Southern Utah Wanderings 2010

[tanya]

Nice arches and pretty and tight slots!

[Patter Paws]

Great Report Randy, makes me homesick. Beautiful pictures.

[IntrepidXJ]

Great Report Randy, makes me homesick. Beautiful pictures.

Thanks!

[IntrepidXJ]

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 | Day 5

Wednesday...another day and another morning of waiting in the tent until the rain stopped. Luckily, once it stopped, the sky actually started to clear up and the sun came out as we were packing up camp. From camp we headed down the Colorado River to the trailhead for Corona Arch. This hike was on my to-do list for this year and I was planning on hiking it in November, but since we were here unexpectedly I figured it would be a good time to check it out. Our goals for this day would be to find some arches, petroglyphs and pictographs near Moab that we usually bypass on our way to other destinations.

We manged to arrive at Corona Arch while there was still some nice early sunlight on it, so we took advantage.

Corona Arch (Little Rainbow Bridge)




We also stopped at Bowtie Arch and Pinto Arch on our way back down.

Bowtie Arch


Pinto Arch


Next we continued on down the road to Jug Handle Arch to find some petroglyphs underneath it.

Jug Handle Arch


We scrambled up near the arch and found the petroglyph panel for some photos.

The large panel




Petroglyphs & Arch

[IntrepidXJ]

On our way back to Moab we stopped to photograph the petroglyps along the Colorado River. The last time I took photos of these I was using an old point & shoot camera. I've stopped at these panels before, but it seems every time I stop I manage to find stuff I missed the previous visits.

Hunting Scene


Large Panel

[IntrepidXJ]

Before reaching town we parked at the Courthouse Wash trailhead and hiked up to some pictographs nearby. Unfortunately these pictographs were severely damaged in 1980. When some clouds rolled in and block the sun, the pictographs were a little more visible.



Jared checking out the petroglyphs and pictographs


Realizing it was Wednesday, I decided I wanted to try the lasagna at Pasta Jays since I never seem to be in Moab on a Wednesday. I soon found out that they didn't start serving it until 4:00pm, so we had a few more hours to kill. We grabbed some lunch at Zax and then headed south out of town to the Behind the Rocks area. We followed a rough trail to the Moab Rim Arch and Tukuhnikivatz Arch.

Moab Rim Arch


Mount Tukuhnikivatz through Tukuhnikivatz Arch


Jared & Tukuhnikivatz Arch


Tukuhnikivatz Arch


As we were climbing down from Tukuhnikivatz Arch the wind started to pick up as a storm blew in pretty quickly. As we got closer to the Jeep it started raining pretty good and there was a lot of lightning and thunder. One bolt of lightning stuck nearby....and that's when we started to jog the rest of the way until we reached the Jeep. We found out later that this storm caused a tornado warning in Moab and then again when it came through Grand Junction.

We hopped back in the Jeep and headed back to Moab. We arrived in town around 4:30pm. I said goodbye to Jared, grabbed some lasagna from Pasta Jays and headed home. The past five days were certainly an adventure!

[oldno7]

Very Nice TR, Randy
Thanks for sharing

[Don]

Wow, nice shots, and TR. I'm going to be late for work after reading all that. Of course reading it makes me want to load up the jeep and run from work and obligation...