Moments in Dirt and Ink

Bears Ears National Monument Click for map. I was going to go for Owl Canyon, but discovered that I might, with a properly early start, be able to do the whole loop with Fish Creek. The ranger recommends against trying it because you just can't travel that trail as fast as you would expect. Anyway, I've decided to hike Kane Gulch instead today. Yes, ruins are expected. (This is a fee area. The one week hiking permit I got yesterday for $5 will cover it but an America the Beautiful pass will not. Fees increase at the start of 2020 to $10 per week per person.) For this one, parking is right behind Kane Gulch Ranger Station, marked as "long term". Then it is through the notch in the fence and across the highway and down into the wide, shallow wash on the other side. Somewhere early on, the Emigrant Trail should swing south from it, but I don't see that. Maybe if I was looking for it more, it would be there. I just see trail following the fence that the trai...

Canyonlands National Park Hanging off the edge of the Island in the Sky is the Mesa Arch. We stopped to have a look, which requires bout a half mile walk along one or both sections of a loop trail. The trail is a well trod path through the sand and sages, generally quite well marked by people traveling along it, but also by cairns when it crosses rocks. Starting along the trail toward the cliff and the arch at the edge of the Island in the Sky. First look at Mesa Arch.