The good news, we didn't get lost in the Maze. We did have some thoughts.......
We took a 4 day Navtec adventure trip - off roading in a Toyota Landcruiser (and we mean off road), and hiking 3 of the days. The Maze is the wildest part of Canyonlands; just to access the area, you need to drive hours off road through canyons and washes. All worth the travels for the awe-inspiring landscapes!
Day 1: Off road drive to Horseshoe Canyon (Glen Canyon Recreation Area) where we hiked down to the dry river bed and followed the wash to incredible petroglyphs. After the first 3.5 miles, it was then time to get out and back to the Landcruiser. Rich, our guide, met us at the petroglyphs and lead us out and up the canyon on Deadmans trail (definitely the correct name). We then off roaded to our first night's campout at High Spur. A great dinner, great sunset, and then tucked into our sleeping bags for a cold night.
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| Into the Slot |
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| The Slot, yes we hiked thru |
Day 2: Started the day with our hike in Blue John Slot Canyon, made famous in the book and movie, "127 hours",. Remember the story of the hiker who got trapped in this slot canyon when a rock trapped his left hand, and he eventually saved himself by cutting off his hand to escape? Yep, this is the canyon... We walked, crawled, and squeezed for over 2 miles through this slot canyon; all incredible! Then around 1pm, it was time to continue our journey, so Rich had us climb out "Rich's Out", a 1500 foot climb on his unmarked and never done before trail.
Then we drove until dusk over a trail that we would have been concerned to hike. Narrow, rocky with boulders and slick rock, rough, and some shear canyon dropoffs -- and then the loss of our power steering 10 miles before our destination, all added to this adventure. Set up camp for the next two nights at Standing Rock Campground in the Maze section of Canyonlands. Enjoyed another great dinner and to bed with the cold wind ruffling our tent.
Day 3: We got out the map and chose a 7.5 mile hike down into the nearby canyon. Set out on the road, then the trail following the cairns as we descended almost 2,000 feet to the canyon floor. After some narrow ledges and rock scrabbling, we reached the dry wash and started walking. Got to the end of the canyon and needed to make a decision as to which way to proceed. We headed left on a totally unmarked trail, and counted the canyon entrances and watched for rock formations to find our way out. Luckily, we came across two sets of footsteps coming toward us; we followed and they lead us to the climb out trail which fortunately was marked with cairns. PHEW! We got back to camp at 5pm, 7 hours of hiking.
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| Camped at Standing Rock |
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| Into the canyon |
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| Do we go right or left?! |
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| Climb out.... |
And by the way....Jason the mechanic, arrived to repair the Landcruiser. He spent the night, shared dinner with us, and started the repair of the steering . He replaced the gearbox and joined us the next morning on the way home. Now, that's called service! He drove the 7 hours to get to our very remote location.
Day 4: Now it was our turn to reverse our tire tracks, drive back across Devils Wishbone, and then back to Moab, 7 hours later.
What an adventure!!
Day 1: Off road drive to Horseshoe Canyon (Glen Canyon Recreation Area) where we hiked down to the dry river bed and followed the wash to incredible petroglyphs. After the first 3.5 miles, it was then time to get out and back to the Landcruiser. Rich, our guide, met us at the petroglyphs and lead us out and up the canyon on Deadmans trail (definitely the correct name). We then off roaded to our first night's campout at High Spur. A great dinner, great sunset, and then tucked into our sleeping bags for a cold night.
Day 3: We got out the map and chose a 7.5 mile hike down into the nearby canyon. Set out on the road, then the trail following the cairns as we descended almost 2,000 feet to the canyon floor. After some narrow ledges and rock scrabbling, we reached the dry wash and started walking. Got to the end of the canyon and needed to make a decision as to which way to proceed. We headed left on a totally unmarked trail, and counted the canyon entrances and watched for rock formations to find our way out. Luckily, we came across two sets of footsteps coming toward us; we followed and they lead us to the climb out trail which fortunately was marked with cairns. PHEW! We got back to camp at 5pm, 7 hours of hiking.
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