Day 2 of Trails
During our December planning meeting we had, we chose to do some trips outside the Red Rock 4 Wheelers EJS events. We wanted to go at our own pace and not be in a large group. We didn’t know it at the time, but Copper Ridge is a trail that is part of EJS event. We were studying maps and found these trails. I created routes in Gaia GPS app, and we went out and did them. Between the ridge and US 191 there is a huge network of roads, so I do not know if we were always on the official copper ridge trail, but we have a great route planed. Red Rock 4 Wheelers has rated Copper Ridge trail as a “4”.
The trail starts out North of Moab on the East side of US 191. We had to pass through a rangers gate, its policy to make sure that the gate is secured behind so no livestock can escape. Here we aired down and disconnected our front sway bars, and put the Jeeps into low range. Jeff once again did most of the driving, he’s a fast learner, I cant wait for him to join us with his own Jeep.
The most technical section of road was a downhill “S” turn. This was fun! With Greg and Chris spotting, they got all of us down with no problem.
Next we come to a section of Slick Rock where a sign is posted. We are to stay within the trail because living in the puddle are Tadpole shrimp. Since it is early in the season, the typical tire tracks that you see in most of the Moab trail have not been formed from all the vehicles that traverse the trails. On the slick rock there was painted trail markers, finding these were difficult at times. But we were Abel to stay on the trail.
On the east side of a ridge, we can see why this is called Copper Ridge, the mountainside is green in color from the copper in the soil.
Lunch is on the trail, we find an open part of the trail and pull off so others can pass.
We choose to get off the Copper Ridge trail, there was a loop that I mapped out. We chose to work our way into the Northern Section of Arches National Park.
We join Salt Valley Road, a well groomed dirt road, the first right is Tower Arch Trail. Its a fairly easy rail with one section of a steep downhill. Which them leads us to Tower Arch. This arch is only accessible by hiking, bike, or off-road vehicle. Only a small percentage of the people hat go through Arches National Park see this, it was really cool to understand what we are seeing!
The trail South towards the visitors center is along fairly straight deep sand trail. Part of me wanted to get bogged down in the sand have have to use the MaxTrax! We made our way out and passed the “Eye of the Whale Arch”
Today was a great day! It was fun exploring new trails on our own and enjoying a relaxing fun day with friends.
https://www.expeditionteamoverland.com/EJS-2019/Copper-RidgeTower-Arch
Expedition Team Overland 