Every year like the birds going south we find ourselves in Moab for the beautiful October to go biking, hiking and canyoneering with friends. The place has gone crazy. RV parks are full and we find ourselves camped at William's Bottom, a primitive BLM campground on the Potash Road along the Colorado River south of town. The only amenities are a dumpster and an open-air pit toilet. The campground backs up to a beautiful red sandstone wall. The cost is $15 per night, $7.50 with Senior Pass.
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| Our camp at William's Bottom. |
The campground is right along the road with lots of tourist and mine truck traffic which can get pretty noisy but it does quiet down at night.
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| William's Bottom CG is sandwiched between red sandstone walls and Potash Road. |
There are nice views of Behind the Rocks on the other side of the river from the campground.
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| A river side view of Behind the Rocks. |
From the campground there's an easy 19-mile ride along the Colorado River to the Potash mine.
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| Jim enjoys a nice 19-mile bike ride from the campground to the Potash mine. |
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| Can't beat the scenery and lack of traffic on thia beautiful afternoon. |
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| The Colorado River is pretty lazy along this stretch. |
On our 2nd day we did a 40-mile ride on the Moab bike path to the top of Sky Island in Canyonlands. We didn't bother to take any photos because we've ridden this so many times. If you'd like to see photos look back to our Moab posts from the last two years. These bike paths are some of our favorites. The scenery is outstanding.
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| Kim, Lisa and Jim. We're ready for a hike into the canyons. |
We met up with our friends, Kim and Lisa, for a hike to look for pictographs in the canyons around Moab. There will be plenty to see.
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| Pictographs of people and animals with damage done to the panel by recent visitors. |
Most of the pictographs are Freemont. Early homesteaders and even more recent people have left their marks as well as damaging some of the rock art. For this reason we never tell anyone the locations though some may be able to guess.
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| Intrepid hikers, Jackie, Lisa and Jim. |
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| Jackie, Lisa and Kim. |
The Utah canyons never cease to astound with their serenity, solitude and contrasts.
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| Just another canyon in Utah. |
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| We find an interesting and very sensual cave. |
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| Lisa leads us further down the canyon. |
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| We find a feathered serpent, clan sign, deer, and a more recently scratched in figure. |
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| Nice sandstone pavement makes for good hiking on the canyon floor. |
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| A cattle trail leads up canyon. |
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| Pictographs of shaman, animals and circles. |
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| A shaman and circles. |
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| Linked circles. |
Here are some odd and very old pictographs we can't figure out. I thought the linked circles looked like chains of frog eggs.
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| A nice panel of people, Big Horn and Elk. |
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| Kim and Jim in the canyon. |
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| Figures join hands in a dance or ceremony. |
One of my favorite panels were of figures holding hands in a dance or ceremony. There are also clan signs.
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| Figures with head dresses join hands in a dance. |
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| A panel high on a cliff shows animals and people. |
A panel high on a cliff wall depicts animals and people with hands joined. It looks like a migration. The petroglyph at the top is called a rack. It may depict rain.
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| Shaman and animals. |
Part way down the canyon the bedrock brings the water to the surface and we stop for lunch on the rocks by pleasant pools and ornamental waterfalls.
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| Kim, Jackie and Lisa. |
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| Ornamental waterfalls sing a story of water in the desert. |
A few more miles and we're back to the car. Our hike and a pleasant day in good company comes to an end.
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| Moab Man says goodbye for now. |
Join us in our next post for some canyoneering in Arches.
Until then,
Jackie
I've noticed that the crowds are getting thicker everywhere but it seems like southern Utah is getting especially bad.
ReplyDeleteThose are some pretty clear pictographs you photographed. (Is it just me or are there too many graphs in that short a sentence??