Bogley

[Cirrus2000]

Saturday September 25th 2004, my friend Tony and I set out on our first ever Moab ride: The Klondike Bluffs. The weather was beautiful – nothing but blue. We parked right at the highway exit, rather than continue up the road to the parking area a couple of miles in. Hmm, not sure why, in retrospect. It was a bit of a slog up a rocky road to get to where everyone else seemed to park. Anyway, from there it was a more interesting ride.

I’d never seen landscape in these colours before. The green hills kind of startled me. Hmm, copper? Jeez, I don’t know...


Green hills without grass?


Then we got to Fred Flintstone’s House, which was a neat little feature. Soon we were into actual “slickrock” – whoa, that stuff’s cool! Don’t get that on the North Shore!


Ah, so this is slickrock! Nice... Tony on the left, me on the right.


We found a few dinosaur footprints (it was quite easy, as they had circles of stones around them, to mark them off and prevent Jeeps & other vehicles from, eventually, damaging them).


Checking out dino-prints.


Continued up the trail until finally arriving at the gate to Arches National Park, where there were bike racks available (biking not being permitted in the park, of course).


Parking with the other tourists.


We took the short stroll to the Klondike Bluffs, where we explored a while. What a stunning landscape!


Approaching the high point of the bluffs.



Looking to the west.



Hoodoo action.



Groovy fins & formations southwest.


On the way back, we stopped in a little shady area under a couple of trees, and re-applied sunscreen (being pasty white, soft in-doorsy city boys). While doing so, Tony spotted a critter coiled up about a foot from his boot, and slowly eased away from it. Have a look at the photo – is that what I think it is? I don’t know much about snakes, and didn’t see (or hear) a rattle, but the shape of that head... It barely moved at all, just slowly turned its head as we sidled around it.




Slithery (but friendly) little buddy.


Anyway, we survived the encounter, and an hour later, we were back at the campsite quaffing Coronas in the shade. Dinner at the Miguel’s Baja Grill in town. I think we ended up eating there about 3 times – loved the fish tacos!

[Sombeech]

That sure looks like a rattlesnake to me in the last pic.

Very nice hoodoo pics. :nod:

Thanks for the TR. This thread has been added to the Trip Report Index. :2thumbs:

[mroy]

All of the rattlers I've encountered in Utah, never rattled, which is disappointing. I guess it was too cold for them to care, or they had just eaten.

Klondike Bluffs is a fun ride.