Canyonlands, land of a 1000 canyons

[neliconcept]

back early, not happy about it but the weather came in fast, and i think its snowing right about now, sand and snow = no go

got 4 days and 3 nights in, did a total of 120 miles, lathrop canyon down to colorado river, stayed at airport and hogsback, went to eat lunch at my last campsite which was potato bottom but thats when the ranger informed me of the incoming activity. Decided to pack up then. By far my fav campground is pot bottom, it is near the river growth and gives you a feeling of african nature with the sand and weird trees. Their were some sand washes past that campsite and would have been utterly impossible to pass if snow was on those parts. I mean i did have to throw it in 4wd just to get up one hill after the wash. ranger said their was another wash with a rock in the middle, he said to do some donuts if you feel like it, so i did and setup my camera for it too, then i got axle deep stuck in 2wd, put it in 4wd, lets just say it took some work to get me out.

here are some teasers, working on the rest tomorrow, im dead tired.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8803.jpg

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ill tell the story tomorrow as well

[Seanz0rz]

blake, i am seriously jealous!!!!!

cant wait to hear the stories!!!!!

[neliconcept]

ok on with the story.

I decided to leave a little early and start my drive saturday night to get there at night or in the morning. Well I made it to about Glennwood Springs then I decided to take a nap, interesting highway around the glennwood canyon, each bound is on top of another, and their is a train on the other side of the river, well the rest stop i stopped at was near the train tracks, i stopped there for sleep, didnt really get any, train went by every freakin hour. plus it was super cold.

next morning got to moab, saw some insane hummers, nice rigs drivin about, got wendys, topped off and went to the island in the sky visitors center. some nice views along the way, you wont think their is any canyons till you get on the white rim itself or go down to the lookouts. Since I was their early, i saw they had an extra night avail for airport, so i just decided to add a night and start that day.

here is the shafer trail or switchbacks that I descended on to start the trip.

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nearly down the switchbacks, met a lot of cars here, but its only like 4 miles long so a lot of ppl were just driving to get a better view.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8685.jpg

some mountain goat i assume? had my 10-20 lens so i didnt get a great shot of them, they were runnin like hell anyways, i guess my bumper scared em.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8694.jpg

down on the rim, only about 2 miles or so from the shafer trail itself.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8708.jpg

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lol this was a funny little thing, i heard this OMG LIKE OMMMG echoing through the canyon, then i notice a little raft on the river, then yell omg like stfu yea!!!! that got their attention, but lucky for me they are blind.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8716.jpg

this is the musselum arch. i almost walked on it by accident, not wide at all

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8731.jpg

some rock potholes near the arch itself

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8735.jpg

going onward to my first campsite, as you can tell a lot of the road is flat at the beginning, but it gets rocky and bumpy and it will jar your bones apart after airport camp to murphys hogback.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8743.jpg

at airport, the sunset there was phenominal

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8756.jpg

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this is airport camp B, this was my view when i was eating and setting up camp

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8799.jpg

[slosurfer]

Bale, Very nice pics and looking forward to the rest. Since we don't have a popcorn icon, I'll use this one instead. :coffee:

[neliconcept]

oh so my new name is now Bale? lol

[AxleIke]

Awesome Pics man..

Smart move about bailing before the weather hit. We've done a single vehicle drive out of Canyonlands in snow...Its hairy and not much fun at all.

[neliconcept]

Day 2.

Their is a trail about a mile back towards the shafer from Airport that is the Lathrop trail, it is hairy going down the first few switchbacks but is easy from their on out. very fun goes all the way down to the colorado river. very nice drive as well, my fav picture of the tree on the first page is down near the growth from the river. its also a wash through the canyon.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8826.jpg

i only used 4wd 4 times and this trail was one of them

sorry for the blurry pic

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8828.jpg

very interesting rock formations down this area too, i liked the erosion holes that were created among some of these rocks

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8844.jpg

not all of the trail was really easy to spot, here im on a rock face and it leads back to the given path

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8852.jpg

gotta have a mug shot, near the tree that i took on the first page.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8866.jpg

down at the Colorado river, had 5 picnic table and a toilet hole.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8873.jpg

its usually green, here i decided to make it red :)

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8882.jpg

another mug shot

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8886.jpg

more interesting rock formations

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8902.jpg

back at the waterfall/wash area where its just a rock path. easy to spot if you just stay away from the soil that will be damaged.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8909.jpg

i love these rocks

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8915.jpg

airport camp is called airport due to the tower behind it, this is airport tower here

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8917.jpg

then i proceeded to sunbath because it got hot that day, and was quite pleasant.

[Good Times]

nice photos man :) i envy u!

