Cleopatra

[klee-uh-pa-truh, -pah-, -pey-]
noun

1. 69–30 b.c, queen of Egypt 51–49, 48–30.
2. best seat on a raft, maybe not so great in the rapids, but definitely preferred for sun-bathing and general coolness

Sarah on the Cleopatra – well deserved, since I still owed her 1.5 hours of sleep.

Today was not a good start for – not quite a morning person yet – Sarah. My papers said that we would meet our rafting guides at 8AM in the pretty much abandoned town of Cisco. We got there by 7:30 only to realize that we were 1.5 hours early and that there is nothing, that’s right: absolutely nothing, to do in Cisco. Luckily, the trip to the Westwater ranger station (the beginning of our rafting trip) was short (we left Allen by the Cisco boat launch) and once we had all our stuff packed away on two rafts we were all eager to go. Our rafting guides Susan and Colin were awesome and we were off to new adventures in no time at all.

Into Westwater canyon

Soon we left the Westwater ranger station behind and floated down the Colorado. Colin told us about the rapids, Adam was paddling happily in a small inflatable kayak and we made fun of Joan, who had unceremoniously departed her raft on a previous whitewater trip in Oregon.

Adam in some small rapids.

On the Colorado River

We had lunch at Miner’s Cabin, where Colin and Susan pulled an amazing Cesar Salad out of the coolers and we all munched on wraps, Pringles and cookies. Down river we went until we reached Little Hole, where Susan took us on a hike to a large alcove with petroglyphs and a great view. The alcove was just the place to be: we go surprised by a little thunderstorm. Luckily we all stayed dry under the big overhang and enjoyed a short-lived waterfall pouring over the edge of the sandstone cliff.

Petroglyphs

A short-lived desert waterfall.

A few miles downstream we pulled into our campsite at “lower little D”, (or lower Little Dolores), the Little Dolores being a small stream entering the Colorado from the east. The site is great: lots of good camping on top of a small bluff of Precambrian black metamorphic rocks, a nice sandbar, no flies and an awesome dinner cooked by Colin and Susan under a small tarp during two thundershowers. The pineapple upside-down cake turned out awesome, and so did the steaks and everything else.

The little Dolores running blood-red from some spring thunderstorms.

Photobombed!

We did a little pre-dinner hike to a small waterfall, enjoyed the peace and quiet, and late evening campfire. No s’mores though. Joan and Christoph decided that this is definitely the way to travel!

back to day 8
let’s take a little break
onward to day 10

Half a peach pie to be precise! Half a peach pie on sale at Moab’s City Market grocery store and purchased while waiting in an endless line at Starbucks. Joan wanted coffee, Christoph was happy to get out of grocery shopping (how long can it take to buy to cups of coffee ??) and definitely pulled the short straw. Two billion soy macciatos with hazelnut, a dash of 2%, a  sprinkle of cinnamon, and “oh, would you mind filling my water bottle too” later Christoph was still  half a dozen customers away from putting in his order, while Joan had purchased all the needed groceries, packed the van, went to the bathroom, rinsed out her travel mug, read the newspaper, called her husband, rescued a Caracara somewhere in Oklahoma – and refused to buy pie. Lauren, Hadley and Christoph bought it while (still) standing in line and and shared it with Sarah later that night. I’ve never seen three girls inhale a pie faster! Ever! Why  we went to City Market in the first place?  I have no recollection.
After our shopping spree  we backtracked a bit and headed into the La Sal Mountains on the La Sal Mountain loop. We had lunch at Warner Lake campground, where it was pretty chilly but beautiful amongst all those aspen trees. That’s definitely a spot to keep in mind for summer camping.

Warner Lake campground.

After Adam had emptied out half the strawberry jam onto one taco and a few last bathroom visits we headed up the trail to Gold Knob. We first hiked through lots of dark conifers before the trail gained height through some wide switchbacks that led us through more beautiful aspen trees.

Lauren, Hadley and Sarah and plenty of aspen.

Almost there Joan, well – not really.

After about an hour or so we reached the saddle between Gold Know and the rest of the La Sal Mountains and headed through the grass straight to the peak.

Adam and Christopher almost up there.

At the top of Gold Knob. The snow was pretty deep as Hadley can tell you.

View into Castle Valley.

We spent maybe half an hour up on top, enjoying the views, eating our snacks and checking text messages…
After our return to Warner Lake we finished the La Sal Loop, drove through Castle Valley and all its subdivisions, and camped at a so-so campsite at Dewey Bridge, at the banks of the Colorado. No record exists of the demise of the peach pie.

back to Day 7
onward to Day 9

Our camp at Comb Wash. Tiny Allen hiding under plenty of majestic cottonwoods. Did I tell you that they are my favorites?
:-)

This morning we decided to brush up on history and culture and visited the highly recommended Edge of the Cedars State Park and museum. The exhibitions were outstanding and we spent quite some time looking at artifacts, photographs and a partially excavated ruin in the back yard of the museum. Joan and Christoph made sure that everybody had read and re-read the little display on “context”, which is just as important in notebook writing as it is in archeology. Lunch was spontaneously had at the local Subway while the professors stood in line to get their daily coffee fix. Then we headed through the Abajo mountains to Newspaper Rock.

The man-eating cows depicted on the rock were a true menace in 2002. Clearly they were early risers and did not look kindly on sleeping in. Rumor had it that on our very first ENVS fieldtrip they got the students out of their sleeping bags by giving the tents a little shake-down. How they did that without opposable thumbs will always remain a mystery, but they did make it onto the back of our very first field trip T-shirt:

The very first ENVS shirt – ever!

