T-Dub'ing to Uranium Arch via the Seven Mile Rim Road and Exploring Near the Camp Area.

 Today was forecasted to be mostly overcast and very windy.  There was perhaps a two hour window when there might be some sun before the wind warnings took effect at noon; and so Yagi and I headed out to check out the 7 Mile Rim Trail.

The trail isn't bad at all, though there's parts where rock ledges can make life a bit too exciting:

I ended up bypassing this one....

It didn't take long before I arrived at Uranium Arch, at first I had the place to myself...

You are apparently allowed to walk across the arch,

I saw no signs prohibiting it, so I did.

And then, a large group of Jeeps showed up....

Can you see the Jeeps arriving?

Yep, Yagi was trapped.

After a few minutes, there didn't seem to be any movement for the Jeep people to get back into their Jeeps and drive off.  I found the ride leader, a nice older gent, and asked for his assistance in clearing a path out for Yagi.

Turns out, only two Jeeps needed to be moved.  I snaked Yagi out of there and headed towards the Monitor and Merrimac Buttes which were nearby.

Monitor Butte

Merrimac Butte

Can you spot Yagi in the middle?  Slight off center...

As you can see, the clouds had moved in and it threatened rain along with increasingly stronger winds.  We were in fact under a Red Flag Warning/Wind Advisory till 8PM!  So I found my way back to Mill Canyon Road, stopping once for a picture of another rock formation:

After a late lunch, the sun broke through the clouds and I headed out once more to explore the back portion of Dalton Wells Road (went all the way to right next to the boundary with Arches NP.  Found lots more campers out back, some interesting trails, and some cool rock formations:

At first view of this trio, I thought the rock on the

left looked like a knight chess piece....

I like the back side of the previous rocks, and then

saw the interesting rock formation wall behind them.

I followed trails, with the goal of getting closer to the wall of rock shown above...finally after a bit of riding, found a spot near a hill top strewn with large rocks which made riding "exciting" at times.

Though the rock wall and columns looked cool, I then noticed an interesting feature a bit further to the left of the columns shown above.

Is that cool or what?  I'm tempted to go back and hopefully find a 

way to hike towards that cave, and see how far in it goes....

I've been fooled by the way light and shadow show

up on film and to the naked eye....still, I wonder....

After some more map and satellite photo reconnaissance I get the feeling the above rock formation is Klondike Bluffs within the Arches National Park, oh well.

As I type this, the VRRV has been moving and shaking a lot, the winds have really picked up and at times visibility was basically a brown cloud.  

Update: April 17: Cave was not a cave...more in the next post.