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Show s v. ;s -." . "'-'"''i ' il -1 r v , , i. ; , . in"-'. ..., 1 . .. .".;. r N ' ' ' i,::-"'-'' ..v ..v,v;-;'-. A ,-' Mi . ; r-L 3 - ;: - p: tribut.'.rv c.i:ion to Onion Creek ends ir.:r.e rw created by dripping springs. Driv-Vizi Driv-Vizi e creek bed of such cinvoiis does no Jam age to the delicate desert terrain, and the tire tracks are soon erased by running water. The only problem , is an occasional patch of quicksand. - liiioii Cfiee!( is an Area Jewel 3 FRAN BARNES lrs ye.-s 2:3 a g'.3- !: shifting of tne 'i C--T. applied b.to'.e-; b.to'.e-; -srr;s u-on a stup-er-' SKsi. of g;.psum and f far beneath the sor-: sor-: ; c-r.lv cce ay to g?, rrej rass cf mineral? : '-rcl. forcing its -it cracks and faults ::Tl;.r.g sandstone str- ti rxk a'xve Lhe risirg :: --lied and fractured, xh too thick for HT- to fcrast asid?. Ever.'.u.i'ly. the subterranenn fl;-.v cv.Tsed. and the minerals crystallized into a solid, un-rr.ovir. un-rr.ovir. mars. Ar.tr still m-.-re millions cf years, human explorers arrived arri-ved cn the scene of the upheaval uphea-val t) find much cf the fractured frac-tured overburden gene eroded ero-ded and carried a way to the sea and a large mass of gypsum, or -gypsqueeze," lying ly-ing exposed across a long, red-rock red-rock valley. like a huge, natural nat-ural dam to the valley's normal nor-mal water flow. Above the "danv' the valley was relatively relativ-ely flat, probably the silted-in silted-in bottom of an ancient lake or swamp. The exposed part of the gyp-squeeze gyp-squeeze was watcTworn by eons of rain into a complex mass of sharp peaks and ridges, rid-ges, and carved through by several stream courses. The whitish gypsum mass, stained stain-ed and streaked by other minerals, min-erals, stood out starkly in contrast con-trast to the blood-red Cutler sandstone which surrounded it on three sides. mae below the gypsum dam before finally emptying into the large, coffee-colored river riv-er below. Mineral Laden Where the stream flowed through the gypsum, it was joined by waters from several small springs that seeped or flowed from crevices in the crystalline mass. All of this spring water was heavily laden la-den with dissolved minerals. The black stains of arsenic salts stood out in stark contrast con-trast with the snow-white deposits de-posits around other seeps. One flowing spring disgorged water wat-er bearing (lie noxious reek of sulphur cemX)iinds. This strong odor tainted the main stream for the rest of its length. Localise of the powerful aroma ar-oma it picked up from what became known as "Stinking Springs." the stream was named na-med "Onion Creek." And, indeed, in-deed, the water does have an odor reminiscent of onions. Fisher Valley This strange valley, with it still stranger history of geological geolog-ical violence, lies to the northeast north-east of Moab, some twenty miles away by road. The name of the valley is Fisher Valley, and the road that crosses cros-ses its mouth runs parallel to the Colorado River and is Utah State Highway 128. From Utah 128 a Grand County graded dirt road turns into the broad canyon mouth toward a skyline of grotesque stone shapes. It follows the devious de-vious twistings of Onion Creek for several miles, threads its way through the miniature mountain range of gypsum, then climbs steeply up into the upper valley where a cattle ranch sprawls across the meadows. Beyond the ranch, one fork of the road continues continu-es on toward the rugged vast-ness vast-ness of western Colorado, passing pass-ing the still sturdy remains of Continued on Page B-2 , ..v .-' .,rv 1 . "V-s ' v::,-s-.(.1 j :,v : -;s. -r'-" Vj- r-'' :v-- . -Tv --. t f; ' IJ,CW- -v yS , ii . . " I v. .,-' )- ' I . ' , - vs ' v ' r . ' ,s"'-s , . , T "jv," . : . , . . ' ' wi3.-u , v , .r: :v. s . , '-..---.- :'? ;-. -:, . . . th- end of richer Vallev's gigantic "psquecz. huge ."; "f -ri,h,lv ,r,r,, ,,Np-,im stand out starkly against the sur-" sur-" '-'S od-red Cutler' i'and.tone. The road wind, for a couple Below the gigantic gypsum dam. a veritable maze of grotesquely gro-tesquely eroded and weathered weather-ed sandstone gorges and narrows nar-rows gaurded the approach from the main river canyon below. Despite the semi-arid nature cf the country, a flowing stream traveled the length of the long, strange valley, carrying car-rying away sediment from the flat upper region, wending its way through the gypsqueeze ridges, then twisting crazily through the Cutler sandstone of miles through this strange mineral outcropping before ascending ascend-ing to the upper valley meadows. i .. ir . . s ,. f ' .--. .. .-i -i-. .. r- . . . ' - .., - . .., j- .?-.3-i, 5';. - -;'-'. , ; i r r . . ? , - . - , " l ' JAW , v a - V , ( -JJ' S J A '1 k. r1-: - f -v ' , 1 ' - ' r 1 I . '' - t t JwS,Siv. ... '. . ' . . it.. V.!1.7. f.' v..