Typically most people take the long drive thru Arches National Park just north of Moab, Utah. I never knew there was such interesting hiking north of Arches, or more accurately in the north of Arches National Park.

There are a variety places to hike in the area from Canyonlands south of Moab to the Fiery Furnace to the northeast: 15 places just on the BLM map of hiking trails, another 15 trails in Arches National Park, not to mention 19 in Canyonlands National Park.  All are within 3 hours of Durango.  Spring and Fall are the best times to experience the Utah desert, but Moab does a tremendous job promoting events, adventures and activities all year round.

With a 5-day dry weather window, we chose to visit two of the more remote hiking offerings called the Devil’s Canyon and Eye of the Whale, both Moab/Slickrock Entrada outcrops out of the otherwise flat southwestern Utah high desert.

Will Rietveld, our ultralight friend, knows this area “like the back of his hand” and wanted to show Mike Taylor and me a few of his favorite routes thru the fins, as well as explore new routes to turn into loop trails.  In this maze of slick rock it was best to go with someone who’s been there before.  Even with his 12-25 trips to the area(s) he was eager to find new ways to link the canyons between the fins.

Slickrock, as the locals call the bare sandstone no matter what layer of the Entrada sandstone (Moab, Slickrock or Dewey), was formed during the Jurassic period over 150 million years ago.  It gives one pause, and lots of discussion ensues when you come across a dinosaur track like the three-toed version we found on the approach to the fins.  The Colorado Plateau is famous for its artifacts, bones and prints of these prehistoric creatures.

With weather conditions of a recent snow, with clear skies and night temps down into the mid-teens, Will likes to car camp and day hike into these areas.  Having more gear than we generally take on a river trip was a different experience for me.  However it was easy to adjust to the “white-man’s fire” once the sun disappeared behind the rocks.  Just my winter sleeping bag, polar guard bivouac pants and down parka weighed in more than my typical ultralight base weight. While Will has Reveve Wear pots and pans with a Coleman stove, Mike and I opted not to burn our chili in the skinny aluminum pot and heated our dinner al fresco.  We did have a four-course meal adding canned corn into the half eaten chile cans.  Veggies and dip before the canned main course and fruit cocktail and zucchini bread for dessert rounded out the pot-less repast.  Quite a change from the high calorie dehydrated 6-ounce meals we carry backpacking.

In five days we only saw one lone young woman hiker, primarily because we were not on the recommended trails.  Even the trail we ran into was a Primitive Park Service trail that the throngs we saw in Zion, for example, never venture.

Note the snow in the shade.  Daytime temps were in the mid to high 30’s.

Kinda weird to hike most of the day in long shadows, but it made for interesting photography.  There were a number of arches and natural bridges in the area, some of which were not alway photogenic.  The most famous one, Eye of the Whale was photobombed by a fleece glove, but is still worth including.

My Gaia GPS tracking had a difficult time keeping an accurate track in the fins, canyons and crevices, but looking at the overview on Google Earth is always a fun way to see the terrain in the proper perspective.

There were a number of places where we passed thru very thin passages which brings out the adolescent excitement of exploring “unknown” passages in the earth.