| OCR Text |
Show , t . TOURING SOUTHEASTERN UTAH . . . Cool Off in the LaSal Mountains By Dick Wilson Cool mountain streams and fiidy forest lanes are two rewards for touring the La-Sal La-Sal Mountains. It may seem -.range, yet wonderful, that z this scarred red rock siderness we also have passy and aspen - bedecked :iir.tain country. Yet this is true. People who lire in Moab love the region 'j::r its great variety of cli-rate. cli-rate. Ar.y time of year they .aa choose the appropriate saltier they would like to rave. In the lower valleys, even throughout most of the riter, temperatures are mild i.d conducice to outdoor ad-rer.ruring. ad-rer.ruring. But even in the rjrnner, when lower valleys s:e sometimes upleasant dur-''f-i heat waves, the moun-; moun-; "zrs offer relief and tha'. crav 30 minutes from Moab. Around Back ; Let's take a trip this week j S the back side of the La-1 La-1 Sals and describe a few things ; available, to the sightseer. Our - journey begins 24 ' "ales north of Moab where r Highway 123 joins U.S. 160. Tnis is probably the most Kavenient route to the La-Sals La-Sals and very comfortabie for those in passenger cars, ftere are other routes available avail-able for the more-adventurous jeep fans and we will describe de-scribe those trips in forthcoming forth-coming articles, i Follow the gentle curves of Highway 123 on the south tank of the river. As it proceeds pro-ceeds upriver notice the great variety of rock strata that you cross and recross. The road bed was carved at 'he base of giant cliffs making for most picturesque scenes and photogenic all the way. Picnic Locations Locations for picnicking are available at a number of P'aces one of which is Moose Park, some ten miles up the 'er. This picnic area pro-tides pro-tides red rock stone slab-tvPe slab-tvPe picnic tables. ' 19 miles upriver from Moab -- -r- - - . ' 5 - '. , J. . v-' .-;-V- - ,v' . "- -.Iv-' -1 -; ' 1 Shady auto lanes and cool high alti- Jeep trails fan out from the main auto tude forests grace the La Sal Jloun- routes providing recreation to all tains, the sharp peaks east of IMoab. types. you burst suddenly out of the gorge into Professor Valley. At the left is an old fort, the site of former movie making. The intersection that comes next marks the end of the pavement if you go left to Fisher Towers our trip however how-ever is to the right where, after af-ter a surmounting of a ridge the highway descends into Castle Valley, green and pleasant to the eyes. Castle Valley, named for the large vertical skyscrap-ing skyscrap-ing rock to the left, is a sunken valley, lying parallel to Moab or Spanish Valley. Geologists tell us that it was formed by a collapse of subterranean sub-terranean deposits of salt. At the upper end of Castle if! ' Beaver Bzstn y- ; LA SAL mijNTAWS 5 ) A Y US 160 346 sjf; k - - - .'. , i. Valley you continue to the left rather than going on the La Sal Mountain Loop Road to the right. A right turn would take you to the front of the La Sals but the left, our described tour for this week, takes us behind the La-Sals. La-Sals. Several dashing streams are seen to be descending over rocks and through the woods as your road climbs higher. Keeping on the main road, the upper flank of Fisher Mesa is soon gained which is about 9000 feet elevation, and from which is felt an invigorating in-vigorating difference from the heat of a few minutes previous. pre-vious. There are a number of locations lo-cations on Fisher Mesa which give magnificent views to the valley below which has the name Fisher Valley. This feature, you will notice is unique, for it is a hanging valley. It is an area of flat farmland, and at one time is thought to have been the bottom of a lake. Leaving Fisher Mesa you round a bend and catch your first glimpse of the high peaks, still adorned with large patches of snow. Mt. Waas, the high peak on the north is 12,331 feet in elevation, eleva-tion, providing a wonderful climb for hikers. We stopped our car to dabble dab-ble our toes in a rushing stream coming down from melting snows high above. Thus refreshed we continued on down the road. Jeeping and Fishing There's a branch in the road nearby that takes jeep-equipped jeep-equipped parties into a high altitude glacier-carved valley called Beaver Basin. This and other jeep trips will receive greater treatment in the near future on our Times-Independent Vacation Page. Fishing in nearby lakes is popular with local residents. Staying on the main road to Gateway, Colorado, you begin to descend into John Brown Creek. It is easy to get confused at this point due tu many unmarked forks. But there are considerable numbers of sportsmen and Continued on Page B4 Travel Feature Continued from Page Bl uranium miners on this road who could help you get directions straight. There is considerable mining now in progress on the slopes of Dolores Dol-ores Point. The descent into the Dolores River gorge via John Brown Creek is extremely rough and characterized by a great many switchbacks. The road should be classified as a jeep road although high-centered automobiles can make it if the driver is willing it should suffer as well as the peopte within. It's a slow and laborious labor-ious drive but scenically exciting. ex-citing. Reach the Dolores Soon the Dolores River, s major tributary of the Colorado Colo-rado is reached. The Dolores brings its waters from 14.000 foot peaks of southwest Colorado. Colo-rado. The small settlement of Gateway, Colo. 60 miles over the mountains from Moab, Mo-ab, is in a beautiful valley at the foot of the Uncompahgre Plateau, the 9000 foot range to the east. From Gateway, your automobile auto-mobile trip can be a pleasant return journey to Moab by pavement in either of two directions. You can continue right through Unaweep Can- yon to Grand Junction, or head south following the paved pav-ed seenic route along the Dolores Do-lores returning to Moab via Paradox Valley. J |
