desert – Page 29 – besthike.com

June 24, 2007

Taklamakan – 150km across the Desert of Death

A new company wants you to sign-up for a trek across the dunes.

Taklamakan Desert, the Desert of Death

A desert is a dangerous place. It is bleak, barren and inescapable. Sand storms are terrifying. Yet over the ages people have been drawn to the desert. Perhaps it is precisely this sense of fear that attracted explorers.

Taklamakan desert lies within the Tarim Basin in XinJiang (China).

Covering an area of 272, 000 km square, it is one of the largest sand-only deserts in the world. The ancient silk routes pass through this region along the northern and southern edges of the desert. …

In this trip, you will trek 150km across the vast expanse of sand dunes spending 7 days and nights out in the desert.

… Logistic support is provided.

We will be doing this as an exploratory adventure. So join us today to be one of the first to experience desert crossing!

SHANGRILA ADVENTURE: Taklamakan Desert-X-ing Trek

Alvin Low – Founder and Operations Manager

Taklamakan Desert – Wikipedia

Taklamakan up close – flickr – Kiwi Mikex

June 16, 2007

Salt Creek hike, Utah renamed ‘Paradise Creek’

The best guidebook for Canyonlands was written by Bill Schneider.

Somehow, “Salt Creek” seems to describe a dry, harsh, and unpleasant place when quite the opposite is true. Upper Salt Creek is definitely one of the most delightful places in the Canyonlands region, and it deserves a name like “Paradise Creek”.

Details from our just posted information page:

* in the Needles section of the National Park
* walk in the wash of a broad canyon
* sometimes strenuous hiking
* 24.2mi (39km) Upper Salt Creek from Cathedral Butte to Peakaboo, plus sidetrips
* minimum 3 days for the normal route
* most hikers will want to do a number of (essential) sidetrips, some more challenging
* many more excellent shorter hikes in this region
* the only easy way to do our recommended route is with two vehicles
* worst months are June – Aug when average highs of 104F (40C) can strike down even fit hikers
* open year round, best months are in the Spring and Fall

more Salt Creek photos – Joel Duenow

WHY WE LIKE THIS HIKE

… The highlight for many is lovely Angel Arch. (1mi sidetrip)

* more arches: Wedding Ring, Fish-eye, Kirk and Natural.
* stream flows through much of the canyon, year round! (a rarity in this region)
* wildlifeâ€”mule deer, coyote, bobcat, cougar
* rock art and ruins
* it’s difficult to get lost as you follow the creek.

Greg Smith, the wildergeek, “wild camped”. But read his comments on the flickr photo page for this pic:

Seems you can no longer legally camp at this spot. Too bad.

Check carefully with the Rangers. Some wild camping is allowed, with restrictions.

Everything you need to know to organize your hike: Upper Salt Creek in Utah is one of the best hikes in the world.

June 6, 2007December 12, 2024

lost overnight – Syncline Loop, Utah

Things can go wrong, fast.

A series of decisions, all which seemed reasonable at the time. Even experienced hikers can get lost in canyon country.

Three friends, planning on a challenging day hike on the standard Syncline Loop in Canyonlands National Park, Utah, got stuck overnight without provisions. ~~One suffered some hypothermia.~~

Rich posted a detailed account of how it happened:

Now, we didn’t really have much in the way of food. I had brought a few slices of bread, some saltines, a jar of peanut butter and, of course, plenty of water. We each had a similiar supply.

We planned on stopping at the grocery store on our way to Moab but, somehow that slipped our minds. …

So, we figure … we’d probably find a bit of trail food at the visitor center.

Well, we soon found out there was nothing at all in the way of trail food at the visitor center. The Island of the Sky Visitor Center is a little more than a Ranger Station. In fact, I really like Canyonlands because it doesnt have any amenities.

The desert is one place your really do need the 10 essentials. And extra water. Even if setting out only for an hour or two.

They made one last urgent scramble to get up and out.

… we saw … a potential exit. It was crazy and we were all really uncertain but, we pushed on. Every second getting closer to darkness.

Of course, as they do in the desert, temperatures plunged with the setting sun. Thankfully, we still had clear skies and little to no wind. We climbed higher and higher.

… It is endless!!!

