The Delicate Arch Hike

The next stop on our tour of eastern Utah was Arches National Park.  It was at least a dozen years since I had last been to Arches, so it was good to be back.  I do love the redrock of Southern Utah!  The one hike we wanted to do was Delicate Arch.  Since it was Memorial Day weekend, the park was crowded, so we drove straight to the trailhead and found a spot to park.  The lot was mostly full, so we grabbed one of the remaining spots.  It wouldn't be the last experience we'd have with full parking lots on the trip.  Just after the trailhead, there's an old historic cabin just to the north of the trail.  What a place to settle down!  I'd rate it high up there on the scale of beauty, but low on the scale of inhabitability.  If I was the early settler, my summary would probably read something like "Crops burned up. Cattle starved to death. Burning up in the heat. Prayed for rain.  Rain came.  Flood washed everything away.  That's it- I'm moving to Moab."

Just before midway on the hike, there's a long slow climb up a slickrock slope.  See how many people you can count in this picture.  Did I mention it was Memorial Day weekend?  It looked like somebody kicked an anthill for all of the commotion there was!

We finally made it to Delicate Arch.  Once again, there were people everywhere.  I found a shady spot then sat down for a drink, to look at the arch, and to watch people.  I also pondered about the arches I saw on the hike that most people disregard.  I saw at least 2, maybe 3 that most people are oblivious to.  Anywhere else, they'd be a destination in and of themselves, but here in the land of 2000+ arches people walk by them without even noticing them. 

 I took a few obligatory pictures.

Then I tried to get a few pictures to get a different perspective of Delicate Arch.  Most of these ones didn't turn out so well.

We took one last view of the arch, then headed down the hill. 

At the end of the hike (or beginning if you're just leaving) there's a small detour near the cabin to some petroglyphs.  We wandered over and took a look.  I think the bighorn sheep petroglyphs look pretty cool!  The man on the horse shows that these ones were made in the Ute era of pictograph making instead of an earlier time. 


Nearest City: Moab, UT
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 2 hours
Difficulty: Moderate.  Round trip distance is 3 miles.
Kid Friendly:
Additional Info:
Entrance fee $10/vehicle

Copper Mountain Dinosaur Tracks

After stopping at Sego Canyon, we continued our trip toward Moab.  While looking up things to see & do on the trip, I found these dinosaur footprints near Moab that I thought would be fun to go find.  The Copper Mountain Dinosaur Trackway was a pretty neat link to ancient times.  There are 3 different types of dinosaurs that you can find tracks of here. 

We only found 2 types of tracks though, some of a large plant eater, and others from a big meat eating dinosaur.  Some of the tracks were easy to find, but others were more difficult to see.  Past visitors had left stone circles around some of the tracks.  We looked all over the slickrock and only found a few more. 

 On the 1/4 mile walk back to the car, my wife couldn't help but take a few pictures of some flowers. 

I do have to add one final note.  To me, many of the signs that led to interesting places in the area were placed about 1/2 mile further along a road than is convenient for those looking for directions.  We'd take a turnoff wondering if it was the right one, drive for a little bit, then see a sign out in the middle of nowhere indicating we were going the right direction.  I think the BLM does this on purpose to help protect the sites and to hide them from people who don't know what's out there.

Nearest City: Moab, UT
Location: N 38° 49.900 W 109° 45.720
Time Needed: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy
Kid Friendly: Yes
Additional Info: Bring water in the summertime

Sego Canyon Pictographs

After spending the night at the Crystal Geyser, we woke up and drove half an hour down the road to look at the Sego Canyon Petroglyphs.  They're pretty easy to find and see, with most of them being visible from the parking lot or from a short walk nearby. 

The site has 3 styles of rock art- Barrier Canyon, Fremont, and Ute.  Some of the paintings overlap the work done at earlier times. 

After stopping at the view area, we drove further up the road to look around.  It's a beautiful area.  We noticed numerous additional paintings under ledges east of the road, several of them being in and near an old corral. 

Nearest City: Thompson, UT
Location: N 39° 01.100 W 109° 42.635
Time Needed: 45 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Kid Friendly: Yes
Additional Info:  There are a few ghost towns nearby, as well as a near-ghosttown.  When we drove through Thompson it was pretty well abandoned except for a few residents and three chihuahuas that came out to the street and would have done a better job chasing our car if their legs were longer.  Up canyon from the petroglyph site is the old Thompson Canyon cemetary and townsite and the Sego Ghost Town.

The Crystal Geyser Erupting

Last weekend we headed out for a Memorial Day Roadtrip.  Since I usually have Fridays off, we loaded the car and took off after work on Thursday.  We filled up with gas in Springville, took another short break in Price, then headed for our first real stop: the Crystal Geyser. 

Before the trip, I had assumed that the Crystal Geyser and the Chaffin Geyser were one and the same, but I was wrong.  The Chaffin Geyser is on the west side of the Green River and erupts every 2-4 hours.  The Crystal Geyser is on the east bank of the Green River, and erupts every 8 or 22 hours.  It also happens to be the largest coldwater geyser in the world. 

We almost missed the eruption entirely, but got lucky and caught the tail end of it when we pulled up.  There's a pipe sticking out of the ground, and around it was all white and frothy.  Every few minutes some water would shoot 3-8 feet out of the top of the pipe.  It was really amazing! 

The geyser was formed when someone drilling for oil hit a pocket of carbon dioxide instead.  Much like a warm water geyser erupts when enough hot water turns into gas, a cold water geyser erupts when enough carbon dioxide decides to turn into gas. 

We camped near the geyser in hopes of seeing more of an eruption, but it wasn't meant to be.  I was still under the impression that the Crystal Geyser and the Chaffin Geyser were the same and that another eruption would happen.  Looking back, I realize how lucky we were. 

The next morning I woke up first, so I got up and walked around the travertine deposits left from the geyser.  They're impressive enough on their own account.  Even if we hadn't seen the geyser go off, the deposits were really neat. 

I also walked over and looked down the pipe.  The water level was about 3 feet below ground level and was gently "boiling."  The night before there was water all over the place, but in the morning most of the travertine was dry.  I really enjoyed looking up close at the endless terraces created by mineral deposits.  I noticed that the closer the ones closer to the river were a different width than the ones closer to the geyser. 

The Crystal Geyser was an amazing stop.  I'd recommend camping there so you can spend some time examining the deposits, looking at the Green River, and hopefully catching an eruption.

Nearest City: Green River, UT
Location: N 38° 56.304 W 110°  08.153
Time Needed: Up to 22 hours
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate, depending on your timing and patience
Kid Friendly: Yes
Additional Info: Directions- Take Exit 164 at Green River.  Turn South.  Turn East at the T-Intersection.  Be sure to take this road more slowly than you are comfortable going, there's some killer potholes that you come up on pretty fast!  Follow the road for about 2.5 miles until it comes to another intersection.  Turn South.  Follow this road to another intersection, where a sign will direct you to the Crystal Geyser.