Goodbye Moab, Hello Canyon Country

That is one sweet tumbleweed.

I found that pole. Then broke it.

After leaving Moab we made a stop in the town of Green River for some supplies and to top off the tank before heading out into the desert.  The majority of this canyon country is federally owned and divided into national parks, and everything in between them is managed by the BLM (Burea of Land Management).  While the National Park Service wants you to stay in your car and take pictures and not walk on anything that's not paved or a trail so well-marked that you couldn't possibly get lost, the BLM is just happy if you don't burn the place down.  This results in huge wilderness areas with no towns, barely passable roads, no help, and lots of opportunity to blaze your own trail....or get lost.

There's the canyon. Now how do we get in?

The canyon we wanted to explore is located 30 miles south of I-70 smack dab in the middle of ones of these great BLM areas.  We took a gravel road out of the town of Green River which was well taken care of but had a lot of washes where flooding goes over the roadway.  Of course these were bone dry but still left a good dip that you had to slow down for.  We took a 4WD trail off this gravel road and parked near the upper end of the Moonshine Wash, a tiny slot canyon about 4 miles long that empties into the San Rafael River.  The San Rafael empties into the Green River right after that, and the Green dumps into the Colorado River just before Cataract Canyon and Lake Powell.

Looks sketchy.

We made our way into the slot and hiked, climbed, scrambled and waded our way through the tightest areas   About a kilometer in an old sheep trail crosses the canyon by wooden bridge.  We didn't attempt to cross it. 
For much of the way the canyon is close to 30 meters deep and about 30" across.  We continued on until it opened up to about 50 ft. wide.  We hiked another kilometer and then scrambled up a steep rock face and hiked back out to the truck.  In all the trip was 3 hours and 50 minutes I will never forget.  Seeing the slot canyons of Utah has been a dream of mine for a lot of my life, and I'm glad I can check that off my list.

Tonight we drove out of the desert and into Colorado.  We'll camp at Rabbit Valley right off I-70 and bike in Fruita in the morning.  Everyone we met in Moab said we had to try Fruita's trails, so we might as well add that to our itinerary.  Tonight also marks our furthest west point, from here on out we work our way east and back home.

P.S this is harder than it looks, but luckily the water wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, although hiking out a few miles in wet shoes is absolutely no fun.