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The cliffs of Moab Valley can be seen in the distance in this winter view from La.Sal Pass. y ' toufes to LaSnl Mountain Posses Offer Advcnluse and Beauty ,BY FRAN BARNES Colorado is famous for high mountain passes, ps cf the state show hteen highways and ds of various sorts ssir.g the Continental ;ide at elevations rang-: rang-: from 3,772 to 12.12G A., with an average of 5S7 feet. kloab lies at an eleva-i eleva-i cf 4000 feet and is "rounded by- semi-arid ert canvon countrv. vet is within sitrht of two mountain passes that rival ri-val those of Colorado in almost every respect. The LaSal mountains rantre roughly north and south, and lie to the east and southeast of Moab. Two vehicle roads cross, these mountains through passes that can be seen clearly from Moab. 'Geyser 'Gey-ser Pass, elevation 10. GOO. is only slightly lower than the avpi-acp p:m that" cresses the Continental Divide in the Colorado Rockies, Ro-ckies, and LaSal Pass, at 10.000 feet, is very little lower than Geyser Pass. Because of their eleva. tion, the Forest Service roads that cross these two passes generally become impassablu to. wheeled ve- hides with the first winter win-ter snows, and the. passes become ' inaccessible except ex-cept by snowmobile until late spring. But once the spring thaw is past and the high roads are open, a drivo over either pass can afford af-ford a long day's adventure adven-ture in scenic beauty. The quickest way (o reach the roads that go over the two passes is to drive south out of Moab on U. S. then, about six miles out of town, tal.e the I.aSal Mountain Loup Road. The pass roads turn right off of the Loop si 'i'fft Jit v ' ,. v , -' i t x ' - - y ' fe- v- - 1 . -' :t --fv. . . -p "' f "5 . . " ':' . ' J U ' , ' - " , ' , 1 - "' M,? '."---' . . i . - :l'-l .1 c'&aaa - vt Many of the jeep trails that spur off of the main pass roads lead to abandoned uranium mines. Such mines are dangerous to enter but old mining equipment, such as the ore-car rails shown here are interesting to study. , . f Road and are marked by signs. The pass roads are largely lar-gely rough, steep and rocky ro-cky dirt roads. Off-road vehicles and low-geared pickup trucks have no, trouble making the grades grad-es and negotiating .such occasional hazards ai chuekh-oles, and mud, bat the roads are not recommended recom-mended for average' passenger pas-senger cars and. drivers. Those who wish to chal. lenge the passes, but are not properly equipped, are advised to sign up with cue of the Moab tour guides who specialize in -such trips. Roads Climb Rapidly The roads to LaSal and Geyser passes climb rapidly. rap-idly. Along the way, the vegetation changes from low brush and scrubby juniper trees, to denser, higher brush and tall evergreens, ev-ergreens, then to lovely forests of evergreens and aspens. Trickling springs and streams that cross or parallel the roads become more frequent as the climb progresses. And wherever there is moisture, there are wild-flowers. wild-flowers. Hundreds of species spe-cies of annual flowers and flowering shrubs and vines vin-es border the roads and otreams and ponds, and on the open slopes at and below the pass summits, alpine-community flowers turn the rocky meadows into vast, colorful carpets most of the season. Unmarked Trails Those driving from the Loop Road toward either pass will soon notice unmarked un-marked jeep trail heading head-ing off in all directions. Following such trails can lead to all kinds of interesting inter-esting discoveries. . Some and abruptly at the site of deserted mine shafts, where, all that remains of someone's some-one's dream of wealth is: An ugly tunnel or hole in the ground, surrounded by trash, litter and abandoned abandon-ed mining; equipment. Entering En-tering such mines can be S'ery dangerous, yet ; examining ex-amining the areas .around. them, and the debris 'left behind, affords .a 'curious' insight into the kind :. of minds that can "be lurecT and trapped by- the wili-o' the-wisp call of prospecting prospect-ing for precious minerals:. .Other trails soon branch and rebranch into veritable veri-table mazes of little-used trails that creep through tortuo'iis, broken terrain,, cling precariously to steep slopes, or cross forbidding canyon systems. Most such Continued