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Show Mineral Canyon Rivals Shafer Trail By Krmi Harnes Most Canyonl.uuls visitors hoar about tho stoP switchbacks of fiimnis Shafer Trail T. 1 i 217-, and tho tortuous beauty of tho White Him Trail, bo-cause bo-cause those are in Can-vonhuuls Can-vonhuuls National Park. More e:u'h year are experiencing ex-periencing the indescribable indescri-bable thrill of ascending or descending tho Shafer Trail, and the beauty and adventure of traveling travel-ing tho length of the White Kim Trail. But relatively few canyonlands visitors learn about a piece of cliffhanging trail that rivals the Shafer Trail in many ways. This is the Mineral Canyon trail that marks the western end of the White Him Trail. Only once a year, during the annual Friendship Cruise, does the Mineral Canyon trail get much use. At that time, traffic is heavy because the trail permits per-mits access to the Green River so that supplies and fuel can be provided the hundreds of boats that travel down the Green, then back up the Colorado to Moab. For the rest of the year, the Mineral Canyon Can-yon trail hardly averages aver-ages one vehicle a day, and during the winter months, w eeks may pass without the roar of a laboring engine echoing from the sheer walls that surround the trail's switchback loops. Despite being less known than the Shafer Trail, the Mineral Canyon Can-yon trail has much to offer those who want to explore remote sections of canyonlands country by off-road vehicle. And even those with standard highway cars can get a good look at this horrendous hor-rendous piece of jeep trail. The Mineral Canyon trail could be described , as a gateway to adventure. adven-ture. Any kind of vehicle - can reach the head of ' this trail, but only low-geared low-geared vehicles driven by experienced drivers should venture beyond this point, as the trail is steep and narrow and its surface is dirt and loose rock. And frequently, fre-quently, water runoff has cut and gullied the trail badly. Heavy rains can ' even cause landslides on ! the steep slopes above and below the trail. One such landslide about I three years ago closed i the trail for several , months. To reach the summit of the Mineral Canyon . . .. ' . -v I " .-... ........... - -. - - - i- ..;,.. 1 -J. A .w. .- '- - t t v - i -' - - , ........ .. " I -- . lNt-.u j - , ; ,; -sf .v ;j,.v;.;, 0 (i r .:" - ". .-.'A --i? ''-'(''.? V , . V ; ' Some of the Mineral Canyon trail is cut from sheer rock, the rest from steep rubble slopes. Heavy rain can make the trail impassable, and landslides have sometimes blocked the trail for trail, drive north from Moab on U. S. 163, turn west on the paved Dead Horse Point road, then after approximately fifteen fif-teen miles, watch for a small sign marking the graded dirt road that leads to Mineral Canyon. Any vehicle can travel this road to the head of the Mineral Canyon ' trail, except perhaps shortly after a rain. The road goes for fifteen miles out onto Horse-thief Horse-thief Point, an elevated peninsula formed by two very deep and sheer canyon systems, Mineral Min-eral Canyon and Taylor Canyon. Near the tip of this peninsula, the relatively level, straight road plunges abruptly down into a gigantic alcove near the mouth of Mineral Miner-al Canyon. As it drops, the trail becomes anything any-thing but straight and level. It descends more than 900 feet within a mile and a half, with an average grade of over 11 per cent. The trail, itself, it-self, inches down a series of switchbacks cut from sheer rock and appallingly steep rubble slopes. As the spectacular trail plunges down into the Green River gorge, it passes through some 35 million years of geological geo-logical history. Layered Kayenta depostis mark the upper rim where the trail starts its journey downward. It then cuts sharply through sheer walls of Wingate sandstone sand-stone and on down into the softer rubble of Chinle and Moenkopi deposits. de-posits. The Chinle that borders the Green River on both sides for many miles, and up still more miles of sidecanyons, is what first caused the Mineral Canyon trail to be built. Uranium prospectors pros-pectors wanted land ac-cess ac-cess to the Chinle with l , - .- , jvm - ' - ' --Xa" ttf - i .'! iii " I : uf ; If- f '(' ' -w. f "V - ' - v; ' . . - -?J ". 'x t ' 4';.i'' - jf anium p'spector. built the Mineral Canyon trail to provide tend access to claims along the Green River. Marks from the dnuu h h "Pessary to build the trail are visible above the veh in botn 8rPh. Tne Mineral Canyon trail leads to a variety of adveni "Pnver and downriver. months. Here, three vehicles of a California jeep club called "The Gullyhoppers" inch down the narrow trail. its promise of riches. This promise turned out to be somewhat hollow, hol-low, but those who pursued pur-sued their dreams of mineral wealth at least left a legacy of trails into lands that could otherwise be explored only on foot or by boat trips taking many days. What lies beyond the Mineral Canyon trail? Days, even weeks, of exploring. The switchbacks switch-backs of the Mineral Canyon trail are not inside in-side Canyonlands National Na-tional Park, but within four miles, the downriver down-river branch of the trail enters the park and becomes be-comes the White Rim Trail. From this trail, side trips abound. A rough vehicle trail of sorts heads into the vast Taylor Canyon system (TI, 52572). A little farther along, a five-mile five-mile creek-bottom hike leads into the rainbow-hued rainbow-hued bottom of Upheaval Dome (TI, 122371). And the White Rim Trail is an outstanding three-day three-day adventure in itself. From , the base of the Mineral Canyon switchbacks, switch-backs, the upriver branch of the trail leads to other explorations. One side trail winds up the tortuous floor of Mineral Canyon, another explores the length of Hellroaring Canyon (TI 101671), while shorter sidecanyons and alcoves in the lofty walls of the Green River gorge offer hikers, photographers and rockhounds endless opportunities. History buffs will find several abandoned mining sites along the river, although these should be explored with -extreme caution. And for those with canoes, rubber rafts or small car-top boats, still more adventures are possible, because such craft can open , up the countless miles of riverbank and sidecanyons side-canyons that lie on the opposite shores of the Green River. Indeed, calling the Mineral Canyon trail the "gateway to adventure" is not an exaggeration at all. |
