For this spring’s geocaching event that I host semi-annually, it was a fairly low turnout with only 18 people attending–rain in the forecast scared some people away. Those of us who braved the weather still had a good time despite being stuck inside our RVs for parts of a couple days. Traci and I drove to the Wedge on Tuesday after work. Bradley followed in his car and stayed in a tent. I worked remotely on Wednesday, and I had Thursday and Friday off.
Tuesday evening at camp
Tuesday evening at camp
On Thursday I took the dogs for a hike along the Red Ledges where I wanted to check out what appeared to be an alcove that I saw in the satellite imagery. I hiked from the Fuller Bottom road up into a break in the cliffs, and followed a watercourse to the base of the cliffs. From there it was a short, steep climb up a talus slope to the alcove. It turned out to be nothing more than a shallow overhang, and the crumbly rock forming the cliffs wouldn’t have made for a good habitation site (which is what I was hoping to find).
The Red Ledges
Stickery weeds
Below the alcove
Climbing up
The alcove
Boulder and Delta
Dark clouds above camp on Thursday
It rained that night and much of Friday so I didn’t get out for a hike. On Saturday several of us hiked around in Ghoul Gulch. Unlike the first time I went there in 2007, when I hiked in from the nearest road, this time there was a road going all the way to Ghoul Gulch, and I’m probably responsible for popularizing the area, which led to the creation of that road. We hiked around the Entrada Sandstone formations for a while and ate lunch among the ghouls, then stopped at Hamburger Rocks on the way back to camp. The road had been muddy and I needed 4WD to get up one steep hill, but then it wouldn’t come out of 4-low. I tried many times but it just wouldn’t shift, so I unlocked the hubs and drove back to camp very slowly in 2-low.
Above Ghoul Gulch
Ghoul Gulch
Ghoul Gulch
Ghoul Gulch
Faces
Chris jumping the gap
Ghoul Gulch
Ghoul Gulch
WIldflowers
Hunter power plant
Hamburger Rocks
Lupine
We had our usual potluck dinner on Saturday evening, spent a little time around the camp fire, and then crowded into my trailer to play board and card games for the rest of the night. On Sunday morning I removed the shift motor from the truck’s transfer case and used a 1/2″ ratchet to manually shift it back into high gear so that I could go home.
Eerie colors in the clouds
Transfer case shift motor
Photo Gallery: Red Ledges and Ghoul Gulch