For certain, that mile or so was the most intense and rugged hiking I have ever done in my life. Naturally, I loved every minute of it but, my lungs would argue otherwise. We had been on the trail for nearly 10 hours.

No pretty pictures on this post. Just three wiser hikers the following morning when the sun finally came up. Cold, but never in any real danger.

Canyonlands National Park – WikiTravel

June 2, 2007

check out BackpackingVideos.com

Jason Klass put up a beta version of a site dedicated to video.

His most recent video is one of great interest to me personally.

A great slide show of the trip Ben2World, Dusty Boots, and Jason Klass took to Canyonlands National Park. Witness Jason’s dirty Jeep and his heroic leap across an eight-foot canyon! This was a great trip and we saw lots of geological and archaeological wonders.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Salt Creek Canyon, Utah – BackpackingVideos.com

(via Two-Heel Drive)

This is a good start. No doubt hiking videos and photo slideshows will become increasingly popular in the future.

But the best site I know is Outdoor Video Magazine out of Canada. I linked to their Mt. Robson / Berg Lake video.

May 30, 2007

BEST HIKES Arches and Canyonlands, Utah

It’s all good.

This may be the best region in the world for hikers.

i could not find a bad official hike anywhere out of Moab, Utah.

That’s a problem for someone trying to list the “best hikes”. Still, in this post I sum up recommendations for hikers coming to the area for the first time. It’s a starting point.

Travel to Moab, Utah … in a motor vehicle. The US National Park system caters to everyone, no matter how obese. No matter how obese their motor home.

But the hiker with no vehicle is looked upon with suspicion. Indeed, is cited if caught hitchhiking.

Best hikes closest to Moab:

Delicate Arch, Arches

Devilâ€™s Garden, Arches
Negro Billâ€™s Canyon

A mad walker can do these 3 dayhikes and more in a long day. Better would be 2-days.

Next drive 45min up to astonishing Dead Horse Point State Park. In fact, I suggest you stay in the car campground there, one of the best in the entire 4 corners region.

source – USGS

Next, move on to Island in the Sky in Canyonlands and hike (at least) Syncline Loop. There are perhaps 6 more essential short “parking lot hikes” including Mesa Arch. You need minimum 2 days on the Island in the Sky.

I’d strongly recommend you bypass Canyonland’s The Maze entirely. It’s too remote, too dangerous. Perhaps the most isolated land mass anywhere in the lower 48 States.

Instead, take a leisurely, scenic drive down to The Needles. Spend the rest of your hiking days there starting with the Chesler Park area.

campsite CP2 – Needles

You can do a lot in a week out of Moab as access to trailheads is so easy and most of the trails short. (Two weeks would be twice as good.)

And there is plenty to interest everyone. Many of the walks are wheelchair accessible. But those looking for adventure need merely scramble off-trail up the slickrock.

Read Edward Abbey’s 1968 classic Desert Solitaire while in the desert.

The Fall is slightly better than Spring for this region. The bugs are gone by early August. October would be best â€” but in October 2006 some of the roads were washed out due to atypical rainy weather.

May 24, 2007

Moab, Utah – living a lie?

I went to Moab to hike.

When I told other tourists that Moab had been awarded a major environmental award as a “green town” they thought I was joking.

Located on the Colorado River near the state line between Utah and Colorado, is the 4-square mile City of Moab. A desert oasis, the 5,000 or so Moab residents host over a million tourists annually. Visitors come to enjoy the adjacent National Parks Arches and Canyonlands, the Dead Horse Point State Park as well as biking, hiking, water sports and gorgeous vistas.

To most tourists who pass through Moab annually, it’s a hot, noisy highway lined with junky, over-priced souvenir shops.

Moab is perhaps less known for being the Nation’s first EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Green Power Community and a steward for clean energy. Under the leadership of Mayor Dave Sakrison, the town began purchasing wind power for 50% of the City Office building electricity demand in 2003. Local electricity customers were encouraged to purchase pollution-free wind energy through Utah Power’s Blue Sky voluntary wind program. As a result Moab became the region’s first Blue Sky Community.

Desert City Leads Utah Clean Energy Movement (TreeHugger)

I hope Mayor Sakrison is not buying his own press. If Moab is the model of a town of the future, we are all in trouble.

