Black Dragon Wash

Last time I was out atv riding, we were not able to go down Black Dragon but Saturday we rode down to the petroglyphs. We arrived at our starting spot around noon. It didn’t take long to get to the turnoff, from here the road degrades somewhat. Our first stop was to find a geocache.

After leaving we passed two other atvs and a motorcycle. The trail took us down into the wash where there were a lot more rocks. The trail got a little tougher down in here. When we arrived at the panel there was an older couple checking out the rocks. I had wanted to check out the cave for a long time but didn’t know where it was. A little back Summit posted some pics of it’s location so I had a good idea of where it is. We scrambled up the hill to find a shallow alcove, this couldn’t be it. Just to the right was the cave. It was way neat in the cave. I tried taking some photos with the flash but there was too much dust to get a decent shot.

After checking out the cave, we ate lunch and left. We followed the trail until another road came in and we followed that to another geocache. This trail lead us to I-70 and an old mining camp(?).

From there it was a nice ride with the sun setting, we even ran into a herd of donkey. There was about 8 of them in the bunch.

Kmz file of the trip.

Swasey’s Leap

On Sunday, Dad and I went for an ATV trip. We planned to go and find a geocache at Swasey’s Leap, then ride down to the Black Dragon Petroglyphs. We didn’t quite make it all the way. We rode to Swasey’s Leap and ran into a couple of other atvers. But they all disappeared after the Black Dragon turn off. The road is rough getting to the Leap but it is a lot easier on an atv. The hike is about a 2 mile along an old road. While walking it was plain to see some jerk had drove around the both fences and all the way to the leap.

We found the cache and then spent time hiking down to the leap and taking photos. The rocks are pretty sharp, so be careful not to slip on the way down.

After getting back to the atvs it was already past 3, so we decided to have a our lunch here and return to the truck. It was a nice ride and hike out to the Leap. A kmz file of the trip.

Black Dragon Canyon

Saturday we loaded up and headed over toward Ferron. We unloaded at the Black Dragon trailhead and headed up towards Flagstaff Peak. There we found a couple of geocaches and some we didn’t find. Now back at the truck we refueled and headed up Black Dragon.

We stopped at Mary’s Lake, ate some lunch and tried some fishing. According to the stocking report, they had planted some Arctic Grayling and we were hoping to catch some.

We didn’t catch anything. It was pretty cold so we decided to leave and head back to the truck. The wind had made the day really cold so I was freezing while riding. The trail was fun and on the way back we passed two other atv’s. A link to my kmz file.

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Coal Wash

Took the atv’s out Saturday to try Coal Wash. This time the wash crossing was cleared and we were able to ride Coal Wash.

The sky was cloudy all day which made the temperature a little cold while riding. For the most part this was an easy trail. We first stopped at a neat spot called The Drips. It is where water drips out of the rock into a small pool. We had an empty bottle with us, so we filled it and drank. The water tasted like dirt so we didn’t ingest too much.

Soon we were stopping at some Spanish Crosses carved into the rock.

Just after passing the fork into South Coal Wash we drove by the first group of people. They were all on motorcycles and gave friendly waves. A little further down the trail we stopped to hike into the ZCMI Mine. According to Michael Kelsey’s “Hiking and Exploring Utah’s San Rafael Swell” ZCMI stands for Zion’s Collection of Mormon Idiots. It states this was an extinct geyser. They were going to mine completely through but ran into the spout and quit. They mine only produced a variety a trace elements which didn’t mount to anything. There are 4 adits: one vertical, one caved in, one prospect pit, and the main tunnel.

Rock Shelter

Lower Shaft

Upper Shaft

After leaving the ZCMI Mine, we drove to Slipper Arch and encountered another large group. We stopped and had lunch, then it was off to find a geocache placed atop Slipper Arch. The climb up was steep scramble through scattered rocks. We finally reached the top and found the cache. We posed on top while getting our picture taken and then it was time to go back down. It was just as much work going down as was going up.

To go back, we took a different route that lead us out of the wash. This was road didn’t provide any good overlooks. In all we rode about 47 miles and had a good time while out there. Here is a kmz file of the trip.

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