on. Page B2 Mountain Passes . . . Continued from Page Bl trails are fig;i:ng a losing los-ing b;.ttle with encroaching encroach-ing trees and shrubs. Slowly but inevitably, vegetation ve-getation is healng the slashing scars left on the lovely mountain flanks by uncaring man. Yet They Open Area Yet these thails, made for a questionable purpose, have made available to others vast areas of beauty beau-ty that might otherwise never be seen. One such leaves the Geyser Pass road, winds and twists dwon into Brumley Canyon then, af- ter passing several old mines, struggles back up to join the main road again. At one point, the It rail closely parallels a deep crevasse carved by Brumley Creek. Here, sheer but irregular sandstone walls are only 100 feet apart, the tops of tall evergreens ev-ergreens rooted in the canyon bottom soar above the rim, wild berry bushes bush-es overhang the tumbling water, and cheerful bird cries echo up from below. Just beyond the sum. mit of LaSal pass is tiny Medicine Lake. In the summer the lake affords trout fishermen a chance to wet a fly. In the winter, win-ter, the frozen lake makes a flat race course for snowmobile fans and skiers. ski-ers. Above the road summits sum-mits in both LaSal and Geyser passes are wide meadows, massive stretches of shale slopes so steep and shifting that vegetation vegeta-tion cannot get a foothold, and the soaring, barren peaks of Mounts Peale, Tukuhnikivatz, Mellenthin, Haystack, Tomasaki and others. Panoramic View A hike up into the meadows mea-dows above either pass road will afford an unsurpassed unsur-passed panoramic view. From either pass, the sheer red sandstone wall that bounds Moab Valley on the west can be seen far below, and on clear days geographic features hundreds of miles away in Utah and Colorado are visible. From the pass summits, there are many routes possible, pos-sible, besides returning to Moab by the same roads. The only drawback to taking ta-king other routes is that many of the roads and trails that lace the LaSal mountains are not marked. mark-ed. It is fairly easy to wind up going somewhere you had not planned. But if you are out to explore and see what there is to be seen, this hardly matters. In any event, try for one of the following return routes, and if you miss a turn somewhere, don't worry. Just keep heading generally downhill down-hill and you'll get out of the mountains sooner or later and onto a good road. The LaSal range is almost al-most completely encircled by paved highways in Colorado Co-lorado and Utah. Quickest Way From LaSal Pass, the quickest way down is to drive down the eastern slopes of the mountains until you reach the road that joins Utah 4G near the old sawmill just east of the town of LaSal. From there, it's paved road all the way to Moab. It is possible, instead of heading head-ing south for the sawmill, to take a route that will reach Geyser Pass, but finding this route requires a certain amount of luck, plus a driver and vehicle that are quite durable. It is also possible, by taking this same northerly route, to join the main trail down the eastern slopes from Geyser pass. The trail east from Geyser Gey-ser pass summit also offers of-fers several possibilities. One route leads to lovely Buckeye Reservoir, just over the border in Colorado, Colo-rado, and from there on to Paradox and back to Moabj via Colorado 90. Utah 46 ,and U. S. 163, all good paved roads. Another Anoth-er route heads north to- ward Taylor Flat, then' back by way of a highly scenic Forest Service road that overlooks Fisher Valley, Val-ley, then drops down into Castle Valley and parallels paral-lels the Colorado River on Utah 128 to U. S. 163 and Moab. This route is paved from the head of Castle Valley to Moab. Or, if you have lots of time and want to see still more spectacular scenery, once you have reached the end of the Taylor Flat road, follow the signs to Gateway, Colo. The road drops down into the beautiful beau-tiful Dolores River canyon can-yon via narrow John Brown's Canyon. From Gateway, paved state highways high-ways lead either north to Grand Junction or, south then west to Paradox and on into Utah. But one word of caution. Take along a good map of the area. The Moab For est Service office has one for sale entitled "Manti . LaSal National Forest." It's a good investment. |
