Up the Colorado River…

Many don’t realize that the Colorado River is just north of Moab, Utah. I am (‘was’ now) one of those people. Wasn’t until I pulled up a google map of Moab while planning my excursions that I noticed it on the map. The bridge just north of town that crosses it, doesn’t have a sign that I recall. And it’s one of those bridges that discourages ‘gawking’ with cement barriers on the edges of the bridge so you can’t really see the river much.

Anyway, after you cross that bridge coming from Arches NP, you’ll notice a park on your left. The Lion’s Park and trail head. I had already passed that point several times while just driving around exploring so once I discovered it was the Colorado River, I decided it was worth a tour. Plus the map was showing many many RV parks right along the route and yeah, I wanted to explore those parks too, for future reference. And…it was on Highway-128 which was called a ‘Scenic Byway’ road. Then I found somewhere, dunno where, the mention of the town of Cisco, which according to what I read was turning into a ghost town…but had a dinosaur themed general store still open. And it was at the end of 128. So, I thought, yeah, I’ll drive up the Colorado River canyon, visit those RV parks and sights, then at the end, visit that ghost town and stop for an ice cream at the general store, which featured it. So that would make a pretty cool day long excursion. Then I could, if I wanted, jump onto the freeway and quickly go back to Moab that way, OR, choose to just retrace my route along the river. We’ll see!

We’ll start at the Lion’s park end of the journey and follow the river up the canyon…

And here off to the side is the canyon walls that enclose the river…

Then you come to this giant hole. It’s across the river and the picture foreshortens the perspective but that hole is HUGE.

That giant hole in the rocks shown above was pretty neat. It was so big, hardly seemed like it would have interested ancient man in this area, plus being nearly impossible to get to would discourage exploration anyway. I suspect that archaeologists have already checked it.

Traveling along the river bank, came upon these rapids…which attest to the early winter (November) low water situation. After a long hot summer, the Colorado is pretty low.

And then I got to a large bend in the river, a double 90 degree kind of bend which is unusual, and there is a multi cabin resort right there at the bends. See those buildings above under the trees? A horse ranch style place, Red Cliffs Lodge, where people come to get refreshed and ride horses in remote areas around this canyon or just in their paddock. There’s another one a few miles further on so it’s horse heaven around here.

Pretty cool so far. Enjoying the trip, but I haven’t stopped at any RV park yet for some reason. I decided, hell, I’ll just come back this way from Cisco and stop at a few then, I’ve been on freeways before and this trip wasn’t taking lots of time that I’d need to hurry back to Moab via freeway anyway, right?

And then the trees changed. Huh. Went from mostly scrub to these deciduous trees. I had been increasing elevation while driving next to the river of course, but didn’t realize just how far. But a couple miles along it sort of changed back to desert like. I wonder what the deal is with these trees? Must be some special circumstances that promoted their growth here but suppressed them further up or down the river. OR, perhaps humans had something to do with their distribution?

Colorado is looking *mighty* in places. Would have been really really amazing to have been here at the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. Likely this entire canyon would have been filled with raging waters.

Then again, most of the canyon walls do not display any water carving or gouging or smoothing. No obvious shorelines anywhere. So maybe 10K years ago, the Colorado wasn’t comprised of the raging torrents I felt happened?

If you check the map above again and follow the route you’ll see the road leaves the riverside a couple times and then jogs due north at one place where I kept going to get to Cisco. And that’s where I’ll pick it up next time. A visit to Cisco, and the trip back down the Colorado River.

Thanks for reading, see you next time! I thought I’d publish this on xmas day so you’ll have something to read while waiting for or cooking dinner. Happy Hollardaze!

Jim.