Fern Canyon

The hike to Fern canyon starts at the Pine creek trail head and goes into the canyon to the right of the giant rock that divides the two canyons.

 Trail starts toward the red capped rock and goes into the canyon to the right. After you get into the canyon there is no real trail. Scramble over the rocks anyway you can.

Pink bush is a Giant 4 o'clock

At the start of the canyon you have to go high on the right to find a trail entering the canyon.

Our group near the start of the canyon.

An Old Man cactus in bloom.

Giant 4 O'clock

There was water, moss, and a red Eaton Firecracker in the middle part of the canyon

Example of the scrambling

Large fern

Frog

Ferns along the wall

Two kinds of ferns.

Bluedicks

Upper part of the canyon near the waterfall (seep)

Red Alumroot

Red Alumroot

Climbers about 150 feet high

Pool with waterfall

pool without waterfall

Destination waterfall in the canyon

Pools above the waterfall.

Red Cap in Red Rock

 On this hike to Red Cap we started at Calico basin and headed toward Ash canyon. Before entering Ash canyon we bore right to go up the small canyon just to the right of Ash. It is 100% scrambling and ends up at the head of Ash canyon and the trail junctions there.

View up the small canyon

First sandstone landing before leveling out to proceed to the trail junction to upper Gateway canyon.

At the trail junction at the top of Ash Canyon we turned left and zig zaged up the rocks to Red Cap.

On the way was a reflection opportunity

View of the escarpment from near the top

Top of Red Cap

View back down the way we came

Trail back down the west side of Red Cap

A slot on the way down

View at the bottom of the slot

There were many flowers on this hike.

Hedgehog cactus

Bigelow Monkey flower

Purple mat

Yellow two tone Penstemon

Old Man cactus

Desert Snowberry

Wishbone bush

Cliff Rose

Mariposa lily

Moab exploratory

We went on a 5 day trip to Moab during the Jeep Festival but they were restricted to jeep roads that we couldn't go on anyway. On 3 days I planned big hikes and did tourist things on the in between days.

The first hike was on the Devils Garden loop/primitive trail at the end of the road in Arches. It passes about 6 arches, petroglyphs, and is about 8 miles total. There is some scrambling and some exposure on the trail that is well marked with cairns.


Landscape arch is the longest arch on this hike. It is at the end of the easy part of the trail. From there  the trail has scrambling and a little exposure which keep the crowds down, especially if you start early.

Partition arch is on a spur trail after landscape arch.

Double O arch is two arches, one above the other. It is at the north end of the loop trail where a spur trail leads to Dark Angel and the petroglyphs on the cliffs west of Dark Angel.

Petroglyphs near Dark Angel

Narrow slot used to descend the cliffs to the petroglyphs.

Continuing on the Primitive loop we passed Private arch which in in the fin behind Brenda.

On the final leg of the loop we had a view of the snow capped la Sal mountains

This is Pine tree arch almost back to the car.

On the second day of planned hikes we drove to the Horseshoe canyon area of Canyonlands NP where the "Great Gallery" is.  It is rock paintings instead of the usual scratched petroglyphs. It is 122 miles from Moab and includes 30 miles of dirt road. But is was a pretty good dirt road. It did pass by a blowing red sand desert.

After parking at the canyon rim we headed 750 feet down into the canyon and walked the rest of the way in the wash. Total distance of about 8 miles.

There was some water in the canyon but it presented no problems.

This is the second of 4 pictograph panels you pass on this hike.

This is next to the above panel around a pile of rocks.

This is the Great Gallery, said to be the best example of pictographs in the area. The figures are 4-5 feet tall and spread out over about 70 feet.

The third hike we took was in the Needles area of Canyonlands about 2 hours drive south of Moab. The hike to Druid arch. It is about 11 miles and 1200 feet of elevation.



The trail started out on slick rock marked with cairns. headed toward a group of red rocks.

Got to go through a narrow area.

After crossing the slick rock the trail went down into this canyon and followed it the rest of the way to Druid arch. Except for about a 500 ft climb at the end to get the best view of the arch.

Trail junctions were well marked with arrows and distances. You may think that trails this well marked would not have any scrambling or exposure....you would be wrong. But it was not too extreme...Brenda and I made it.

Just a view of a side canyon we didn't get into.

Part of the trail going down into the wash.

The trail after entering the wash

After climbing up a pour over in the wash.

The final scramble to the foot of the arch.

Druid Arch

Brenda and the arch

Looking back down the canyon we came up and the way back to the car.

First part of the trail from the parking lot across slick rock toward the wash trail.