Kathleen's Window: Negro Bill Canyon and Morning Glory Natural Bridge

Tuesday, October 29, 2013 and Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Tuesday morning looked like it could be a decent day, but had a chance of showers in the afternoon, so we packed up our campsite and decided to find a hike. First we drove up the highway along the river and away from Moab towards Fisher Towers. When we arrived there we decided not to drive the 2.2 miles up the dirt road to the trailhead. After heavy rains the night before, the roads looked very wet and muddy, so we drove back past our campsite to a trailhead close to town, at Negro Bill Canyon. That trailhead has a paved parking lot, so we found a spot and started a hike up the canyon to the Morning Glory Natural Bridge. It's the 6^th largest natural bridge in North America.

Fisher Towers in the distance

Looking up the Castle Rock canyon toward the La Sal mountains

Route 128 down the Colorado River Canyon

The trail into the canyon followed a year round stream, rare for these parts. We had to cross it a half dozen times before heading up a side canyon to the bridge. The bridge was so large that I couldn't get far enough away, even with a wide-angle lens, to capture it in one shot. A stream flowed out of the rock on the side of the canyon walls filling a small pond. The acoustics under the arch amplified our voices.

Hiking up Negro Bill Canyon

One of many stream crossings

Morning Glory Natural Bridge

Under the bridge we met Craig with his four dogs. He lives in his van and is a kite surfer who spends summers in Bend, Oregon and winters in Baja, Mexico. His dogs had all been strays and 3 of them he found in Mexico. They enjoyed being petted while we talked with their owner.

Craig and canines

We didn't stay very long at the bridge and began our hike back as the clouds started to build, because we didn't want to be fording streams during a rainstorm. It stayed dry until we returned to the rig. We drove over to Arches National Park, which is just a few miles from town, but their campground was full. They were taking reservations until November 1^st, when they go first come-first served. Since the weekend rush was over in the BLM campgrounds along the river, we were able to get into a riverfront site for the night in Goose Island Campground, the closest to town.

It started raining as we arrived, and continued on and off during the night with strong winds. No chance for us to sit along the river and enjoy the view! The next morning after the rain stopped we drove back to Arches, but unless we were willing to make the drive 18 miles into the park to see if anyone had left early on their reservation, they considered the campground full. We decided to save the fuel and wait until after November 1^st, so we drove on up the road to the turnoff for Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. The state park website showed that there were a few openings for the next few nights before the weekend, but would be full over the weekend, so we thought we'd try there.

You might wonder why we don't make reservations ahead of time. First of all, we want to be spontaneous. We've realized that both our personalities can handle it, some people can't, so we decide where we are going a few days ahead, or sometimes when Greg gets behind the wheel in the morning. Secondly, we try to visit places in the slow season to avoid crowds and crowded campgrounds. And , thirdly, the reservation systems for the public parks charge, pretty uniformly, at least $9 to make the reservation. That is on top of the camping fee! Only once have we been unable to get into a campground and we wound up in a WalMart parking lot. Since we are self-contained we always have other options.

After taking the turnoff to the state park we came upon a BLM campground called Horsethief. It was a large campground on a plateau at about 6,000' and almost empty. As usual there were no hook-ups, but we had driven into Moab after we left Goose Island and filled up two five gallon water jugs at Gearheads. They have a large indoor sink with several faucets and a sign that says to take all the free water you need. At Horsethief we picked out a secluded spot and watched the clouds and storms roll around us across the vistas. We took a short walk together around the campground and Greg found a trail that took him several miles through the surrounding countryside. I went back to the rig and warmed up! Then we watched a beautiful sunset together and retreated to the rig as the temperature began to drop. It was another cold night of near freezing temperatures. Thursday morning we would head for Dead Horse Point.