OCR Text |
Show Safari Special . . . Hill is toughest part of Dry Mesa jaunt Moab City Councilman Jim Wiseman will lead this year's Safari trip up f -&? Hill to Dry Mesa a high promontory east of Arches National Park. This is the fourth year this spectacular trip has been offered. Dry Mesa is a triangular shaped plateau to the southeast of Arches National Nat-ional park, bound on one side by Cache Valley, on another by Salt Wash and on the third side (a mighty steep side) by the mighty Colorado River gorge. The route to the Mesa heads north from Moab on U.S. 163 to the entrance of Arches National Park, then enters Arches and stays on paved roads to the Delicate Arch turnoff. Soon the dirt road forks toward a Delicate Arch viewpoint. Just before this viewing stand, a jeep trail angles off to enter Cache Valley. Within a half mile this trail leaves the park to continue up the colorful valley, often traveling in the winding dry wash bottom. As the trail leaves the wash toward the eastern end of Cache Valley, it climbs steeply among giant sandstone monoliths. mono-liths. Just beyond another dry wash crossing the trail heads up t -&? Hill, a very rough and challenging challeng-ing grade that takes the trail to the top of Dry Mesa. After paralleling the rim of Cache Valley for a mile or so, the trail angles across rolling slickrock and sandflats country toward the distant Colorado Colo-rado River gorge. The Windows section of Arches Arch-es National Park is clearly visible to the west and the gigantic "cat's eye" of the North and South Windows can be seen for miles on the skyline. The trail continues parallel par-allel to the river gorge. A short spur goes to another magnificent overlook. A short hike on the slickrock will lead to a spectacular view up the length of Castle Valley and up the Colorado River gorge for several miles, from a vantage point 1,300 feet above the river level. After a few more rough miles through broken, colorful mesa-top country, the trail closes the loop at the top of f -&? Hill. The return route retraces the out-bound route from this point. Those who choose to follow Jim on the Dry Mesa trail will experience a variety of off-road driving, from fairly easy wash-bottom and sand-flats sand-flats terrain, to moderately moderat-ely rough sand and slickrock, to one short and very rough, poor-traction section of trail. Those with limited off-road driving experience should avoid this trail because of that one bad hill. |