[neliconcept]

Day 3

I was done with airport now and didnt have to stay there anymore, so onward to murphys hogback, I also passed gooseberry and white crack camps, neither that i would have cared to stay at imo. They are nice but their views are spectacular like it was up on murphys. the drive to murphys was freakin bummmmpy. up until i passed gooseberry, i was driving in a sand bar with cacti and other scrubs on either side, I did preun some areas some and I think i got up to about 45 one time.

going up to murphys hogback, its basically on a high plateau, and you had to use 4wd to get up to it, just for the shear steep climb and some small off camber situations, i just let it crawl up, another reason i love that 5:1, it never rolled back.

getting up there, their were 3 campsites, two toilets, then you have to go back down the freakin plateau again, so i would not add 2 nights here inless you plan to hike muprhy trail and murphy wash, which is a day hike, I never did them, mainly due to my ankle which is wraped at the time being.

on with the pictures

this spire here is about 2 miles past aiport tower

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8922.jpg

here is another of airport during sunrise

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8932.jpg

onward through the bone jarring rocks, this doesnt look bad but man it will make you jump, a big note, my yak loadwarrior rack was tightened down, but it kept sliding down the rails, and it was pissssssin me off.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8939.jpg

one thing is the clouds are noticablly not as high in the sky, so they give that really long range affect, plus my 10mm lens helped add some drama to it.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8944.jpg

yes its a picture of a cactus, for one ive never seen one outside of a resturaunt or something

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8962.jpg

not sure of this area but it had some cool looking needle spires inside the canyon

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_8968.jpg

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on the way up to murphys, this is just one section, it isnt the main seciton, i tried this in 2wd and didnt make it, so out did i go to lock the hubs.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9015.jpg

this is murphys site B, very cool site, but if you plan to do this trip, i suggest you ask for murphys A!, it has a spectacular view of sunset and you will have your breath taken away.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9016.jpg

i was supposed to be at B, and i stayed at B. but nobody even took A or C, i just decided to take pictures from A anyways

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9023.jpg

here is the sunset from murphys A

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9028.jpg

their is a big rock in murphys A that I climbed up to get this picture

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9049.jpg

I will have Day 4 soon, but i dont have them all uploaded from the camera just yet. so ill get those as soon as possible

my fav campsite is split between murphys and potato bottom

[neliconcept]

4th and final day. woke up freezing my buns off up on the murphys hogback island area. one reason im going to shop blackfriday at basspro down in denver tomorrow. Well I got to the last campsite of potato bottom and decided to take a small nap around 1pm, see a vehicle pulling up and its the ranger. telling me about the storm and about the sand washes up ahead that could be impassable with snow or rain hindering the surface. So I got my stuff packed up, took a grand total of 1 minute. Got out, took some more pictures, as you can tell is getting overcast from the pics.

oh and the donuts of the last sand wash are legal, The ranger totally told me to do it, and im not kidding lol.

onwards towards the pics again.

a funky little tree at my campsite, if you look up its there.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9057.jpg

this is the green river, i think its fun to drive near the river

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near the potato campsite, its basically in the growth of the green river.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9107.jpg

a tree at 10mm

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9152.jpg

the place where i had some fun

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me having fun
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me getting stuck lol

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nearly off the rim.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9161.jpg

now heading out of the mineral bottom switchbacks

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9166.jpg

and there you go a 4 day trip in the wilderness

then having some Christmas spirit visiting Vail to get me a coke

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m68/neliconcept/IMG_9174.jpg

[Doomist]

Wow! thats a sweet trip! i love all the pictures

[YotaChic]

Blake, those are some gorgeous photos! Sorry your trip got cut short, but looks like an amazing time anyway.

[Henrythewound]

I think those were bighorn sheep you saw early in your trip. Canyonlands is def on my return places to visit list. The trail didn't look that with the exception of that one loose slope you posted, although I know things look easier in pics. NO real sharp rocky or rooty sections to cut a sidewall that you encountered?

[neliconcept]

I think those were bighorn sheep you saw early in your trip. Canyonlands is def on my return places to visit list. The trail didn't look that with the exception of that one loose slope you posted, although I know things look easier in pics. NO real sharp rocky or rooty sections to cut a sidewall that you encountered?


their were alot of rocks, i thought i may have been able to cut a sidewall, but then again my firestones are pretty tough, everything looks tough, but i didnt really slip at all, never used the locker either. just keep a good momentum and dont try to gun it, i didnt air down either.

[penangtoy]

Beautifull pictures Very inspiring makes me want to be there and start painting. BTW what camera do you use?

[neliconcept]

I use a canon 30d with sigma 24-70 f2.8 and sigma 10-20 with bge2 battery grip