Short post today, being a typical Monday spent it working on issues and having to scramble a bit in the afternoon to find Internet access. The local cell tower I'd been using didn't have internet connectivity you see, I was getting 3 Bars of 4G LTE but when the cell tower can't connect to the Internet.....
During the morning break, rode over to check out the BLM camping area on Cotter Mine Road, across US 191 from just across the Archview RV Campground.
Nice road, I'd been on it before actually.
The campsite, one was nice, right next to Cotter Mine road but cellphone coverage was worse than on Willow Springs Road. Basically 3 bars of extended 1x for Verizon users.
Further up the hill from this campsite, a nice view of the valley leading to Moab:
Headed back down the hill, I stopped to get this view of the rocky canyon walls:
After work, I rode in Tim L's jeep to the town of Moab for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then some light food shopping.
Shortly after Tim dropping me off at my campsite, the weather became very overcast and windy. Growing to a pretty fair sized dust storm in short order. I even moved Scarlett to be in front of Uma, the URRV to shield her from the windborne sand.
So no Golden Hour tonight but in the last few minutes after sunset, there was some nice color in the sky.
Cathedral Valley is the site of many cool rock formations in Utah, the centerpieces of which are the Temple of the Sun and Moon formations which I'd photographed back in 2016: LINK
Today, Tim L (fellow Uralista and superb photographer) and I would undertake to ride the entire 56 mile long dirt road, ending up at the two aforementioned main formations and thence back to camp.
But first, a few pictures of the blue hour before sunrise this morning.
That's Tim's Jeep with the tent which flips over, pretty neat huh?
Tim's Jeep and Rig
Shortly before 9AM, we headed south on UT24 to Hanksville to fuel up and then proceeded on past the Cainville Wash Road juntion to the River Ford which forms the starting point for today's ride.
photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin
As you can see, not very deep
photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin
photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin
The 56 mile loop had a sandy start, and as we climbed away from the Fremont River, the scenery was pretty good:
photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin
photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin
Tim L. framed by rock walls, climbing higher
Crossing the Bentonite Hills
photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin
After the Bentonite Hills, it was quite a few miles of rather monotonous terrain that we rode through until finally we reached the area where one could look into the northern portion of Cathedral Valley:
We stopped for a brief snack and water at the Cathedral campground, which we had to ourselves. Surprisingly, good cell coverage for Verizon users here:
We then made our way down into the valley though a couple of switchbacks that would have been quite "interesting" to ride going up. Lots of rocks, both sticking out of the dirt and loose on the surface, a couple of rigs charging up the slope in order to not smoke the clutches, yeah, it would have been too interesting.
Fortunately, by starting at the Fremont River Ford, we were pointed downhill for this portion of the route!
The valley had plenty of nice rock formations but pictures were few as the light was quite flat at times, or the angles were wrong. Here's one that did turn out:
Many miles of sandy patches, rocky washes, more sand and dust and did I mention the sand? We finally got to the turnoff that leads one to the Temple of the Sun and Moon formations.
Temple of the Sun
The smaller temple of the moon.
Another 20 miles or so later, we were back at the junction of Caineville Wash Road and UT24 highway. Success! No injuries, no breakdowns, no accidents.
We motored on back to Hanksville to refuel and then for another ride back to the campsite. Both of us rested a little bit then we got our respective rigs loaded up on trailers and headed to Moab!
I stopped at Green River to dump tanks, refill the fresh water tank and refill the propane tank as well. Seven days camping had used up 7 gallons of propane.
Got to the Moab area around 5:30 I think and went onto the Willow Spring Road BLM area seeking a boondocking site. Wow, I've never seen the area so chock full of RVs and campers and tents! I must have missed the memo that summoned all these folks to camp here.
Fortunately, I did find a semi-level spot, ran into a couple of Uralisti who welcomed me to the area. I left with them, riding Scarlett and following them in the Gear-UP back to the Archview Campground where Tim was staying at one of the cabins.
Met up with another fellow Uralista, John from California and we chatted for a bit, and then I left to setup camp before dark.
A view of the distant peaks from the boondocking area
along Willow Springs Road.
Sunset at the campsite.
Tim is processing his own batch of pictures, as soon as he makes them available to me, I'll update this posting accordingly.
