Flat Iron Mesa
We were hoping to squeeze in a quick trail before heading home and away from Moab, but it ended up being a little longer than we thought. It was worth it, though! The trail itself was a blast and a nice surprise. You don't hear about it very often but it's definitely worth the effort it takes to find the trailhead.
We had to split up into multiple groups and wander all over the place to find the trailhead. Even after we were on it we weren't absolutely sure until we got to Rubble Hill. We also got stopped on the highway for something very large travelling in the other direction, and a few of us got a pretty late start.
Rubble Hill was fun but not very challenging. It was still in the beginnings of the trail and we were excited to get to the good stuff.
It wasn't long before the shelves and rocks started getting bigger. Then we came around a corner and were face-to-face with a trail that went up a dome but you couldn't tell where to go after that. We had to get out and walk around more than once to find our way through the two domes and out the other side. The ledges on the other side were a blast.
We kept going on sandy roads and it was pretty mellow until the road just seemed to drop off. We got out to look and found ourselves at the top of Tilt-A-Whirl. It was a lot of fun to go down, like a big waterfall. When we all got down it we decided to have lunch at the bottom before going down the rest of the rocky way.
The rest of descent down the hill was filled with loose rocks of all sizes. We made it down without any damage and kept going on the trail. We parked at one place and walked out to the edge to check out Hatch Wash. It was huge and gorgeous and we all snapped a ton of pictures. The weather was a little chilly and it was really windy on the edge, so we didn't stay too long.
We were following the same tire tracks all day and we kept following them as we weaved in an out around the spurs and along cliff edges. It was definitely conf
using but we kept aiming for Hammerhead Rock and it worked out.
When we came around Hammerhead Rock it was extremely tippy, then the trail seemed to drop off again after a little hill. We got out to look and we were at Easter Egg Hill. It's a big hill that starts out tippy with a large rock on the right that ends up very close to your vehicle, and a large rock underneath you that you have to almost straddle to get around. It twists you into crazy positions and you get very tippy as you round the corner. The bottom of the hill is rocky and there is yet another rock threatening your windows.
It's a great hill, with a flat, open spot at the bottom. This hill would be really tough to climb, with the big rock in the trail at the top. It's sandy too, and it would be a real challenge to climb. Maybe next time we'll run it in the opposite direction. We didn't see anyone anyway.
The narrow section had us all pretty serious as we crept around it. It was very narrow and our back tires all brushed up against the rock as we tried to stay away from the edge. We could see the Coyote Canyon trail at the bottom and it looked pretty crazy.
We made our way out and aired up right by the highway, then headed for home a little later than we had hoped. It was worth it, though! This trail ended up being much more than we had all hoped and we look forward to running it again.
Reports from Other Days: 5
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Flat Iron Mesa. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