Moab reminds me more of Mad Max than a desert oasis. The road warriors here ride gas guzzling jeeps. Or modified Hummers if they can afford the rental.

Highpointhummer.com

Another opinion:

Can’t say I am thrilled to be in Moab other than to get my final resupply box and get out of town. Never much cared for this place despite trying to like it. The community here is great, certainly friendly folks, but something about the constant marketing vibe that runs through town just bugs me…Adventure This! and Adventure That! Extreme! I know it is a tourist based economy and one that caters to thrill seekers (whether motorized or not) but it just is a bit over the top.

ULA – Hayduke Trail 2005

I’m overstating the problems. Likely Moab is on the right track. The boom there is relatively recent.

If you turn off the highway into town you’ll find great school grounds, fantastic bike trails, an award winning library. And some amazing facilities for a town of this size.

If you are ready to pack up and move to Moab, speak up and leave a comment.

May 22, 2007

Moab Photography Symposium

I was in town for the Moab Photo Symposium.

Talking to some of the attendees reminded me of the difference between real photographers and myself. They are willing to WAIT for the right shot.

(I merely take pictures of whatever happens along while I am hiking.)

Still, the gap between real photographers and the rest of us is narrowing due to the decreased cost of digital equipment.

Check out their 2006 photo contest winners.

May 16, 2007

hike The Needles, Utah

The best section of Canyonlands National Park for hikers is The Needles. No question.

…named after the red and white banded rock pinnacles which dominate it but various other forms of naturally sculptured rock like canyons, grabens, potholes, and a number of arches similar to the ones of the nearby Arches National Park can be found as well.

Unlike Arches National Park, however, where many arches are accessible by short to moderate hikes or even by car, most of the arches in the Needles district lie in backcountry canyons and take long hikes or four-wheel-drive trips to reach.

Canyonlands National Park – Wikipedia

Of 60mi (96km) of great trails, the most popular section of the Needles is Chesler Park, a lovely grassy valley surrounded by colourful sandstone spires.

larger image – flickr

I was lucky to get one of the 5 backcountry Chesler Park tent sites (CP5) and accessed it from the Elephant Hill trailhead.

NPS map

From there I dayhiked the astonishing Joint Trail. It’s a “mountain” that split leaving a fracture just wide enough for a hiker (sideways at some points). Is there no end of natural marvels in this part of the world?

The highlight for me personally was a late afternoon trail run to Druid Arch. Late, scrambling the steep slope up to the view point, I was blown away by the size and location of this wonderful mass of stone.

high resolution original

I got lost on the run back to my tent, arriving an hour after dark.

If I went back to the Needles, I would do Salt Creek from Cathedral Butte to Peekaboo via Angel Arch. Likely 3 days, 24.2m (39km), a wonderful canyon walk with permanent water.

I’d need a high clearance vehicle to get to the trailhead. Or would hire a shuttle vehicle in Moab.

Angel Arch – Bob’s Arches

photos from my 2007 hike – flickr

May 15, 2007

is that a RATTLESNAKE?

We nearly tripped over two 4ft-long snakes, very close together, in Arches National Park, Utah.

Click PLAY or see the snakes on YouTube.

Later I had another snake close to my camp in Canyonlands. (It’s a good idea to keep your tent zipped in this part of the world.)

At the time I hoped that this nonpoisonous big boy â€” the Gopher Snake or Bullsnake â€” was a mortal enemy of the Rattler. (I read that error in Edward Abbey’s 1968 book.)

Turns out the two species sometimes fight. Other times the snakes may even nest together.

Happily, I’ve still never seen a Rattler.

May 14, 2007

hike Island in the Sky, Utah

The signature photo of Island in the Sky is the view through Mesa Arch.

larger original

The Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park could not be better named.

It’s a high Mesa at the junction of the Colorado and Green rivers.

Most of the longer hikes drop precipitously off the “island”. There are several to choose from: Gooseberry, Wilhite, Alcove Spring. Many hikers climb down quickly and are picked up by an off-road vehicle on the White Rim Road. If you do not have vehicle support (and it’s not too hot), you can switchback your way up top again, sometimes via a loop.

The Rangers when I was there recommended Murphy Basin, a 10mi (16km) lollypop loop with an optional sidetrip to Murphy Point. Non-stop fantastic vistas.

my view from Murphy Point