Dome Plateau

[IntrepidXJ]

Date: October 9, 2008

On Thursday I decided to go on another official trail ride which was lead by Alex. He likes to lead a new trail every year that he has never run before, and this year he chose to check out Dome Plateau. Lucky for me, this was also an area that I wanted to explore, so I volunteered to tailgun for him as well. He did his homework on the area, and we only missed one turn the whole day, but he quickly realized it and got us turned around right away.

This trail starts out just passed the Dewey Bridge across the Colorado River, which means it's about 30 miles from Moab and another 30 miles back. Plus the route we followed was around 36 miles long, so it turned out to be a long day on the trail. We actually ended up making it back to town just in time for the Show and Shine at Swanny City Park I really enjoyed exploring this area, and there are a number of other roads in the area that I want to get back an explore.

We stopped by the Dewey Bridge to regroup before hitting the trail


Starting down the trail




After following some lesser travelled roads, we made our way to a nice overlook above Professor Valley where we also stopped for some lunch.


After lunch we made our way to check out La Boca Arch


From the back


After the arch, we headed over to Cave Springs

[IntrepidXJ]

On our way back to the highway, we passed an old mine and a few cabins

Stopped at the cabins






After checking out the cabins, we headed back to the highway. On the way back to town, Alex and I stopped to explore the cave house located above Highway 128.

Alex walking up the stairs in the cave house


View from the inside


Outside the cave house


All in all, it was another great day of exploring some new terrain.

The full gallery can be found here:

Dome Plateau

[crawler#976]

Good report w/ great pics! Looks like a fun day of exploring.

Mark

[kellymoe]

Oh man, I am jealous. Thanks for the TR.

[ntsqd]

Are those the Cave Houses that a strict Mormon family built? I seem to recall reading something about the family in a series of articles about the YFZ and other polygamous splinters.

[IntrepidXJ]

Are those the Cave Houses that a strict Mormon family built? I seem to recall reading something about the family in a series of articles about the YFZ and other polygamous splinters.

It's just one house that was built right off of Highway 128 near the Dewey bridge.....other than that, I do not know the history.

[kellymoe]

The shot overlooking Professor Valley is spectacular. Is the spire formation in the distance in the middle of the picture the Titan?

[IntrepidXJ]

The shot overlooking Professor Valley is spectacular. Is the spire formation in the distance in the middle of the picture the Titan?

That's actually Fisher Tower