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Show r .- :-:r:.: ,.. "V .. ; v V., , J V- - " - '' ' ' " . . ,,- A,.. .. - - V . , 3.-- .. ' -, .. . - J -' ' ' ;- ' .-v : ' w'. t " ' fw- , ' - v .v , ... n j - 4 -tfu. """"""" . " - - - "'. j s; . .. " ' : ,.- f - ' ' .f ' . ' X ; r.: Sy 3 ' ' ' ' . -' ! r v- .-, . ' .- .i ly." . ' . - .-" . ' " '" .. Vhite 'ash dunes blend into rounded domes and I'erraces of salmon-colored slickrock. This combination jffers an exceptional climbing challenge to- off-road vehicles. The big dunes of soft sand arc aLo enjoyed by children of all ages. t . Unique White Wash Has Everything f ;: For Spectacular Family Outing -,4 IPy FRAX BARNES ast fall, Moab hosted a ap of Grand Junction e buggy fans. On their ,"1)11(1 day here, the Colo- 1 ans were guided to aa i that is quite unique : lin the vicinity of ilo- Tiere, the visitors, plus te a number of Moab ?istas and even one ;-jn Michigan, were hard-ble hard-ble to even begin ex- f-ing the recreational po-tial po-tial of White Wash in f time they had. U first glance, White sh looks much like a ;jsand other broad, open washes, but a second, ser look soon reveals unusual characteristics. ( Hidden from View yrom where it can first Iseen, about three miles White Wash are visible. Sther three miles, per-s per-s the best three, are , hidden from casual view. From the rocky ridge that bounds it to the northwest, north-west, White Wash is a wide, apparently dry, sandy wash, but just beyond the wash bottom an area of sand dunes begins. These increase rapidly in size until un-til the largest lie against the lower flanks of a long ridge of salmon-red slick-rock slick-rock domes and terraces. The color of the clean and lovely dunes shades from pure white at the edge of the wash, to salmon at the base of the sandstone slickrock. This startlingly colorful vista is made even ev-en more vivid by a scattering scat-tering of large cottonwood trees growing among the rolling dunes. This novel scene is just the beginning. Anyone Can Go Anyone can drive to White Wash. The roads that approach the area are well maintained county dirt roads that even family fam-ily passenger cars can negotiate, ne-gotiate, except perhaps shortly after a big rain. By the shortest route, White Wash is about 43 miles from Moab. A third of this is by paved road, the rest dirt. A somewhat longer route cuts off about 15 miles of dirt road, but in doing so adds a good 20 miles of paved road to the trip. To follow the shortest route, drive north out of Moab on U.S. 163. In about 15 miles, just before reaching rea-ching Canyonlands Field airport, turn left on th dirt road there. This is the old, original road to Dead Horse Point, used before the Seven Mile Canyon road was developed. Stay on this road for around 19 miles, until it it . ' (','.'. v ., ;-ei.j , : - ' - - -1 .;-V ' - - : -y.T mf--l . n t . - vVhite Wash sand is moist and firm :nough to provide a safe landing sur-ace sur-ace for light planes. Tex McCIatchy, local river tour guide and buggy fan, discovered this when he dropped by White Wash one Sunday and decided to join the fun. runs into another such road near some power poles. pol-es. A right turn here will take you to U.S. 6 & 50 (.Interstate 70) in about four miles. A left turn will take you toward While Wash, old Ruby Ranch and the Green River. Beauty Begins Up to this point the scenery sce-nery is fairly uninteresting, uninterest-ing, as only stretches of Mancos Shale can be seen, but soon the road begins to dip into other geological strata. Then color and variety va-riety begin. In approximately sever, miles the road comes to a functioning petroleum weil and some big silver colored color-ed tanks perched on top of a ridge. From the edge of this ridge, t-o the left of, the road, White Wash can be viewed, spread out below be-low like a dun-embossed relief map. To reach White Wash by the longer, but more paved route, drive north out of Moab to Crescent Junction, then toward Green River on U.S. 50 & 6. In about six miles the highway crosses Floy Wash. This normally dry stream course is marked by a sign. A good dirt road heads south, just east of the wash. The petroleum well noted earlier ear-lier is about eleven milss south and west oH this road. Just beyond the well the road forks several times. Keeping to the left will take you down into White Wash. The righthand forks lead into a confused mae