The campsites in the Abajos were pretty empty but they also looked pretty cold, so we moved on and hoped for a site at Windwhistle campground. We were in luck. After a long drive we arrived at a mostly empty campground and picked two sites before we headed out to Needles overlook, a few miles down the road.

Needles Overlook

View down from Needles Overlook.

Afterwards it was time for some reflections and landscape observations. The group dispersed, looked for a comfy spot and wrote down some solo observations.

Sarah writing her solo-observations.

Since too much solitude is not good for you either, the evening ended with some fierce card games after dinner.

Not exactly sure whose winning, but Lauren looks pretty intense!

Sunset over Windwhistle campground.

back to day 6
onward to day 8

Yep, this title makes more sense when you hear me say it. Just imagine a thick German accent!

Horsecollar Ruins in Natural Bridges N.M.

We left early to visit Natural Bridges National Monument. We got there just at 8 AM to use their bathrooms and steer some business to the visitor center’s gift shop. Afterwards Christoph dropped the group off at the Sipapu Bridge trailhead. As soon as the last student had disappeared into the canyon he turned that van around and headed to the next Starbucks – yeah, not quite. A quick visit to the Starbucks website showed that the closest store would have been back in Moab. So, he went to the Kachina Bridge trailhead and picked up the crew after a short hike through the canyons.

Kachina Bridge

Next we headed south towards Muley Point, one of our favorite viewpoints in the region. Unfortunately the weather was too bad, and Allen not quite up to the task of driving on a very slippery dirt road in drizzling rain.

The view from the Moki dugway. The name probably comes from “Moqui”, the Spanish name for the nearby Hopi tribe.

The view wouldn’t have been that great anyway, so we turned around and drove down the Moki dugway, an impressive couple of miles that go pretty much nowhere, except straight down (or up). We had lunch at the Goosenecks where we admired the incised meanders and talked with the ranger in the ticket booth about the dirt road out to the Honaker Trail trailhead. He was pretty much clueless.

The goosenecks of the San Juan.

Luckily the description in our guidebook was spot-on, Allen enjoyed the improved dirt road and took us even closer to the trailhead than the book suggested. It had begun to rain again, and we hiked the first mile or so in a steady drizzle.

At the beginning of the Honaker Trail.

After a mile across the sagebrush we arrived at the canyon rim. A small cairn indicated the trailhead, but it was far from obvious how we would reach the San Juan, approximately 1300 ft below us. The canyon walls seemed pretty much vertical. Nevertheless, there was a trail, the guidebook assured us that it would be a piece of cake, and down we went.

Adam and Christopher trying to give Joan a heart attack halfway down the canyon.

Almost down by the river.

The trail was pretty easy. It consisted of short, steep sections through breaks in the cliff-forming rocks that were connected through long, gently sloping switchbacks in the slope-building weaker sediments. It took about 90 minutes to get down and less than that to get back up to the canyon rim (fewer photo stops).

The canyon of the San Juan river.

In the meantime it had  even stopped raining, and after an exciting hike we arrived back on top of the canyon and could see Allen waiting for us in the distance.

Allen on the horizon.

Comb Wash at night.

From here we briefly stopped at the Sand Island petroglyph panels and had showers in Bluff before we returned to Comb Wash for a rather late dinner under the cottonwoods.

back to Day 5
onward to Day 7

Our campsite at the Colorado River.

Today started with a long drive from Onion Creek back to Moab and South to Natural Bridges National Monument. Unfortunately we missed out on a campsite in Natural Bridges, which had us backtrack all the way to Comb Wash, where we had lunch under large, scrappy-looking cottonwoods. Yes, they still are my favorite trees – they exemplify the West, and nothing beats falling asleep under their rustling leaves.

Cottonwoods galore – who cold wish for a better campsite…

Cassia discovered a nice big lizard, which was properly photographed:

Cassia in action …

… and her not too happy-looking subject.

After setting up tents, looking at the map and taking some more pictures we piled back into Allen and drove back, through Comb Ridge, to Butler Wash. Butler Wash contains a few Anasazi ruins and a visit to the ruins can be followed up by a great hike to the top of Comb Ridge.

Allen packed to the brim.

Hiking up Comb Ridge.

Ephemeral pools on Comb Ridge.

At the crest of Comb Ridge, a very long and impressive monocline.

View from Comb Ridge. Comb Wash, our camp site, is just south of the highway to the right of the brown dirt road. If you squint a bit you can see our yellow LL Bean tents.

We spent some time at the overlook, taking in the ruins before following a small drainage uphill towards the crest of the ridge. Our hike followed a series of ephemeral pools. A few years ago they were full of tadpoles. This year we find hardly any. Maybe we are too early in the season. The view from the ridge is as breathtaking as ever, and our students learned a bit about the uplift of the Colorado Plateau, synclines, anticlines and – of course –  monoclines.

Joan on her way back down the ridge.

The return trip down the slickrock was pretty fast, and we decided to check out the Anasazi ruins in Mule Canyon. The entrance fee is pretty steep but well worth it. We hiked into a small canyon, enjoyed the lush vegetation and kept our eyes open for some ruins.

At the Mule Canyon trailhead.

The ruins were not that hard to find. Clearly, some (all ?) of the thousands of visitors that cam before us had found them already and left a clear path up the side of the cliff. The ruins were small, most likely re-built, but still pretty impressive. We were glad we came. Pretty big, black rain clouds made us beat a hasty retreat but, again, we didn’t see more than a few sprinkles, though it rained quite a bit later that night.

Anasazi ruins in Mule Canyon.

Bonus cottonwood! One can never have enough cottonwoods in a blog post.

back to Day 4
onward to Day 6