On this trip, I jam packed as much as I could in about 3 1/2 days.  It wasn’t the most restful trip, but I sure did see tons of things!  On Tuesday, I set out early to drive down to Moab.  After all the usual rest stops and breaks, I eventually arrived in town by about 1 pm.  This gave me plenty of time to hike Pinto Arch.

Pinto Arch is located on a spur trail from the Corona Arch Trail down by Highway 279.  I had never hiked to Pinto Arch and found that it was a good and fun trail that I wish I had done sooner.  I flew my drone around this area and found a large cottonwood tree growing in a sand trap on top of the mesa.  It’s very difficult to hike to this cottonwood sand trap, but with a drone, it took me about 1 minute to fly there.

After this I grabbed some lunch in town.  It was super busy in Moab and I was wondering which states/cities were having school spring break.  It took forever to get to the other side of town and so I adjusted all my plans accordingly.

After lunch, I drove down to Hunter Canyon to see the arch.  The hike was easy and relaxing and ends at a big arch.   The arch is difficult to see from the canyon floor, so I recommend hiking up to it if you are able.  I hiked back down to the canyon and hiked up the canyon. 

The canyon goes for a very long ways and I just wanted to hike up to see if there were some petroglyphs or ruins.  I found a very large alcove near the arch and hiked up to it.  To my surprise there were two girls who were drinking a couple of cans of beer enjoying the view.  I think I startled them.  I asked them if there was anything “cool” up here and they said there wasn’t.  I did find tons of vandalism inside the alcove from some degenerate visitors. 

After this I just relaxed around Kane Creek Road and flew my drone around and watched all the off-roaders go on the Cliff Hanger route.  It seemed like a very busy day for off-roaders! After this point it was about 8 pm and I decided to go find a place camping.  I headed up to my usual spot and found several hundred people already spread around.  I found a really good spot underneath a cedar tree and it had its own fire ring.  I was planning on using a tent, but it was pretty windy and I didn’t want to eat sand all day, so I decided to just fold down the back of my seats and sleep in my car.  I have a very comfortable setup that I honestly don’t mind sleeping in my car! 

After cooking dinner of potatoes and sausage I did a little reading and went to bed around 11:00 pm. Right when I was falling asleep I saw a very bright flashlight light up my car.  It happened a few more times and I peered out the window to see what was going on.  Right when I looked up, some guy shined the flashlight in my face. 

I could see this man walking around everyone’s campsite and shining his light in peoples cars, tents, and trailers.  I was getting more than annoyed and then the man went away to the north of my camping spot.  I thought he was just looking for someone and so I closed my eyes again. After about 1 minute I heard this large truck pulling a trailer pull up next to my car. 

Bright lights filled my car and I was again looking outside to see what was going on.  They were backing up into a spot that was about 30 ft. away from mine.  They backed up their trailer and got out laughing and talking loudly.  I tried to ignore them, but the constant “HAHAHA” was getting annoying.  They were shining flashlights in my car again and I looked up and I saw that they were starting up their generator. 

By now it was about 11:30 pm.  I opened my car door and yelled at them asking if they were almost done setting up for the night?  A man looked over at me then went back to his truck and continued setting up things. I pulled out my brightest flashlight, which is about 2,000 lumens, and shined it at them.  By now, they got their gas generator going and it was very loud and also facing me.  I kept shining my light on them and yelled again, asking if they were planning on keeping their generator on all night.  An older man came over and told me that he needs his dialysis equipment powered on all night so the generator will need to stay on.   I said, “it’s rude to be shining your light in my car.   I would appreciate if you stopped doing that and try to be more quiet since it’s almost midnight.”  At this point, another camper close by angrily packed up their stuff and sped out of there.

My new neighbor told me “Well, I only have enough gas to power the generator for a few more hours, so it might stop later.” I said, “don’t you need it running for your dialysis stuff all night?”.  “Yes,” he said.  His answer didn’t make sense to me, but I didn’t really care at this point and so they went back to their trailer to finish unpacking. 

