Sara and I awoke from our late night driving rampage to find the Subaru surrounded by a snowy wonderland at 8500'. Sara could have easily slept for another several hours but I wanted to assess the snow situation in case we had difficulty escaping. Thankfully the snow was only about an inch and a half deep and the greasy mud underneath did not pose much issue. We arrived in Moab an hour later to find almost everything closed for Thanksgiving. A quick stop at the store, and then a much longer stop at the only open cafe, and then we were done with Moab for the whole trip. We battled the predictably long line to enter Arches National Park and then pulled into the visitor center lot. As luck would have it Fiery Furnace permits were sold out that day, but we managed to snag the last two spots for tomorrow. We went through the motions watching the video and listening to the range and forking over the money, and I could relax the rest of the day knowing we would have something cool to do tomorrow. Today could be an adventure hang-over day.
U-Turn Canyon sounded like a super-straightforward, accessible, pleasant, and short venture we could do from the upper Park Avenue trailhead so I was all game. A short walk from the highway and an easy gully allowed remarkably rapid access to the slickrock plateau towering above Park Avenue. The views of the tiny cars below and the vast landscape of slickrock and snowy peaked La Sals spoiled us.
We found the entrance to the canyon straightforward enough and the rappel anchors easy enough to spot. Sara ended up doing a couple more rappels than I would have opted to. It's a shame the sandstone here is so soft, most of the rappels had bad rope grooves. The canyon turned the corner after the first two rappels and opened up into a broad slickrock slab with expansive views. The play of long winter shadows on the sandstone was a definite highlight.
Sara and I took a slight detour to walk across the slickrock patio to get up close with the enormous balanced rock visible from Park Avenue, then completed the final rappel with my 200ft rope barely reaching. In a few short minutes walk we were back at our cars. A quick trip, we were back at the car in under 2hrs.
We then drove out to the Garden of Eden area where I tried to gauge Sara's enthusiasm level while at the same time noticing the low position of the sun. It took a few minutes of deliberation, but motivation levels secured we started walking across on the canyoneer's route to Elephant Butte. This was unique in that I did not have a map of the route, only a written description describing bullwinkle-shaped rocks, black streaks, free-standing towers, and so on. This description was surprisingly well-written and a great way to describe the route. We climbed up a boulder-choked canyon, through sandy glens, up steep slabs, over passes, down rappels, and then up slickrock, through cliff bands, and on up the summit. I ended up belaying or handlining for Sara on many of the climbing moves.
The summit of Elephant Butte is the highest point in Arches National Park and commands a panoramic view over the canyon country. We were surprised that we were perhaps one of about four groups on the summit. It makes sense that this would be the ideal activity for climbers to round out a mellow Thanksgiving day, and it was for us too.
We worked our way back down the slabs and into a neighboring drainage. One stay-dry pothole to span and then one rappel and we were back down on the ground. We caught the crisp sunset as we drove back out of Arches in the evening "commuter" traffic.
A drive up to Island In the Sky reunited us with our friends back at Horsethief Campground. We arrived just in time for a tasty fire-cooked meal and a nice warm spot by the fire despite sub-freezing temperatures. We slept well! A good if nontraditional Thanksgiving. Thanks to the cooks!
No comments:
Post a Comment