Spring Canyon, west of Moab Utah, was the target of our Saturday exploring trip.
The first stop was at Bartlett Arch at the head of Bartlett Wash.
The second stop was at Dubinky Well where I wanted to spend some time taking pictures of the old windmill and tanks.
We then headed west to “The Needles”, a sandstone tower and cliffs near the head of Spring Canyon. Here we found some jeep trails that headed west down into broken country where we had located the Dellenbaugh Tunnel some years before. It required some searching before we were able to locate the correct trail. It seems like this area changes every time we are there.
In the meantime, thunderstorms had moved in and we started getting a little rain. This required some caution on our part since we needed to anticipate what would happen if it began to rain hard. That meant keeping the Explorer on sandy or rocky jeep trails and away from ravines, washes or canyons. We had parked higher on the hill and hiked down to the tunnel which was a unique and very LOOOOONG natural bridge. Somehow, the drainage had managed to tunnel under and through the sandstone hills instead of flowing around the rock. We walked through the sixty or seventy feet of tunnel and then walked out to the cliffs overlooking Spring Canyon before retreating back to the shelter of the tunnel to avoid a brief rainstorm.
Waiting for the rain to stop was a rather pleasant experience. However I am always a little frustrated when I can’t figure out how to capture something with a camera. Even video really didn’t work.
When the rain stopped and we had taken our fill of pictures, we headed back up the hill to the Explorer and spent some time roaming around the hills to the south.
We then bounced our way back to the main gravel road and drove down the Spring Canyon rim road, stopping at Secret Spire and Juniper Arch on the way.
After a few pictures at the Green River overlook, we headed back to Moab Utah again, grateful that we were able to dodge most of the rain clouds that threatened us all day.
The passing storms left behind enough clouds to provide a very colorful sunset.
A few miles east of The Needles, we came up on an odd sight… a porcupine. Out in the middle of sand and sagebrush… a porcupine. He must have climbed up out of the Green River bottoms somewhere.
Very odd.