This has been a long hot summer with many days hitting 100 degrees. My garden thrived until it was 100 degrees in full sun. I had to put up shade cloth over part of my garden just to save it.

Finally, it was September and we had a small cold front pass through that took the daily high only into the 70’s. I grabbed my camera and my drone and headed for the Moab area.

[Oh ya. The cancer thing. I’m feeling better than I have felt in a year or so. I’m up to 150 lbs and I am hoping that is a good sign. I try to hike “the hill” every day and can now do so without stopping to catch my breath. I’ll probably schedule another CAT scan in December to see what is really going on inside. In the meantime, I continue to drink my Pau D’Arco tea and follow the Joe Tippens protocol.]

I drove down to a point just northwest of Moab and took the Sevenmile road towards Canyonlands Island in the Sky area. I then took the Dubinsky Well road northward and the Spring Canyon road westward. I was going to drive down the Spring Canyon switchbacks to the Green River but the trail looked a little narrow for my Ram pickup. I decided I would come back some time and bring my Honda ATV to drive down that access.

I headed back to the Canyonlands road and continued south a short distance so I could take the Mineral Canyon road south and then west to the edge of the plateau overlooking the Green River. The switchback dirt road for Mineral Bottoms looked much more inviting so I carefully drove down to the Green River where the White Rim Road joins.

I drove the White Rim Road southward as it follows along the east bank of the Green River. A number of miles later, I took another dirt road which heads east up Taylor Canyon for five miles to the ‘Zeus and Moses’ rock spires.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the temperature never got hotter than 79 degrees. It was good to visit this area again. Kind of like seeing an old friend again.

Near the bottom of the Mineral Bottom switchbacks, there is a large alcove on the opposite cliff face. It was deep enough to be a natural arch so we called it Spur Arch. However, we had never confirmed that it was a true arch. With my drone, I was able to cross the river and then fly up and over the alcove which confirmed that it really was not a natural arch at all. At least not yet. Scratch Spur Arch off the arch list.