Rabbit Ears Trail Construction and Rattlesnake Canyon
Dave and Helen Damouth
www.damouth.org
9/28/2006 to 10/1/2006
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The primary purpose of this trip was for Dave to participate in a Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) trail-building project on the Rabbit Ears Trail, in Rabbit Valley. This area is south of Interstate 70 in Colorado, just a few miles east of the Utah border. We left a day early before the trail project to do some local exploring
Thursday, 9/28/06: An uneventful 5-hour motorhome trip along I-70 from Golden, CO, over the Continental Divide to Colorado River State Park, on the Colorado River at the small town of Fruita, about 15 miles west of Grand Junction and 19 miles east of the Utah border. I had made a campsite reservation some time ago. Even on this autumn weeknight, the campground appeared about 2/3 full when we arrived in mid-afternoon, and completely full by evening. The park is a relatively new modern design. There are 44 RV sites, of which half are electric/water and the rest full hookups, with 50 amp service. Nearly every site is a pull-through, and most are suitable for the largest RVs. There are also 13 tent sites and a group camping area. Many trees have been planted, but none are large. The park (but not the campsites) borders the river, and a boat launch is available. From the campsite, we have views of the Colorado National Monument escarpment to the south and the Book Cliffs to the north.
The group camping area was reserved for the VOC project and, for the two nights of the project, was crowded with approximately 100 volunteers in tents plus a large cook tent and a large canopy for a group shelter. Our individual campsite was 100 yards or so away.
Friday, 9/29/06: We packed a lunch and headed off to explore. After driving half way through Colorado National Monument, we took a dirt road northwest to the trailhead for Rattlesnake Canyon, 10.8 miles one way. The last mile or so is quite rough and requires high-clearance vehicles. Four wheel drive is recommended but not necessary in good weather. The trail is in Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness Study Area, managed by BLM. Note that if you don't plan to stop along the way in the National Monument, you won't have to pay the park entrance fee. For more information, see Black Ridge Canyons WSA and Rattlesnake Arches Trail.
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
The trailhead signage describes it as two separate one-way hikes, one a fairly short hike to an overlook above the nearest arch, and the other a 3-mile (one way) trail which goes down (several hundred feet of elevation change) to a wide ledge at the base of the arches and then curves back along the base of the nine arches. I found out later that the two trails can be done as a loop. The ends of the two trails are close together, but separated by several hundred vertical feet of cliff, so that the loop requires an unmarked steep scramble up the cliff. This might have been fun, but I didn't know about it at the time.
Helen took the shorter upper overlook trail (perhaps 2 miles round trip), and Dave did the lower trail (about six miles round trip). This area is "the second largest concentration of natural arches in the country" with nine arches along the trail, plus a lot of very interesting sandstone formations and caves along the way. Both trails are fairly well maintained and are easy hiking, with the exception of a fairly steep descent at the beginning. The scenery is great, with expansive views out over and into the deep canyon. Other trails are available, including an unmaintained trail up the canyon from the Colorado River to the arches, with about 1000 feet of elevation gain.
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
Saturday, 9/30/06: The VOC project got underway with breakfast served at 6 a.m. We ate, packed a lunch from ingredients provided, got divided into work crews of about half a dozen people each, and boarded busses at 7 a.m. to be shuttled to the trail head.
The Rabbit Ear Trail ascends 700 vertical feet from Rabbit Valley to the top of Rabbit Ear Mesa. When we arrived, the steep, poorly designed, trail was badly eroded and difficult to hike. The scenery was marred by a network of informal "social trails", which also were eroding and destroying the terrain. Our goal was to stabilize and improve the steep part of the trail, close and re-vegetate the social trails, and also to build a complete loop trail around the rim of the mesa.
The first task at the trailhead was to select the tools we'd need for the day, and lug them up the hill. Five hundred feet of elevation gain seems a lot harder when I'm carrying an extra 20 pounds or so of tools, in addition to drinking water, extra clothes, lunch, etc. My crew, with a crew leader experienced in heavy rock work, was assigned to the steepest part of the trail, building rock-reinforced channels to move water quickly off the trail to prevent erosion. We also built rock steps at the steepest points, and chiseled steps into the soft red sandstone where the trail had to climb a small cliff.
I spent time "rock shopping" to locate appropriate building rocks and move them to the trail, and also spent hours swinging a heavy pick/mattock, digging water channels and holes in which to seat the rock steps. The bigger rocks are moved with a unique chain cradle called an "Austin", which allows up to eight people to jointly carry a several-hundred-pound rock. This tool was invented by Steve Austin, a retired engineer who spends much of his spare time leading work crews for VOC, and was my crew leader for this project. I like to work in Steve's crews, not just because of his expertise, but because his example reminds me that I'm not "over the hill" yet. He's at least a decade older than I, motivates his crews by working harder than any of them, and does this almost every weekend.
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
At the end of the day, we hiked down to the trailhead, boarded our busses, and got back to the campsite around 5:30 pm, where we attacked a table of hearty snacks and a donated keg of local craft-brewed beer while waiting for dinner. Dinner was excellent, as usual. One the nicest aspect of this organization is that their volunteer cooks at the various projects compete with each other to see who can turn out the most delectable meals, under relatively primitive field conditions. While most of the crew retired early to cold tents and hard ground, I headed back to join Helen in the relative luxury of the motorhome. Helen had spent the day sightseeing dinosaur digs and shopping in the Grand Junction area.
Sunday, 10/2/06: Dave was up early again to grab a quick breakfast, pack lunch, and board the bus. Helen slept in and spent another leisurely day visiting the Western Colorado Botanical Gardens - 15 carefully landscaped acres on the Colorado River, with greenhouse and butterfly house. She also hiked the Watson Island Nature Trail (a one-mile loop on Watson Island, adjacent to the Botanical Gardens), and visited the Western Colorado Center for the Arts.
The trail crews spent the early part of the day finishing up details on the steep part of the trail, then moved up on top of the mesa. This is high desert country - sandy soil and a sparse miniature forest of piñon pine and juniper, typically about 8 feet tall. Up here, we're building new trail, close to the rim of the mesa, where there are wonderful panoramic views in all directions - the convolutions of the Colorado River to the south, and a mélange of picturesque mesas and canyons to the north and west beyond the Rabbit Valley. On the level mesa top, because of the sparse vegetation and bare sandy soil, trail building consisted mostly of collecting flat rocks and using them to build cairns to mark the trail. The frequent wind moves the loose soil around and will quickly erase our footprints, leaving no evidence of a trail other than the cairns. We moved fast, completing almost two miles of trail by the end of the day, running out of work, and quitting a bit early.
Helen and Dave both had obligations at home on Monday, so we packed up the motorhome as soon as the shuttle bus dropped me back at the campground, and we got on the road quickly, joining the heavy Sunday evening traffic heading back to Denver. Traffic turned out not to be too bad, and the trip back took only about 5 hours.