug. When we get there we find a ranger's Jeep parked there, but no ranger. His Jeep is lifted and has some nice extra features our rental does not. Must have been fun for the NPS to order and outfit that!

Armed with GPS coords for the head of Sweet Alice we start to follow the major drainage that flows downhill from the parking area. As we hope it leads to the rim of Sweet Alice. I'm not clear if we will find the best route down the main arm or a side arm to the east. Either way we have to navigate from this point as we are quite a bit west of even the main arm. But it's not hard to find slickrock or washes to wind our way around the rim. When we get to the apex of the main arm there is no obvious route we can see. So, we keep moving clockwise around the rim. Here there are some possibilities and we are able to descend through a couple of layers. There are even a few cairns and some faint trails to guide us.

The GPS coords for the arches show them to be still further east. The question is on which level of slickrock we should circumnavigate. I try one but it pinches out before we get far enough east. So we go back and descend through one more level. Now we're on this pink layer of slickrock and we try to circumnavigate again. We pass through this cool "portal" between some small amphitheaters and keep traversing. This looks promising! Another ridge is surmounted and then I spot them. There are two arches. One is a longish flat one and the other in the shape of a parachute. It looks *so* inviting to try to downclimb into them, but my wife does not want us to risk it. Still this is a wonderful spot for a snack and another nice accomplishment to have found them.

Back on the main route we work our way to the bottom of Sweet Alice. There's an interesting set of cliff bands and one large amphitheater to descend. One part involves a steep slope of loose dirt and rock that isn't too fun, but nothing really hard. We walk down in the bottom of the wash long enough to get a good taste of the character of Sweet Alice and decide we've had enough.

As we're hiking back to the car we notice the time and realize that there probably is sufficient time to drive all the way out tonight. If we stay the night at the Wall we will leave first thing in the morning and probably have a wet night. Seems like a good choice so we cancel our night at the Wall and start the drive. Mid-way in Teapot Canyon we find the same lone backpacker we saw before. Knowing his situation we offer to carry his backpack to his car, but there isn't room enough for him too.

By dusk were at the Flint Trail intersection, but we won't have time to make it up the Flint before night falls. So we opt for the Hite route one more time.

There were two more days to the whole vacatation: we spent two nights in Moab and did a drive on the Shafer Trail to Potash Rd. Then the last day of the vacation we did Granary canyon with Desert Highlights.

Back home I exchange emails with the lone backpacker and he confirms that it stormed hard about midnight as he camped next to his car in Teapot. We made a wise choice! A coworker asks me how long the "glow" from this trip will last. As I reflect on that question I come to the conclusion that trips like these don't really "fade away" like a tan from a beach holiday. It feels more like adding clay to a sculpture: it adds to who we are and forms into our very being.

Thanks for reading. Here's the last set of photos of Sweet Alice.

[denaliguide]

very nice trip report. i really enjoyed that.

especially all the photos from everyone.

[Cirrus2000]

Excellent, indeed! Thanks for the report!

[ststephen]

Thanks guys, glad you liked it.

I agree that the community aspect of everyone sharing their own photos made it especially nice.

[accadacca]

Epic stuff!

[R]

This trip looks like a slice of paradise!

[psl53]

Truly an outstanding TR. Not only will you keep these memories with you, more importantly Aaron, will always remember the trip and how cool it was to have two outstanding, adventurous parents.

Peter

[tanya]

Great Trip Report and fun photos!

[ibenick]

Sweet trip, Paul. Just curious, now that you've seen Dollhouse #2 and #3, which would you pick if you were going back? I hear Dollhouse #3 has some spectacular views in addition to being well away from the other two sites. Dollhouse #2 looks awesome but it seems like the views might be obscured by all of the towering rocks?

[ststephen]

There are great views just a few steps away from your camp in #2. You just walk up a tiny hill and there is a gap in the rocks that looks out and across to the La Sal's and the Needles District. We took our coffee up there several times. But yes where you set up your camp itself won't have a long range view. It's personal choice. If you want to be able to sit in a camp chair and have a vista #3. But I would pick #1 or #2 again and just stroll to the views because of the cathedral-like setting.