Dave's Adventures: April 2012

April 18 - 22, 2012

This year I planned to head down early with Dennis Udink (Price) to the Goblin Valley area for our annual Spring GeoCache Event. I left Tuesday morning about 10:30 am and arrived in Price about 12:30 pm. Went to Smith's, grabbed some food and filled up with gas.

Dennis filling up at Smith's in Price

Dennis' trailer

My trailer

Camp

Hooked up with Dennis and headed to Goblin. We set up camp (not the place we wanted) at the BLM Campsite. We set up on west side of the campground.

We decided to go grab a cache that had been input into geocaching.com wrong. Dennis kind of knew where to look after talking to the owner. It was 11 miles west on Temple Mountain Rd. We found the cache, a FTF and then came back to camp for dinner and turned in for the night. It was very windy, rainy and did I say windy!!!

Taking pictures on the way back to camp

Man's best friend

Wednesday, I drove to Green River because my oil light came on on the ATV. Grabbed oil and can (to put dirty oil in). I decided to drive down to Hanksville because I had never been there before and I wanted to see how big the town really was. I was disappointed. Not much to see. I did take pictures at a scenic place just north of town. The stream by town was called the Dirty Devil River. Pretty funny. The rocks were a cool formation. I also found a cache close by.

Across the road (east) from the scenic area

Henry mountains in background

I headed back to camp about noon and changed the oil. I found out that my battery is having a hard time starting my machine. I will have to replace it when I get back home. After changing the oil Dennis and I headed across the road on the north side to look at rock art. Dennis found a rattler again in same spot as he did two yrs ago. Kinda spooked him. We still explored area. I had dinner and relaxed while Dennis went on a hike up Iron wash. Had another dust storm go through camp, worse than Tuesday's. It was bad!

Thursday we left camp about 8:30 am and headed east down Temple wash to highway 24. Headed south half a mile to turn off and then east several miles till we found road going north. This trail was about 8 - 10 miles and extremely bumpy. The trail took us to Rattlesnake Ridge. We took a few pictures and found where people in the early 19th century had etched on the rock and then headed north to Cottonwood Wash (25 miles). Another very, very bumpy trail.

Rattlesnake Ridge from south side

Dennis taking pics of etching

Rattlesnake Ridge from north side

Etching on Rattlesnake Ridge

Dennis heading south in Cottonwood Wash

Dennis in Cottonwood Wash

Crow's Nest

East wash at Crow's nest

Dennis walking around rim

Etched snake at Crow's Wash entrance

Rock formation in east wash

Dennis looking for rock art

We went down into wash and over to the Crow's Nest (heading west about 4 miles?). We were looking for some rock art that Dennis was told about. There are three washes at the head and we took the east one all the way to the end (about 1/4 mile). We found a really neat rock formation where the water had cut out a bolder right in the middle. It was cool. Dennis decided to explore the other two washes from the south and headed north. I went back down the east wash and was almost to the entrance when I spotted rock art on the east side. Climbing up to the art, I found several places where snakes had been etched into the rock. Pretty cool. Dennis came and took lots of pictures of the art.

Crow's Nest tree

Cottonwood Wash looking north

We then headed back to Cottonwood Wash and up on top then headed south along the ridge paralleling the wash. We went across highway 24 to Old Woman wash and then took the trail along the foothills. We headed south to Temple Mountain rd, then west back to camp. This trip took us about 7 1/2 to 8 hrs. Lots of riding and hiking, I'm pooped. Four more trailers showed up, Jan & Ken, Terry & Karen, Michael & Debbie, Steve & Leslie, and some of Terry's friends with 4x4's. It was another long day but less wind!

Dennis by the old shack

Friday - Ray came in late Thursday. I gave her wrong directions and she got lost but made it about 11:30 pm. Today Dennis took Ray and I out on a trail ride through the slot canyon of temple wash. Ray hadn't ridden an ATV so Dennis let her use Traci's machine which is like mine with thumb shifting. She did really good. Dennis found some new rock art (he'd been up the wash a dozen times and never seen the paintings). We got back and a little while later Traci and the boys showed up. We took it easy the rest of the day. That night, Dennis and I took night pictures of him twirling steel wool out on the road. Pretty cool.

Temple Mountain from the old shack on the north side

Raylene and Dennis looking at rock art (red paintings between them)

Dennis twirling steel wool (my favorite)

Dennis on Temple Mountain Rd twirling steel wool

Saturday I hiked with the group up wild horse canyon. It was 5 miles although Dennis told us it was 3.5. I petered out so many times and brought up the rear all the time. I couldn't believe how hot it was. It was in the mid 80's. At the west entrance we had taken a few cars and left them there so we didn't half to walk back down. Good thing cuz I only made it 4 miles before I hit the wall and could not walk anymore. Ken and Jan came back to get Ray & I. Ray had to carry my backpack cuz I was dead tired. The wash is relatively flat although you do climb 110' in elevation and the sand is twice as tough to walk in.

Taking a break in the shade

Torry needed a break

Jan heading up Wild Horse Wash

That evening we had our potluck dinner and then Chris exploded both corn and fruit cocktail in the fire. They were both kind of duds. The corns top blew leaving the can in the fire pit. Also, while we had gone hiking someone (Jeremy) had taken off Chris's back tire on his car and blocked it up on rocks. They hid the tire in a night cache. Chris was calmer than I would have been.

Taking a break

Potluck dinner

Only a 3-wheel drive vehicle now!

Sunday, we packed up and headed home. It was a great weekend and I'm glad I got to spend it with the wife and friends.

A few weeks ago, Jeff B. asked Ken C and I if we wanted to go for another ride. Since the snow has not completely melted from the mountains we decided to head out to the west desert. I suggested the Little Moab area since I thought it would be less crowded than 5-mile. I forgot that it was Easter weekend.

West end, Ron's Camp (left)

When we got out there we counted no fewer than 100 trailers camped from one end to the other. It wasn't as bad as Cherry Creek (Little Sahara) last year but close. We parked on the west end of Little Moab where I usually camp (but just north). UP&L is putting a power line between Mona and Tooele and they have towers all over the place. We parked and unloaded by one of the structures. As we were unloading, Ron Adams (Cheaters24) came over and chatted. He had pulled his trailer out last Wednesday and was out there with some "drinking" buddies.

Jeff Bowles

Ken and Jeff had never been to Nutty Putty cave before so I took them the two miles north and showed them where John Jones was entombed. I remember being at the Command Center when John Jones was stuck in the cave. It was a sad day when he was not able to be rescued. After Nutty Putty, we headed north down the hill where I placed one of three caches. The rocks around the area were orange and I thought it looked pretty cool. We then headed back up the hill and south to 12-mile pass which is about 10 miles west of Little Moab area.

We went up Broad Canyon then through the gate that heads back northwest and over into 12-mile. We came right into a camp that was parked at the bottom of the hill. That was kind of weird but we went to the next canyon and followed it to the end. We had lunch and then headed south where I placed two more caches. My last cache was placed on the north side of Cedar Knolles. We then headed back to the Little Moab area and watched a few minutes to see if any vehicles would go over the rocks. They didn't so we loaded up and headed home. What a great day. It was 27 degrees when I woke up and 65 degrees when we left Little Moab. So much fun!