Friday, not much to report, spent the whole day working on issues that basically remained unresolved anyways. The weather was cool and overcast as well so not conducive to going riding anyways. The sunset for Friday wasn't bad though:
update: pics from Tim L's astrophotography near Goblin Valley State Park:
photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin
photo courtesy of Tim Laughlin
Saturday was clear, sunny and much warmer than the last couple of days. Rode out after breakfast to check out the sights along Utah Highway 24 first:
Sunrise was "meh"
Visitors to the boondocking site
or I guess, the local residents really
Cool rock formation next to Molly's Castle
Molly's Castle
Turning back towards Temple Mountain Road, I tried the road that I though would lead further up the mountain itself. I didn't get very far, the road got quite sloped and not in a good way. So I turned around and got these two shots instead:
Uraling further along Temple Mountain Road, I stopped here and there whenever I saw interesting rock formations:
At the furthest point of the ride, I found a trail that led to some nice tent campsites around a small butte. Riding around the front of the butte, I was able to get this shot of Temple Mountain:
I rode back towards the campsite but had to stop when I saw these two small planes who'd landed right next to the road that leads to Goblin Valley State Park! Apparently, where they're parked is an old air field and the pilots had come to survey it with the idea of having it regraded; for use by the Back Country Pilots Association. Cool Stuff.
I was joined by Tim L., a fellow Uralista from Longmont, CO. He's here to try and do some astrophotography early tomorrow morning near Goblin Valley State Park.
We did go and try and catch the golden hour before sunset. Got some shots but also got mobbed by midges or small gnats, clouds of them!
Sunset lighting near Temple Mountain
with Tim L.
Tomorrow, we're going to try and ride the entire Cathedral Valley Loop. It's about 60 miles of dirt road riding with a possibly impassable water crossing right at the start. Could be interesting.
After an unusual productive day at work, I left a bit early to run down towards Hanksville, UT to gas up, get some more groceries and do a little recon of possible boondocking sites to the west of Hanksville along UT24.
We did have a pretty good sunrise
Uma, the URRV, was out of position for the sunrise,
but her window captured it just fine.
Once I got to Hankville, I filled up and then continued west towards the last location I'd stayed near when I towed Scarlett with Martha's Bimmer almost two years ago: Cathedral Valley.
About halfway there, I saw signs for the Factory Butte Special Recreation Management Area of the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). It's basically about 2600 acres of open space and hills for the use of OHV (off-highway vehicles). The first entrance has a rather large and mostly flat parking lot that's perfect for boondocking. It had 3G (extended) in the lot but 4G LTE (1 bar) closer to the road.
The second entrance didn't have any cell service but you can see that's where most of the OHV traffic is based on all the tracks.
At the parking lot
Not great but usable, probably better using
the weBoost cellphone booster.
Near the sign at the entrance, closer to the highway:
"mo better"
I then rode closer to Factory Butte itself, you can see it from quite a long distance away, very majestic even when the light through thick overcast clouds made everything look a bit dull.
Factory Butte
Continuing west on UT24 I son came to the entrance to the boondocking site I'd used before (18 miles from Hanksville). Absolutely no cellphone service for Verizon, nada, zip, zilch. The site is accessed via the road for Caineville Wash Road. From there it's 26 miles to the Valley of the Sun and Moon; and if I remember correctly, not for the URRV to traverse!
The sight one sees upon exiting Caineville Wash Road
I did try going west about another 10 km but found no cellphone coverage. Though I did find an open WiFi access point called Blue Gate at the Sleepy Hollow RV campground which appears closed for the season.
Retracing my route, now heading east on UT24 and stopped at the parking lot for the Rodeway Inn, multiple WiFi access points but all secured. I suppose one could go in and pay a fee to use their WiFi in a dire need case.
Back in Hanksville, I gassed up with non-ethanol gas and then went back to the Bull Mountain Grocery store for more food.
Heading back to camp, I tried for another shot of Little Gilson Butte but it didn't really turn out very good:
As I rode on Temple Mountain Road towards camp, and thinking that perhaps the setting sun (which was behind clouds during the whole ride) would shine nicer on the western side of this butte.
I'd spotted a dirt road earlier that seemed to lead in the right direction so off I went.
3 km later, I hit some really deep and loose sand and got stuck. Dammit.
Weather closing in, losing the light and even 2WD was of no avail as the sand was just too deep.
Took off my helmet, took some deep breaths, broke out the entrenching tool I carry in the storage box under the sidecar trunk. A couple minutes of digging out a path to the rear of the rig, a little crossing of fingers, and voila....2WD got the rig moving again back to a firmer spot on the road.
Executing a 18 point turn u-turn later, I got Scarlett pointed back the way we'd come and got out of there as the weather moved in. Visibility was like being inside a gray snow globe with perhaps a mile before solid gray surface is all one could see.
The wind was blowing up pretty good too, we'd be under a wind advisory until 9PM (it calmed down by 8:45PM) and Uma happened to have her rear end pointed at the wind so we were good anyways.
So, quite the ride. Sorry the lighting wasn't that great for pics, maybe tomorrow the sun will be out in force.