-J': : !' I .AV4- t ' - , - ,V W .,-v '.v, Y- o nion Creek - - (Continued from Page Bll an old outlaw cabin soon after climbing out of the upper end pf Fisher Valley. Numerous branching trails lie beyond, a'l ,of them passable only to back-country back-country vehicles. The road up Onion Creek and Fisher Valley is maintained by Grand County highway crew?, at least up to the ranch at the head of the valley. For this reason, the road is generally passable to all types of vehicles ve-hicles except perhaps, low-slung low-slung sports cars. But, since the road crosses and recrosses Onion Creek several se-veral dozen times, and sometimes some-times travels for a distance right in the flowing creek, any rainfall in the area drained by Onion Creek soon makes the read either very hazardous or totally impassable to any but the most rugged off-road vehicles. ve-hicles. And even after the creek flow is back to normal, the road remains "off limits" to standard street vehicles un til it has been graded and repaired. re-paired. A drive or1 hike up Onion Creek is a trip into fantasy-land. fantasy-land. The slope of the valley is unusual because of the gypsum gyp-sum intrusion. At the mouth of the valley, the.cre.ek flows between low red sandstone outcroppings and across open sandflats. Farther up, the tvyis-ting tvyis-ting creek is bounded by ever deeper and narrower walls of dark red Cutler sandstone, and is bordered by hundreds, even thousands, of wierdly eroded rock shapes. It is easy to spot the familiar profiles or figures of Popeye, Donald Duck, Major Ma-jor Hoople, the French Poodle, Pood-le, the Camel, and dozens of others, plus two astonishingly tall and slim spires. Perhaps the most outstanding monoliths mono-liths are those of Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood. The immense human - like front of another figure seated in a big chair, can even be seen from Utah 128, silhouet- ted against the skyline. The fairytale shapes are even more obvious from stretches of the Onion Creek road. Soon after the road emerges emerg-es from the deep confines of the Cutler formation below the gypsum draw, it passes beside Stinking Springs. Then, after winding through the mountains moun-tains of gypsum, the road ascends as-cends abruptly into the upper valley, traversing thin picturesque pictur-esque ridges of soft, soil-like material, and overlooking a miniature Grand Canyon of rain-eroded sedimentary deposits de-posits garnished by the bright green of eottonwood trees along al-ong the branching creek bottoms. bot-toms. Standard vehicles should not attempt to go farther than the area of the ranch at the head of the valley, no matter how easy the first stretches of various va-rious trails may lock. They soon become quite difficult and the unwary traveler will quickly find himself in difficulty. diffi-culty. Onion Creek is spectacular and quite different from the canyonlands country more usually us-ually seen by travelers into southeastern Utah. It affords an intimate look at the most beautiful and colorful sandstone sand-stone formation that appears in the area, the Cutler. It also gives a dramatic glimpse into the violent geological history his-tory of this portion of the Colorado Col-orado Plateau, and its bare gypsum masses offer a stark reminder of the primordial past, when our planet was much, much younger. Unhappily, however, the unique beauty of Onion Creek and Fisher Valley is little by little being defiled by careless human progress, and a still larger shadow hangs ominously ominous-ly over the future of this irreplaceable ir-replaceable geological curiosity. curios-ity. Earlier this year, county road crews blasted away a rocky overhang that endangered endanger-ed the road. Most of the hundreds hun-dreds of tons of debris fell, or were bulldozed, into Onion Creek, where patient waters had spent millenia carving a lovely, winding grotto into solid so-lid red rock. Before this, off- road vehicles could, with care, follow the stream gorge for a mile or so before having to turn back and rejoin the road. It was an experience beyond compare to drive or hike this mile, between water-carved walls just a few feet apart, under deep overhangs of solid stone, at the very bottom o the deep, twisting, unbelievably unbelieva-bly red gorge. Now, the way is blocked to Vehicles, and even hiking over the loose debris would be dangerous. dan-gerous. Thus the most beautiful beau-tiful part of Onion Creek is no longer accessible because the. road crews had neither budget bud-get nor instructions to move the dynamited rock to a less conspicuous location. The first symptoms of an even greater tragedy can be seen, however, as one travels through the gypsqueeze. Mineral Min-eral clam markers perch threateningly on peaks and ridges of gypsum. These bring to mind visions of the kind of huge industrial complex that gypsum deposits often create, with the clatter and roar of heavy machinery, huge buildings of sheet metal, tall stacks belching vast clouds of choking white dust, and a continual flow of heavy truck traffic from the plant to the nearest rail head. The unmatched beauty cf Onion Creek and Fisher Valley Val-ley could not survive such an onslaught. But then, seldom sel-dom is anything as abstract as beauty allowed to stand in the way of wresting a few more dollars from the bosom of old Mother Earth. Try, then to see Onion Creek soon, while the most of its unmatched loveliness is still unspoiled and accessible. It is well worth the effort, even ev-en though you may not particularly parti-cularly care for the odor of onions. |