Upon catching some lunch and leaving the Trin Alcove Bend area of the Green River (after doing the Northwest Fork of Three Canyon), Bill and I headed over to the Moonshine wash area, which runs parallel to Three Canyon, so it wasn't too far away. We immediately headed out for the canyon upon getting to the parking spot.
Moonshine was much more beautiful than I remembered it. The canyon, especially the slot sections, is one of the most beautiful around. Even my cheap little digital camera captured some decent shots. One part I forgot about was the amount of scrambling down choke sections of the slot. If you bring children, be sure you have at least two people that are secure enough to down climb 6' to 10' and you're capable of passing the kids down to each other on multiple down climbs. I'm going to post a few of Bill's photos here because they're so amazing and of course, they feature me :-).
Click on any photo to see the larger version of it (better details)
We did the short-cut route to the beginning of the slot, rather than waste a mile or so of hiking through sand.
Beginning of the slot
It starts to tighten up
(Photo courtesy of Bill)
Pictures of the narrow sections
(Photo courtesy of Bill)
Bill, doing a down-climb
We finally arrive at the fragile sheephearders bridge
(Photos Courtesy of Bill)
After the bridge, the canyon starts to widen up
We decided to work our way down to the famous spring and old cement moonshine tanks that this canyon is famous for. This required us to exit up out of the canyon and do some cross-country hiking (brought to you by Bill's GPS) to the proper canyon entrance.
Going up the exit area
Walking cross country to the tank entrance
We arrive at the spring and tanks
Visiting the tanks was somewhat uneventful, but at the same time it was one of those things I'd been wanting to do for a while. I also felt privileged that I was able to see a cool part of recent history.
We ended up hiking the western rim of the canyon back. We had hoped to find an easy route to see the old sheepherders bridge from above, but we were too tired to make the effort. We'll save that one for another trip. This trip was awesome an it was cool to cover two amazing canyons in one day. I'm so thankful for my wife's support in being able to enjoy a great day hiking and for the sacrifice Bill made in extending his road driving time another 3 hours (each way) for this after being gone for an entire week. Thanks for coming along Bill.
Moonshine was much more beautiful than I remembered it. The canyon, especially the slot sections, is one of the most beautiful around. Even my cheap little digital camera captured some decent shots. One part I forgot about was the amount of scrambling down choke sections of the slot. If you bring children, be sure you have at least two people that are secure enough to down climb 6' to 10' and you're capable of passing the kids down to each other on multiple down climbs. I'm going to post a few of Bill's photos here because they're so amazing and of course, they feature me :-).
Click on any photo to see the larger version of it (better details)
We did the short-cut route to the beginning of the slot, rather than waste a mile or so of hiking through sand.
Beginning of the slot
It starts to tighten up
(Photo courtesy of Bill)
Pictures of the narrow sections
(Photo courtesy of Bill)
Bill, doing a down-climb
We finally arrive at the fragile sheephearders bridge
(Photos Courtesy of Bill)
After the bridge, the canyon starts to widen up
We decided to work our way down to the famous spring and old cement moonshine tanks that this canyon is famous for. This required us to exit up out of the canyon and do some cross-country hiking (brought to you by Bill's GPS) to the proper canyon entrance.
Going up the exit area
Walking cross country to the tank entrance
We arrive at the spring and tanks
Visiting the tanks was somewhat uneventful, but at the same time it was one of those things I'd been wanting to do for a while. I also felt privileged that I was able to see a cool part of recent history.
We ended up hiking the western rim of the canyon back. We had hoped to find an easy route to see the old sheepherders bridge from above, but we were too tired to make the effort. We'll save that one for another trip. This trip was awesome an it was cool to cover two amazing canyons in one day. I'm so thankful for my wife's support in being able to enjoy a great day hiking and for the sacrifice Bill made in extending his road driving time another 3 hours (each way) for this after being gone for an entire week. Thanks for coming along Bill.
1 comment:
Sorry I was being lazy and didn't want to find the sheep bridge. I am regretting it now.
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