Moonshine Wash

After leaving Champagne Geyser, we set off for Moonshine Wash. We entered through a side road that lead us within half a mile of the narrows. This canyon doesn’t require ropes but it does require some climbing skills. The biggest dryfall is about 10 feet but it is easy to chimney down them.

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Start of the narrows

After a short distance, the wash gets deeper and the dryfalls appear. After climbing past 2 the canyon really deepens.

Within half a mile of the start, we passed under the sheep bridge. The canyon is really deep in this part. In this picture, my father is standing underneath.

Just another tenth of a mile the canyon widens.

The escape route is then 3/4 a mile from the sheep bridge.

The walk back to the car was tiring, there were a lot of up and down. The trail was also sandy. I would not recommend taking children along the rim to the bridge. It is steep and sandy and a lot of exposure.

Champagne Geyser

After a day of hiking to Bow Knot Bend, we decided to camp near the San Rafael River. The spot we had our eye on was taken so we went farther down and camped along the Chaffin Ranch Road. After dinner we went to see Champagne Geyser aka Chaffin Ranch Geyser. The geyser is about a mile down the Chaffin Ranch Road.

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It was an old drill hole that became a mineral geyser, the water spouts 15 to 25 feet into the air. The geyser last for 20 minutes and erupts almost every 2 to 3 hours.

After waking up, I found an antler placed on my tent.

Nearby the geyser is some old cars and parts. There used to be an old cabin but it is in a pile now.

At 8:30, the geyser erupted again.

While the geyser was erupting, I put my hand in the water. It was cold and the water tasted rather salty. You could drive right up and watch the geyser from your car.

Colonnade Arch and Bow Knot Bend

After seeing Summit42’s pictures of Colonnade Arch, I had to go out and see this for myself. So on Saturday we drove 40 miles South of Green River near Horseshoe Canyon. Then turned onto Keg Spring road, the road ends and just fades into slickrock. After walking past the slickrock the trail head begins.

The trail follows an old jeep trail. After passing some rock cairns, we had to leave the road and head towards the Green River.

The arch is located on the edge of the canyon. This is a little hard to find without a GPS. This was an awesome arch, it overlooks the Green River.

After soaking in the views, it was time to head to Bow Knot Bend. The trail got a little rougher, there was no defined trail. While en route I spotted some deer antlers.

The trail then descends a small bluff.

After 3 miles we arrived at the end.

Then back to camp.

Muzzleloader

Today I got an e-mail saying I drew out to go hunt deer with a muzzleloader. My brother also drew out. Last year I drew at on the rifle hunt. I shot my deer opening morning. The buck was 100 yds off the highway. The year before I shot a buck on the first evening with a muzzleloader. Looking forward to go out again this year.

Wedged

All last week the wind has been blowing and making it hard to go out on the desert. Today it let up a little bit so I went on a ride near the Wedge.

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The trail could be accessed by any high clearance vehicle. Picture of a rough spot.

Near the end of the trail.

A cool Juniper Tree

After getting to the overlook, I turned around and drove the loop. This trail was an easy ride with some minor rock outcroppings.

Work Truck

Well sheeet, we have to dig a grave this week. The funeral is planned for Friday but the family is not sure if it will be Friday. I hope we don’t have to bury the grave Saturday because I have plans of going to a geocaching event that day. We got our new truck Monday and yes it has a hemi. It is a quad cab, black with black trim. The new truck is replacing a beaten 1991 Dodge Ram. This truck has gone through 2 clutches, 2 alternators, a radiator, and many other parts. We would load the sander into this truck to salt the roads so the bed is all rusty. One of the funniest moments with this truck was when we got out and engaged the parking brake. We went inside the shop to get tools and as soon as we got out the truck was rolling away. Bam, it crashed into a trailer house and about 10 mexicans came running out of the trailer. We ran over to the truck and no one from the trailor spoke any english. The cops were called and the translator was out of town. Finally a buddy showed up to translate, after an hour or so we got it all worked out. The truck only had a busted tail light and the door was bent out of shape because it was left open. The trailer was knocked off the foundation and a hole in the side. It will be nice to retire that poor truck.

Fishing

Today my parents, brother, and I went fishing at Millsite. We arrived at 3:00, the weather was nice. This was the first fishing trip of the year.

Mike cast out a Jake’s lure and caught a small rainbow. I tossed my line out and nothing for a while. We were only able to catch 1 fish with a lure. So we all switched to worms. I was on one side, Mike in the middle, and Kirt on the other side. After thirty minutes, Mike caught another fish.

After Mike got his on the stringer I caught a splake. It was a little small, but we decided to keep this fish since it swallowed the hook. Soon Mike had another fish, he reeled the line close to shoreline and there were two fish. The line slackened and the second fish got away.

At around 4:30 the wind began to blow so we decided it was a good time to leave. We had kept six fish altogether. I caught 3, dad caught 5, and my brother caught 2. The middle was the hot spot.

After getting home, I decided to try my hand at filleting the fish. Not very easy, I was able to remove the backbone but all the little bones were still left. I need some more practice before I can have beer battered fish.

Lens Adapter

Yesterday my lens adapter came in the mail. The package tracker said it was in Brooklyn until it was delivered to me. I purchased this lens adapter to help protect the lens on my camera. I have had too many close calls.

It has been really windy for the past couple of days. I hope the weather changes for the weekend because I want to go fishing at Millsite Reservoir Saturday. I also want to find some geocaches near Millsite.

We are going to get a new truck at work. It is a 2004 Dodge Ram. It is in good shape, we are just waiting for approval before we can go and pick it up.

Wild Horse Canyon

My family and I went to Wild Horse Canyon on Saturday. We left home around 10:00 and just before we got to I-70, there was a small dog on the road. It looked like he was limping so I stopped to see if the dog was lost. I got out and called for the dog, it just barked and ran away. I didn’t see any camps while driving but after I stopped there was the camp behind the trees so I left. Getting to the trail head wasn’t hard and soon we were hiking.

Dinosaur Egg Arch

Horse Handle Arch

After a while we passed by a fence that had been washed down by a flash flood

After 1 mile we arrived at the first narows

Soon after the narrows, my dad realized he left his keys in my Suzuki. So me and him went back while the rest of the group pushed on. It didn’t take us long to make it to my car. We drove farther down the wash, to the last parking area.

We hurried through the part we had already seen and before I knew it we were back to the first narrows. The rock formations changed and soon we were getting into the reef. We came across the second narrows. These were deeper than the first. I went to the bottom while dad stayed on top.

I had to climb out because of a large drop off.

Next we came to the third and last narrows. These were easy to walk and no drop offs.

We made it out of the narrows and out of the reef. There we saw the rest of the group waiting atop the hill at the truck.

There was some cloud cover which made the hike nice and cool. The hike was about 5 miles long which took us 2 hours and 30 minutes. There is also a nearby arch that is very cool to hike to. We hiked to this arch last year.

Lunch Break

My family wants to go out this weekend for a hike. I was thinking either Wild Horse Creek or Ding Canyon. I am leaning toward Wild Horse but maybe mom will be up to doing Ding.

Today I had to go out and clean up garbage and as I pulled up to the dumpster, I noticed a tent pole sticking out. I had a broken tent pole at home so I thought I could grab this one. Upon closer investigating, the pole was broken but the rest of the tent was also there. I took it out and it was in really good shape just missing poles. I could go and buy some poles for it or grab the poles from an old tent that is just laying around. I am surprised at what people throw away, why not donate to DIs or somewhere else or have a yard sale.