The usual, time to get out and romp a bit. Let’s get up to Moab and then dribble down 191 southwards with a campsite reservation at “The Needles” to hike their spectacular slick rock trails. Left early and dieseled up in Barstow (170 miles), then on to N. Las Vegas (160 miles) and finally to an overnight stop in Mesquite (80 miles). A few years ago we found this golf club grill that offers good food and cheap draft beer, now a regular stop.
Next day we’re into Southern Utah and and the holiday begins. First a schlep up Hwy 15 and over Hwy 70 to Moab area. Fill the fresh water tank and navigate the bumpy dirt road into the Klondike Bluffs area. Our preferred spot is occupied so we settle for nearby patch of dirt for the next few nights.
Our destination is the “ink pot” that our good friend Mark had guided us to a number of years earlier. There are no trails or cairns here just old fashioned backcountry skills and a “feel” for what “goes” and what doesn’t. It’s a game and the more you play, the more you enjoy it.
The image below shows Rose sussing out the “splines” of lumpy rock ahead, pick the right one and you’re rewarded with an ink pot, the wrong one will box you in and force a retreat.
We make it to the ridge line and some careful exploring brings with it the “I remember this” and “it’s this way” till we suddenly realize we’re right on top of it.
Boots with sticky soles and no vertigo are mandatory here as we savour our prize. We wander on negotiating the twists and curves and slowly make our way back off the rock and through the scrub back to the RV. Great fun!
After Klondike we moved over to the west of 191 and into a campsite at Dead Horse State Park. First time here and we first did a 6 mile loop hike around Dead Horse Point and then a 12 mile bike ride to the north. See the map below.
Why “Dead Horse”?
“Legend has it that in the late 1800s, cowboys used the narrow neck of land as a natural corral for wild mustangs. Unfortunately, some horses were left behind and perished from thirst, giving the area its eerie name.” The cowboys drove the mustangs to the point and then cordoned it off with trees & bushes.
Next day we did the bike ride.
Moved into town and their high priced RV parks to cleanup and kill two days before our Needles reservation. Now Arches National park is super popular and you need a timed reservation to be able to drive in but on a bike you are free to enter at any time so off we went for some calorie burn and magical sights.
Then things took an unexpected turn. We’re driving out of the RV park and Rose goes off to dump our little bag of trash. I’m quietly sitting in the drivers seat when all of a sudden the passenger door opens and she says: “I broke it, I know I did” as she clutched her left wrist. “I tripped and fell, exclamation!”.
The ER then. “No I don’t want to”. OK we’ll go home. “NO!!!” I type in hospital to Google maps and off we go. Luckily they’re not busy and give Rose a temporary cast & sling and tell her to see her doctor within a week.
We discuss briefly and say: “Well lets go down to The Needles” and worry about it there. Now the campground is 40 miles off the main road with very few amenities so nothing else better go wrong.
We were here once before and I have just become fascinated with the geology and trails that are not trails in the traditional sense (flat, a path on level’ish dirt etc) but a three dimensional journey over slick rock, narrow cracks and a few chains or ladders to get you through otherwise impossible crux sections.
The map below is an overlay of trails from this and the previous trip.
More photo’s from our previous trip in 2021.
After a shortened Needles visit is time to adhere to doctors orders and head for home. We cut out some other stops off 191 but agree on a stop at Desert View Campground in the east section of the Grand Canyon.
As I write this Rose is well on here way recovering from surgery and hopefully a full recovery in the not too distant future.