After about 10 more minutes, I heard their voices louder and looked out the window and saw them approaching my car and shining their light in my car again.  They immediately stopped and then went back to their generator and moved it to the other side of the trailer.  Not sure if they were planning on ambushing me or what.  The generator move helped a little bit and I was soon asleep. I think it’s difficult for some people to be respectful when camping.

I awoke by about 7 am and found tweedle dee and tweedle dum already awake making breakfast.  I started my morning by reading and saw tweedle dee (a high school aged looking kid) walk right behind my car, through my camp, looking into my windows, and standing on some large boulders close to some gear that I put outside my car.  He was taking pictures and he kept looking in my car.  I waved to him and he quickly looked away.  I figured it was probably time for me to leave and get ready for my big hike.

Today I planned to do my very long hike to a place that I scouted out a while ago.  I thought I had found a large natural arch that was in a remote location and I wanted to hike there to see if it was an arch or not.  I looked all over the internet and couldn’t find any pictures or details on this arch and I was wondering if it was one of those secret hikes that only locals know about.  I packed my bag and went to the trailhead.

It took me 2 weeks to plan a route to this supposed arch.  It took me two weeks because I kept finding obstacles that would prevent me from getting too far into my journey.  I eventually created about 5 different routes that I could try.  The longest route was about 12 miles roundtrip and my shortest route was about 9 miles roundtrip.  Either way, I was going to be spending the good chunk of the day exploring.

I got to the trailhead and made my way up the canyon until I came to an even narrower spot for me to reach the top of the mesa.  I quickly discovered that this route was impossible by myself and might be just impossible no matter what. I went to my second route and found that it was also closed off by the steepness of the terrain. 

I decided to give my 3rd route a try and found that it was doable, but I needed to do about a 10 ft. climb to get past an obstacle.  It wasn’t too tricky, but a rope would do wonders here.  I did in fact plan for a rope, but I needed it to be at the top of the climb and not at the bottom.  I made a few attempts, but I just couldn’t make it up the climb. 

I was beginning to think that I wasn’t meant to be on this hike and took a short break and just took some pictures and was trying to think of what else I could do today.  When I was about to turn back to my car and give up, I heard some noises above me.   Since I was already far off the normal trails in the area, I was half expecting to see a big horn sheep coming down the steep canyon.  After a minute a man appears in view and asks me if I am coming up. 

I told him it looks too steep and he tells me that there are carved Moki Steps in the rock to help me with the climb.  The steps did help, but I still couldn’t manage the part after the steps with my backpack and all my gear. He then said “this part is very tricky anyways, so that is why you need a rope!”  He then pulls out a rope and hooks it up to a rock. 

He comes down and asks me what I was planning on doing up on the mesa.  I told him I was looking for an arch and he said that there isn’t anything up there besides some very hidden petroglyph panels and a few small ruins, but nothing else was worth hiking to up there. 

He said something like, “Now, don’t pull a Moses on me!” Meaning, don’t go wander off in the desert and never come back.  I had a good laugh and told him I had a satellite messenger and tons of food and water.  I really appreciated his concern.  He let me use his rope and I was then on my own.  After about 1/2 mile I was now on top of the mesa. 

I could see all the hard and crazy obstacles I would need to tackle in order to reach the arch.  I soon found that my routes on top failed and made me have about an extra 1.5 miles to what I thought I would be hiking.   It was rough terrain full of sandstone cliffs and deep inescapable pockets.  I eventually found a good way to where I wanted to be.

I now was hiking in a long and narrow valley that was very very quiet.  It seemed like I also needed to be quiet, like, in a respectful or reverent way – it was strange.  Yet, I continued hiking through dry washes until I came to a flat spot that was about 1 mile within where I thought the arch was located.  I pulled out my drone and started to fly. It didn’t take long before I saw it.  The arch! 

