We hiked out of Moab today and joined the spring break crowd in Kane Creek Canyon. We are hiking south for the next 4 days paralleling the Colorado river up on red rock benches til we arrive in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. Today we were mostly on a road sharing it with Jeeps, ATVs, Mountain bikers, rock climbers and dirt bikes. Not my favorite place to be hiking but when you are connecting places and your hike is a long one, sometimes you are on a road.
The road winds through Kane Creek Canyon which is a beautiful canyon with steep red walls and water. There are a few spectular rock art sites in this drainage including the very famous birthing rock.
I was not expecting the Birthing Rock to be up on a hill well above the drainage. This powerful image must be a cosmo marking, a route out of the Canyon, or marking something more profound. I wish I had time to study it’s place in the landscape. There is a reason it is here. It has a fence around it and a sign about respecting the rock art and the stories it tells of ancient people.
Kane Valley eventually broadens and opens up to a wide valley. There are many campgrounds in this area all called Ledge A,B,C, etc.. Many people are camped at these Ledge campgrounds and we pass by a woman running in the other direction. She stops and says are you hiking the Hayduke? Yes we say happy to find someone who even knows what the Hayduke Trail is. She tried to complete it last year. It was hot and dry in the section we are in and they drank some very alkaline water so they bailed out for a while. They then restarted in Escalante, Utah and hike to the end of the route. It was good to check in with her on water sources and other information.
We hike down the other side of Hurrah Pass; the road is now mostly an ATV trail that tomorrow will be more of a hiking trail. There is a cool breeze so it hasn’t been too hot but we are glad to make it to the Colorado River where we have water. Mostly you can’t get to the Colorado River from up on the ledges but there are a few canyons that go through. The evening finally quiets down as the ATVs mostly have headed back to Moab.
