Saturday, September 7, 2024
There were three trails on tap for the day. All are northwest of Logan. To avoid driving into the morning sun, I left nice and early.
While I realize automotive engineers are always tweeking and creating, I noticed something really cool on the F-150.
I'm used to automatic headlights. This has automatic high beams. Away from traffic, they come on. A vehicle coming towards me and they drop. The same when there's a vehicle ahead of me.
The first hike was to a place called Wind Cave. Every trail review mentioned limited parking. Not too bad at 7A. They also describe the trail as narrow, steep and rocky. It was. But, nothing like I had dealt with before. A rather pleasant climb actually. Two miles up, two back.
A rare selfie...
Eventually arriving at the Wind Caves...
The hike down...a breeze.
The second hike was the easy one, to a place called the Hobbit Caves. I found Fire Road 081 and drove it as far as I could, turning around at the "No motor vehicles beyond this point." Never found the trail.. and with no cell signal, I couldn't use Google maps. As my friend Amy used to say, First World Problems.
Natalie Ockley wrote about the caves for her blog, Utah's Adventure Family.
So, I moved on to the tough one for the day. It starts way in the back of a campground. A barricade blocks the road, a little extra walking to the trailhead.
Finally, the access trail...
The whole loop is 4.6 miles. In hindsight I'm glad I randomly chose to go in this direction. It's a lot of climbing, but the way down was much more steep. Long trail, no regrets. Finally the turnoff. No idea why it's called The Crimson Trail.
Suddenly, the trail starts down. While the hike up involved a lot of switchbacks, headed down, it's just down.
It's one thing to have to pick your footing on loose gravel. It's another to do it on dirt. I'll admit I lost my footing briefly. Thank goodness for the trekking poles. Yikes. This is why I didn't stop for many photos on the hike down.
Finally, the last stretch along the river.
By the time I finally made it back to the car, I was done for.
I did feel better after a return visit to Prodigy Brewing. Monica was working the bar area and couldn't have been nicer. She asked where I was headed next and suggested a few trails late in this journey.
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