Orange Cliffs

[AlanLichty]

The Orange Cliffs are just north of the Hans Flat Ranger Station in the western part of Canyonlands National Park. The prominence on the right is known as Cleopatra's Chair.

Scanned from Agfachrome 64.

C&C always welcome.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks for posting this Alan, I am going to be camped near Cleopatra's Chair Sunday night. This is a very neat view. How far into the Maze did you get?

 

[AlanLichty]

Thanks for posting this Alan, I am going to be camped near Cleopatra's Chair Sunday night. This is a very neat view. How far into the Maze did you get?

Thanks - this was the view from the edge of the cliffs which was about 500' from our encampment. I think we went about 2-3 miles into the Maze. One of the guys in our group was recording some of the rock art along the walls of the washes so we had a somewhat specific agenda for our hike that day. Definitely a neat area although I am guessing it's not quite as isolated as it was back in the mid 70's. There are some rather remarkable sets of switchbacks getting down to the rim of the Maze near the Chocolate Drops.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Fantastic geology in there, and yes, that's probably the Flint Trail. After our first night, we will be entering and exiting via Hite so we avoid the worse part of the Flint Trail.

 

[AlanLichty]

Fantastic geology in there, and yes, that's probably the Flint Trail. After our first night, we will be entering and exiting via Hite so we avoid the worse part of the Flint Trail.

Good plan to work out of Hite. We did come in via the Flint Trail since that was the closest access from our camp. I was going to query about whether you were going to carry extra fuel so you could still get back out. We had 10 jerry cans in our camp that got refilled twice a week when our cook would go into Green River for groceries. There were some students who drove their own cars to the camp and the round trip from Green River to the camp and back was right at the limits of their fuel range.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I just filled (2) 5 gal jerry cans. I have quite a bit of range in my truck. But gas is available in Hite.

 

[AlanLichty]

Modern engines get far better mileage than the typical vehicles in the 70's. Still smart to carry extra.

 

[JimFox]

Very cool shot Alan. That’s an area I have never been.

 

[AlanLichty]

Very cool shot Alan. That’s an area I have never been.

Thanks Jim - Canyonlands west of the Green River gets a fraction of the traffic that the rest of Canyonlands endures. Its not day trip territory if you really want to see what's out there.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I will report back on how hard this is when I return. Not taking it lightly, been planning it for the last 8 months and made a lot of mods to my truck and gathered a bunch of gear and maps.

 

[AlanLichty]

We did the Flint Trail route to the Chocolate Drops overlook in a 70's era Jeep Cherokee from the University of Utah motor pool. No mods at all.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Great to hear Alan. The last 10 miles into the Dollhouse are reputed to be the worse. The flint trail still reports some ice patches. We did not avoid it for difficulty but for fuel consideration.

 

[AlanLichty]

That's why I queried about fuel earlier - we had the advantage that our "gas station" was next to the Hans Flat Ranger Station.

 

[Timmeh]

The repeating shadows on the steps up to the buttes really works well here!

Tim

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Very expansive scenery Alan. A place I haven’t been to and not quite equipped to go.