of trails, most of them made by oil exploration-operations. exploration-operations. From here on down into White Wash, those without off-road type vehicles, are on their own. With careful driving, standard passenger passen-ger 'cars can be driven . down almost to the wash bottom on fairly firm road, but drift sand and . deep ruts are common hazards. It may even be that a few-skillful few-skillful drivers, who have exceptionally agile cars and experience at sand driving, dri-ving, will want to drive down into and up the wnali liccaiiMc, oddly enough, the Hand in the wash bottom is generally quite moLit and firm. Tiny Springs White Wash is dotted willi tiny Hpring.s, even out iii the middle of the arid - looking dunes. This .seeping water keeps the wash bottom damp, even in the hottest of weather, provides moisture for the cottonwood trees that grow there, and turns White Wash into a desert oasis for plant and animal life. Even though the passenger pass-enger car road ends at the wash, those who go there in such cars need not he frustrated. It is only a few yards from the end of the road on into the dunes. Picnickers need only on-ly walk a few hundred yards, picknig their way between the lower dunes, to reach the first cotton-woods cotton-woods or the shade of rounded sandstone domes and terraces. Children, of course, especially es-pecially love the. White Wash dunes. What child can long resist the .wild fun of rolling, tumbling, sliding or running, down the sleep slopes of . lovely, colorful sand dunes?. More to Offer Those wso own jeeps, dune buggies or even trail cycles, will find that White Wash has much more to offer than dunes. By simply sim-ply driving on up the main wash, explorers will soon discover how White Wash is unique. Many clrywashes emerge from mazes of deeply eroded ero-ded slickrock canyons, but most are bone dry. In contrast, con-trast, upper White Wash, canyon is full of clear, trickling springs that first form pools of water in the slickrock, then flow for a while before singing out of sight in the sand. There are sand dunes here and mere inrougnout canyon-lands canyon-lands country, but most of these are firmly anchored in place by covers of vegetation. vege-tation. White Wash ' has hundreds and hundreds, of acres of living, moving sand dunes. And where else can you see cold spring water running from between two giant dunes of pinkish sand? Of course, it is the moisture moi-sture that underlies the dunes that encourages the wild-flowers and flowering shrubs that grow there all season long, and that allows al-lows moisture-loving cottonwood cot-tonwood trees to survive. This last, alone, affords a strange sight green healthy trees growing out of living dunes, with most of the trees fully exposed, but with only the leafy crowns of others showing above the continually shifting shif-ting hills of sand. Recreational Oasis White Wash is a little recreational oasis. It offers of-fers off-iroad vehicle enthusiasts en-thusiasts a variety of challenges, chal-lenges, from racing up the flat wash bottom, to dune running and slick-rock climbing. It offers explorers explor-ers and hikers countless miles of grotto-like side canyons to explore. It provides pro-vides a beautiful and different dif-ferent setting for family picnics and for phtoopra-phers. phtoopra-phers. Rockhounds soon find that agate and other minerals abound on the slopes above the lower several sev-eral miles of the wash. And if the weather is hot, and you are just dying dy-ing for a cooling swim, the. Green River is only two or three miles away, either by the wash or the road that parallels it. Perhaps best of all, the use of White Wash by off-road off-road vehicles can do little permanent damage. Tire tracks left in the moist sand of the wash bottom disappear with the first rain, while marks on living dunes are erased by the slightest breeze. For this reason, local Bureau of Land Management Manage-ment officials are seriously serious-ly considering declaring White Wash to be a "Dune Buggy Recreation Area," with other off-road vehicles vehic-les of course being welcome, wel-come, too. So far, this idea has been well received. Both local and west coast off-r-oad vehicle enthusists are anxiously waiting to see the outcome of the proposal. pro-posal. - With spring in the air and plenty of mild weather ahead, why not drive over to White Wash and see what it's all about? |