It was in the distance on the other side of this giant sandstone wall.   I felt more and more trapped as I saw that my route to the arch would be even longer than I had thought.  It was real, though, and I knew I could eventually get to it.  Either on this trip or the next.

The arch was large.  From certain angles it looked like it was a giant dinosaur or dragon eye staring at you.  For this reason, I am calling it: Dragon’s Eye Arch.  I wanted to hike directly to it, but it was already nearing my point-of-no-return time, which was 4:00 pm.  I realized it would probably take me about 2 more hours to hike to the arch since I had to hike about 1 mile to the east and then back west another mile after crossing through a safe-point in the giant wall I mentioned before.  Since I was hiking alone, I didn’t want to push my luck. 

I got a little bit closer and then noticed something on the side of the cliffs – rock art!  There were some seemingly random rock art panels all along the cliffs!  The typical big horn sheep glyphs were present along with some anthropomorphs (human-like figures) and other strange shapes.  I also found a small ruin underneath an alcove!   This was very exciting since I was not planning on seeing any rock art!

After this, I hiked another 1/4 mile and then flew my drone again to get some videos of Dragon’s Eye Arch.  The arch is beautiful and I wished I could have visited it on my trip, but I will be back. I came back the same trail and pulled out my webbing to climb down that obstacle.  I climbed down without incident and got back to my car.

My skin was sunburnt and dirty from the dirt and sweat.  I got dinner in town and made my way back to camp.  This time it was about 9 pm when I arrived.  It was a long day!

I woke up early again and had plans to go explore in the San Rafael Swell.  As I was driving north to Crescent Junction I had the thought that I should go check out some rock art north of the town of Green River.  It seemed like a fun thing to do and so I set off for Gray’s Canyon near Green River.

This area is beautiful!  Lots of farm land and beautiful tall rock monuments await you here.  The road quickly became dirt and I was now going about 5-10 mph the rest of the 7 miles to Nefertiti Rock.  I was scanning the cliffs and the boulders for rock art and just couldn’t find anything.  I remembered seeing pictures of some rock art near the river, but had no luck.  I eventually got to the end of the road near Nefertiti Rock and got on the trail that heads north from the boat ramp.

After hiking for about 1/2 mile I realized that it would be near impossible to find the rock art without some guidance.  There was no cell service here.  I got out my satellite messenger and sent a text to my brother for directions.  Within about 6 minutes he sent me a text with GPS coordinates – I was saved!  The GPS coordinates worked and I easily found the first panel.

I then heard the boat ramp outhouse door slam shut and saw a lady walking out.  I asked her if she knew where all the petroglyphs were and she pointed them all out to me.  She was very friendly and guided me to the panel that I missed down the road too!  She was camping with her family in a trailer and seemed to be enjoying their time away from civilization.

I scanned on the tops of the cliffs and found some rock monuments!  I wasn’t expecting to find anything, but randomly saw some stacked rocks.  I flew my drone up there and found carefully placed rocks that created little monuments.  I’m not sure what these mean, but they seem to have been created in the last 50-100 years.  Who knows for sure though!

After this, I went back to the petroglyph panel that I missed before.  These are incredible and worth the visit alone!  The rock the petroglyphs are on are angled kind of weird, so I pulled out the drone and got some aerial photos.  I figured it would be nice to fly my drone along the river for some nice photos and I had the passing thought that maybe there would be petroglyphs on the other side of the river.  I flew the drone over and scanned some of the larger boulders. 

On one boulder in particular, I saw some distinct squiggles and lines.  I flew in close and realized that this rock was COVERED in petroglyphs!  I didn’t want to fly in close, since I didn’t want to crash my drone, obviously.  If my drone did crash, it would be about a 14 mile hike and one I wasn’t up to.  I flew around some more and found other petroglyphs!  This was such a fun and exciting find!  Check out my post on it by clicking here!

It was getting to be late afternoon and I decided to head home instead of exploring elsewhere.  I was too excited to create some more posts to share with you all and so I went home and cleaned up over the weekend!