For the second day of our anniversary trip to Moab we chose some easier trails to just relax and enjoy the scenery. It was still hotter than I liked, but who cares about heatstroke - we're JEEPERS! We started off on the Onion Creek trail, which connected with the Thompson Canyon trail, then on to Polar Mesa. Long day, but the scenery was amazing and the drive was lots of fun.
The BLM says that there are 27 water crossings (and one bridge) along the 9.5 miles of the Onion Creek trail. We counted 34 crossings - they may need to update their trail info. This is the first one. Most were similar, although as we got further along the trail the crossings got rockier and more washed out. The BLM had a grader out to reduce the effects of the spring runoff, but they clearly had more work to do.
Our doggos, Poco, The Chiweenie Queenie and Chase, The Chucklehead, appreciated the coolness of the water.
We had been swapping places with several other folks as we went along, stopping for pics from time to time. There were two Broncos, an overland-rigged Tundra and a Lexus G-something (!) whose occupants were struggling along, pretending to be having fun. I never bothered to shift into 4WD at any point, although there were a few spots when it might have made things a little easier. By the time we had made our 15th crossing we had left all of them behind and didn't see any of them for the rest of the day.
The BLM had posted a sign that prohibited driving in the creek except at crossings and mandating a $250 fine for anyone caught doing it. I stopped at one point to take some pics of a spot where the creek had undercut a small bluff and as I walked around a bend in the creek (about 200 feet off the trail) I found this:
Why do some people have to do this kind of thing? This is why we keep losing more trails every year. The tread patterns seemed to indicate that these were ATV/UTV type vehicles, but I have seen other places where full size 4x4's were the ones tearing up the countryside. As off-road enthusiasts of any type, we all need to be better than this.
Anyway, as we continued up the trail we began to see more evidence that the creek level got much higher during the spring runoff than what we were experiencing. It got a little tough to enjoy the scenery when I was constantly having to dodge tree limbs and other debris, but it wasn't difficult to keep going, so we did.
Onion Creek carved a nice canyon on its way down from the mountains, here's a few shots of that part of the trail.
After leaving the canyon we joined the 17-mile long Thompson Canyon trail which, to be honest, had less canyon than Onion Creek did. The trail was more like a flat or occasionally rolling road, well-graded and very easy for the most part, only getting more mountainous and rocky for the last few miles.
We then made the turn-off for Polar Mesa, a 10-mile out-and-back run up some fun switchbacks and up to an old mining area. Stopped for lunch at a cool-looking headframe and explored (carefully and not too far in) a few mine tunnels. Then we headed down the mountain to Castle Valley and along the Colorado River back to Moab.
This was our second trip to Moab and we can't wait to come back. The only downside for the trip was that the back window on my 19-year old factory soft top self-destructed after the first day and we made the trip home with the back of the LJ wide open - noisier than usual, but not really a bad thing. After several repairs to the top over the last 10 years, it's time for a new one, already ordered from Bestop. All in all, an almost perfect trip with a partner who enjoys this sort of thing as much as I do. Happy Trails, Y'all!
The BLM says that there are 27 water crossings (and one bridge) along the 9.5 miles of the Onion Creek trail. We counted 34 crossings - they may need to update their trail info. This is the first one. Most were similar, although as we got further along the trail the crossings got rockier and more washed out. The BLM had a grader out to reduce the effects of the spring runoff, but they clearly had more work to do.
Our doggos, Poco, The Chiweenie Queenie and Chase, The Chucklehead, appreciated the coolness of the water.
We had been swapping places with several other folks as we went along, stopping for pics from time to time. There were two Broncos, an overland-rigged Tundra and a Lexus G-something (!) whose occupants were struggling along, pretending to be having fun. I never bothered to shift into 4WD at any point, although there were a few spots when it might have made things a little easier. By the time we had made our 15th crossing we had left all of them behind and didn't see any of them for the rest of the day.
The BLM had posted a sign that prohibited driving in the creek except at crossings and mandating a $250 fine for anyone caught doing it. I stopped at one point to take some pics of a spot where the creek had undercut a small bluff and as I walked around a bend in the creek (about 200 feet off the trail) I found this:
Why do some people have to do this kind of thing? This is why we keep losing more trails every year. The tread patterns seemed to indicate that these were ATV/UTV type vehicles, but I have seen other places where full size 4x4's were the ones tearing up the countryside. As off-road enthusiasts of any type, we all need to be better than this.
Anyway, as we continued up the trail we began to see more evidence that the creek level got much higher during the spring runoff than what we were experiencing. It got a little tough to enjoy the scenery when I was constantly having to dodge tree limbs and other debris, but it wasn't difficult to keep going, so we did.
Onion Creek carved a nice canyon on its way down from the mountains, here's a few shots of that part of the trail.
After leaving the canyon we joined the 17-mile long Thompson Canyon trail which, to be honest, had less canyon than Onion Creek did. The trail was more like a flat or occasionally rolling road, well-graded and very easy for the most part, only getting more mountainous and rocky for the last few miles.
We then made the turn-off for Polar Mesa, a 10-mile out-and-back run up some fun switchbacks and up to an old mining area. Stopped for lunch at a cool-looking headframe and explored (carefully and not too far in) a few mine tunnels. Then we headed down the mountain to Castle Valley and along the Colorado River back to Moab.
This was our second trip to Moab and we can't wait to come back. The only downside for the trip was that the back window on my 19-year old factory soft top self-destructed after the first day and we made the trip home with the back of the LJ wide open - noisier than usual, but not really a bad thing. After several repairs to the top over the last 10 years, it's time for a new one, already ordered from Bestop. All in all, an almost perfect trip with a partner who enjoys this sort of thing as much as I do. Happy Trails, Y'all!
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