Stardate 2016.400

The Goblin Keeper

Goblin Valley
Our Utah trip continued with a visit to Goblin Valley State Park. Goblin Valley is a dense collection of eroded hoodoos. I've been there numerous times. However, this trip was a bit different as the park has put in a nice little selection of mountain bike-specific trail. Thanks to Snowcatcher's research, we had to visit. I'm glad we did; bikes aside, it's a lair of desert magic. Better yet, surrounding the park mysticism is miles and miles and miles of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) enchantment.

Goblin Valley resides in southeast Utah and is located southwest of the town of Green River and north of the hamlet of Hanksville. The Henry Mountains seemingly rise out of nowhere to an elevation over 11,000 feet. Perhaps we should have a "why the Henry's are there" blog sometime.



A handful of posts back, while sitting at 30,000 feet, I mentioned I was flying over a region where I had spent time doing hydrologic and geomorphic fieldwork. Well, here I was; right back in the middle of the study area again — kuule beanz! It's not quite as isolated as it was 29 years ago, but it's still in the middle of heaven. We even had the bike trail, which is less than a year old, mostly to ourselves. On a side note, if you're a rock hound, lots of exposed chert may be found scattered around.




Some nice specimens of agate caught our attention too.




Wild Horse Butte rises to an elevation of 5,760 feet above the San Rafael Desert.




Colorful weathered Buttes dot the San Rafael Desert.




Stratigraphy of Wild Horse Butte tells the tale to those trained in this language. I'm not one of them.



I wonder what things will look like after another 1,000,000 years of geologic erosion. A time machine would be nice. In the following pic, the small road-looking feature just above right of photo center is actually Wild Horse Creek. The distant upthrust rocks just below the clouds in the photo upper right are the southern reach of the San Rafael Swell.




Another fine example of exposed agate caught our attention.



Looking south and to the left, Navajo Mountain touches the sky at 10,387 feet. On the right, the Henry Mountains greet the sky at more than 11,000 feet. The intricate canyon reaches of Lake Powell lie in between.




Who said nothing can grow in a desert?




All that's missing from this shot is a sun-bleached bovine carcass.




This is Goblin Valley proper. I grew up calling these erosive features hoodoos.






And another blog has come and gone. But, I have more, stay tuned...

Adios

Stardate 2016.395

Utah's Little Grand Canyon
Following are some pics from the northern San Rafael Swell region. If you've driven I-70 West out of Green River, Utah, you no doubt have been impressed by the upthrust stone that looks impossible to breach. That's the eastern slope of the swell (dome-shaped anticline). North and south regions of the swell are split by I-70.

Snowcatcher and I visited the impressive eroded features of the northern region's Wedge area during a recent trip. If you ever visit this enchanted expanse, I recommend entering the Little Grand Canyon from the south via I-70 because of the enhanced canyon scenic values (although, it's all scenic). The start from the south is on typical ranch and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) access roads.



The northernmost extension of the central route of the historic Old Spanish Trail ran between Green River, Utah and Castle Dale, Utah, skirting the Wedge area to the north. The Old Spanish Trail was a trade route between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and southern California from the early 1800s to approximately 1850. The reason the trail goes so far north is to bypass the intricately complex canyon country of southern Utah and northern Arizona, which at the time was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to navigate.

After to 15 to 20 miles, the Little Grand Canyon came into view.




secluded...




...and stunning




I'm not sure what these flagstone cairns were used for; our navigation was easy and straight-forward.




A blooming barrel cactus.




We enjoyed the erosive features of the Little Grand Canyon by cycling along the edge from the Wedge Overlook.




The San Rafael River flows through the canyon. The other side is Sid's Mountain Wilderness Study Area.




There is no better architect than time.




I'd love to explore the river bottom some time.






The weathered canyon uplands have a wrinkled personality all their own.




The low-light angle of early evening tends to bring the canyon to life.






More to come...

Adios

Stardate 2016.175

Utah's Green River Symphony

Snowcatcher and I had been in Salt Lake City, Utah, for a couple of days. On the way home – via Moab, Utah, of course – the early evening sky opened up for us. As is common in this tiny section of the globe, the sunset gave us a superb show of color. The following photos were taken about 15 miles northwest of Green River, Utah. The first shot is looking northwest.




This was our view west toward the northern San Rafael Swell area.




Far away to the southwest rise Utah's Henry Mountains. (very distant, bottom center)




Here's a zoom toward the western horizon and the northern San Rafael Swell.




One more shot west of the San Rafael Swell.




This year's high desert, spring mountain biking season begins with my next post.

Adios