Moab Area
Personal Notes:
Mineral Point Road
This page contains our personal notes from our trip to Moab in April of 2007, when we visited the Golf Course Rock Art Panel, the Courthouse Wash Rock Art Panel, and drove the Mineral Point Road to the Mineral Bottom Overlook. We also spent most of a day in the nearby Canyon Rims Recreation Area.
Friday, April 13, 2007
La Sal Mountains
8:48 a.m.
We’re getting ready to go out for the day. Because it’s so windy and cold, we’ve decided to do the Hatch Point Road today. In spite of the wind, the day is sunny and bright. We are staying in the little cabins at the KOA campground on the south side of Moab. We intended to cook our own breakfast, but because of the cold wind we've decided to eat in town.
There are great views from the campground. To the west we have the red cliffs looming over us, and to the east we’ve got more read rock and the La Sal mountains. It rained last night and it obviously snowed up on the peaks. The La Sals are covered with fresh snow, and the strong winds are blowing the snow off of the peaks in long sheets. Very impressive, and very exciting to watch. The sky is clear, but the blowing snow up there makes it look hazy. Pretty neat sight.
8:59 a.m.
On the way out of town we stopped for gas, then headed south to the Canyon Rims Recreation Area for the day.
Highway 191 Road Construction
9:44 a.m.
There are two spots of road construction south of Moab, about 17 to 20 miles out. We had to stop both times and wait for the pilot truck to lead us through. It looks like they are widening the road and adding more lanes. That’s a good thing, but it also looks like construction will go on for most of this year, if not longer, backing up any traffic going north and south along that route.
In the late afternoon we took a short hike up Courthouse Wash in Arches National Park.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
7:58 a.m.
This morning it is still cold and windy. We decided to skip the Amasa Back Trail hike today. We’re just not up for a 12 mile hike on this trip, especially in a cold wind. So we’ll do some other exploring.
9:30 a.m.
Again we ate breakfast in town headed north along Highway 191. It 52 degrees, but with the wind it feels much colder. On the way out of town we stopped and scouted the Courthouse Wash rock art, then drove up toward Dead Horse Point State Park and the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park. Our plan was to take the Mineral Point Road out to an overlook above Mineral Bottom on the Green River.
Mineral Point Road
10:16 a.m.
We left Highway 313 at GPS Coordinates (NAD83): 38 35.182N; 109 48.371W and headed west on the Mineral Point Road. The road is marked and graded.
11:54 a.m.
The Mineral Point Road is graded for about the first seven miles. We followed it around a prominent butte and then it turned into a jeep trail. We thought we were on the right route, until the road came to a T junction that didn’t match the description. As it turned out, we were on the return portion of a side loop road that passes above Hell Roaring Canyon. So we backtracked to the graded road and, after reviewing the description from a book we had, we found a non graded road marked by a cairn that matched what we expected.
From that point on the road is not graded and became very rough in places. We used our four wheel drive just to get a bit better traction, but we probably didn’t need it. There are lots of side routes leading from the main road, but if you stick with where most of the tire tracks go you should be okay. There are fantastic views of the surrounding canyon country all along the route.
Mineral Bottom Overlook
Mineral Bottom Overlook is at GPS Coordinates 38 32.846N; 109 59.462W at an elevation 4,875 feet. There is a loop at the end of the road and several places to park out of the way, just in case someone else comes along while you are out there. We had the place to ourselves.
12:45 p.m.
We took a walk out across the slickrock to look over the edge to see Mineral Bottom and the Green River. After a ways we came upon what I think of as an illegal ATV trail that seemed to be heading to where we wanted to go. These motorized enthusiasts have basically run over all sorts of cryptobiotic soil and when they did ride on the slickrock their trail ran right through pot holes, where they obviously splashed out the water and mud, and did wheelies in them just for fun. Of course that removes water and nutrients from these pits that act as the source of life for the little critters that live in the potholes.
Most of the pots were full due to the recent rains, and we did find several that had different types of critters swimming around. Some of the pots were so deep and the water was so murky that we couldn’t see to their bottoms.
The weather was nice while we were out there, but a bit on the chilly side due to the occasional breezes. Otherwise it was nice and sunny.
Horsethief Campground
2:16 p.m.
On the way back to the highway we stopped at Horsethief Campground for lunch. There are lots of good sites for tents and RVs and trailers. The entrance to the campground is .5 miles from the junction. Horsethief Campground seems to be stretched out all along the road. It is a fee area ($10.00 per night) with modern vault toilets, but no water. There is a campground host, and the campground is suited for both long RVs and tents. This is a well thought out site with 58 widely spaced level sites. There are some scattered pinyon and junipers, providing some shade, but this site would most likely be best in the spring or fall. Each site has a picnic table and a large fire pit.
2:50 p.m.
On the way back in to Moab we stopped once again at the Courthouse Wash Trailhead to finally get a view of the rock art panel there.
Golf Course Rock Art Panel
4:02 p.m.
From Courthouse Wash we drove to the Golf Course Rock Art Panel. There is a small parking area at GPS Coordinates 38 32.275N; 109 28.777W; at an elevation of 4,682 feet. The rock art panel is fenced off. It faces across the road toward the golf course (thus its name) and is the first red rock outcrop just past the new-looking housing project. The panel has mostly petroglyphs from the Fremont and Anasazi cultures and is several feet long. See the detailed descriptions and photos on our Golf Course Rock Art Panel page.
