Red Mountain Pass Backcountry

We made a trip over to Ouray last weekend to soak in the hot water and be surrounded by big mountains. The San Juans are amazing and not really all that far from Moab. Toad and myself got an early morning ski tour in around Red Mountain Pass. I had never skiied in the San Juans so I was expecting to just do a short tour and scout the area out. We ended almost summiting MacMillan Peak at 12,800 feet and finding amazing snow conditions up high, even though it has been a week since the last storm. Once we were above treeline we were surrounded by high peaks and alpine terrain.

Good sized avalanche in US Basin that we could see from Macmillan

Todd skiing excellent recrystallized powder above 12,000 ft


Looking over towards the high country between Red Mountain Pass and Telluride

Skiing back to the Pass

Slickrock Sledding

Rime encrusted trees at the Geyser Pass Trailhead on Monday. The lighting was pretty amazing with the dark clouds behind them.

Last Friday we went out and hiked up some of the slickrock domes to see if we could sled on them. There was still plenty of snow and the slickrock made for a perfect luge run. A friend of mine actuallu went up and skiied on the slickrock trail. The warm temps Sat and Sun pretty much melted everything but it was fun while it lasted.

Ridge jumping slickrock ledges

Slickrock sledding

Moab Dump

The first "Snow Day" in Moab in over twenty years happened on Monday. It was the biggest storm we have seen in town since we have been here. 8 inches in out backyard, 18 in the La Sals and almost 30 inches at Camp Jackson in the Abajos. Hope it keeps up.

Smokey showing the snow totals in the backyard

Sledding down the driveway. Rowan was yelling "it's the best day ever!"

Sand Flats and South Mesa covered in white stuff

Climbing Courthoue Rock with the Taliban

We went out Sunday to a place Todd found while working. It is a route to the top of Courthouse Rock via some ledges and then a crack with a fixed line. It was too late to make it all the way up but we did find the crack and rope, so we will be back.

River and Ridge watching Toad climb the crack in the setting sunlight on top of Courthouse Rock

Uncle Todd forgot his coat so he grabbed part of his Fidel Castro costume from Halloween out of his car trunk to hike in, which made him look even more like a Taliban. Shadows in the setting sun

Tree thinning in the La Sals

Last weekend, before the big storm we went up on the mountain to kill some living trees to put in our house as a symbol of eternal life, kind of ironic but I like the tradition nontheless. We send most people up to Geyser Pass to get thier christmas trees because the aspen groves there are dieing off and conifers are encroaching on them. So it is actually a good thing to remove the small firs and spruces moving into the aspens.

I think my favorite thing about Christmas is the tree.

Hot Springs, Guns, Big Cliffs, Thanksgiving

We headed north for Thanksgiving again this year and carried on a few family traditions.

I took the boys back up to the hot springs for a nice long soak. Nothing like soaking in hot water when it is cold outside.

On Thanksgiving the boys went out (girls were invited but none of them wanted to join us) to celebrate our 2nd Amendment Rights and shoot things with a wide variety of weapons. I am pretty sure that some of the firearms had not been shot in decades, so we were happy when they did not blow up in our faces. Not sure what it is about guns but it is satisfying being able to hit something from a long distance with a high powered rifle. I want the boys to have a healthy respect for guns and to learn to handle them safely. I gave them alot of saftey talks but watching Uncle Creed and Todd hip shoot the shotguns may have undone some of that.

After Thanksgiving we shortened the annual Turkey Freeze Out into a day hike and drove out into the West Desert and climbed Notch Peak in the House Range, and looked over one of the highest cliffs in North America.

I truly have much to be thankful for

Ridge and Rowan partaking in the hot water

The boys hiking out

Me feeling sick looking over the 2000 foot vertical limestone cliff of Notch Peaks north face. It is hard to tell from the photo but that is a long ways down.

Ty Ty feeling tingly staring into the abyss

Toad and Ty reading the summit register and trying to stay warm

Not so Firey Furnace

We went back into the Firey Furnace on Saturday. This small area has to be some of the most convoluted topography in the world. It is very easy to get turned around in there. I have hiked through the whole area several times since moving here, but I still missed the entrance in to the Furnace and ended up wandering around for awhile looking for the way in.

Dead end in Lomatium Canyon

Sitting on an arch in a side canyon

Porcupine Rim Singletrack

Toad and myself celebrated Veterans Day by riding the Porcupine Rim trail to the river. It may be awhile before I do that section of trail again. Biking is a great way to get in shape and riding smooth singletrack or oceans of slickrock is very fun, but Porcupine Rim is neither of those. It is 12 miles of loose rocks and ledges, but the views are worth it.

The smooth singletrack of LPS before the ledgey hell of the Porcupine Rim Jeep Trail

Above the River in Jackass Canyon

Folk Fest Weekend

The entire Murdock Clan came down this past weekend for the annual Moab Folk Festival. We took advantage of the continuing fall weather biked, hiked, climbed and listened to Pete Rowan and his Bluegrass Band.

The entire Clan at that rock on everybodies licence plate, with Tuk framed perfectly in the arch

Rowan climbing the shadow of the aspens up Brumley Creek


Riding the geology of Bartlett Wash

Heading towards the end of the mesa

Halloween

If you can get the obscure cultural reference that Creed is dressed as you are super hip (notice his pants are on backwards)
Scary Pirates, Rowan was pretty excited to have a goatee and did not want to take it off

Nobody (including Tyler) knew what Ty was dressed up as, maybe K-Fed?

Extra credit if you can guess all of the characters in the Communist Party

We tried to make it back into Hammond Canyon agian last week but got snowed out so we ended up going further south to escape the storm.

Above is the satellite photo of where we rode, the color and form are pretty amazing so I thought I would post it.

Any guesses on where this is?

Life on a Ledge

This sky city is the most amazing setting of any Ancestral Puebloan structure I have ever visited. It was rarely visited but is becoming more popular with people publishing its location on websites, which I will not be doing. If you do find it treat it with respect, do not walk on the roof of the kiva, I am afraid it will not take many more people standing on it.

This is an ideal spot, it has only one way in and a fairly permanent water source on the ledge. The site is so exposed that it makes you a little uncomfortable even being there, but people lived thier lives out there in this little village on the edge of the great abyss.

Beautiful intact kiva, all pilasters and roof in place and much of the stucco still sticking to the walls. One wall has fallen into the canyon.I hope the Ancients don't mind me taking a picture of their sacred places, or maybe we just project our ideas of sacred onto these places and they were much more utilitarian to those that spent cold winters on this ledge.

The view out the kiva, which is perched right on the edge of an amazing cliff

Ty walking the sidewalk


Hanging out on the front porch

The kiva site

Cottonwoods and Kivas

We made it back down to Cedar Mesa for a fall trip. We went down Shieks Canyon and hiked up Grand Gulch to the Kane Gulch Ranger Station. This part of the Colorado Plateau continues to amaze me.

Toad hanging out on the front porch of the Lion Track House, so named for its pair of mountain lion track petroglyphs

Kiva and Cottonwoods at Junction House

Junction House, an original ladder is hanging out on the far left. I cannot imagine how they were able to haul tons of rock, mortar and timber up these faces to make thier homes.

4 hour old Bear tracks

Seems a bear wandered about 20 feet from our camp Sunday night

800 hundred year old bear track at Turkey Pen House. Seems that the Corn Eaters had bear on their minds as well.