Thursday, November 24/2011

Heading out - Kane Creek Rd

classic wind erosion - nature's sculpting of the soft sandstone  cliffs

US 191 S

Wilson's Arch

Hwy 211 - towards  Canyonlands National Park

Lockhart Basin Road - Our destination

weekend camping spot - We have a Juniper Tree!!

Marie driving out!

It is American Thanksgiving today so hopefully there will not be too much traffic on the highway.  We left our spot on Kane Creek Road and headed into Moab to fuel up, then if the Red Dirt Store is open, we will stop there and pick up a few more things then be on our way.
John wants to park along Lockhart Basin Road tonight (apparently there is boondocking sites there) and do a couple of trails in the canyonlands area.  One of these trails is Elephant Hill and is rated a 3 out of 4 so should be interesting!!
We headed south on 191, past the infamous "Hole in the "Rock",  a historic 5000 sq. foot, 14 room house carved out of the rock which began taking shape about 100 years ago by the Christensen family.   What began as a small alcove for the young Christensen boys to sleep in at night, grew into a man made engineering marvel 20 years in the making.  One can now tour the house, take in the exotic zoo and shop in the gift shop.  It was closed today (being Thanksgiving) and would be quite interesting to see.
Further down the road, we passed Wilson's Arch.  Named for Joe Wilson, a local pioneer, the arch spans 91 feet and is 46 feet high.  It, like so many other arches in the areas was formed by the weather.
We soon turned onto highway 211 which leads to the Canyonlands National Park.  We passed through some incredible country.  We passed Newspaper Rock which is one of the worlds largest petroglyph sites, They are carved into the dark background of desert varnish on the rock surface ranging in age from 1500 years to the last few hundred.  Newspaper Rock is protected from the weather by a large lip of rock that projects outward above it.
We also passed the South and the North Sixshooter Peaks.  These two towers (both in excess of 6000 feet tall) are wingate sandstone (a type of sandstone that dates back to the early Jurassic, late Triassic periods) and stand isolated on a pile of shale and sandstone.  They often appeared in classic western films.  Today, they are a destination for hikers and mountain climbers and are steeped in Anasazi history with petroglyphs on several surfaces of the rock.
We found Lockhart Basin Road and a campsite and settled in for the weekend.  This seems to be a rather popular area and we are surrounded by several other campers.  It was a bit windy out so John got out the trusty little "campfire in a can" and we sat inside the trailer with the back door down and enjoyed the view along with an awesome sunset.