Hidden Canyon Overlook
We finished our day of many trails with Hidden Canyon Overlook, and it ended up being one of the best trails. It got very confusing in spots, but we eventually made our way through it. It would have been very difficult to do without a GPS and some waypoints.
We ended up doing it backwards, which made the big, red hill much easier (it was downhill instead of uphill). We did Bartlett Overlook first, and then we made our way to the Hidden Canyon Overlook.
We found the huge cairn and made a couple wrong turns. Our trail choices ended so we had to keep coming back until we found the right one. It was the most traveled one.
The big, red hill was pretty steep and narrow. It reminded us of Red Cone back in Colorado (though a much smaller version). It was difficult to see where you were going, and the dirt was very loose. It would definitely be difficult going up.
After that, we all got out and wandered around the slickrock hill, searching for the trail. We could see the trail we wanted to get to, but we weren't sure how to get down the slickrock hill. We finally found it and worked our way down. There were options, and we took the easiest one.
After that, the trail was easy to find. We got to the intersection and turned right to go check out the overlook. It was really gorgeous, and it was cool to see the trail we'd be on soon.
We headed back and started doing the Hidden Canyon Overlook trail out to that trailhead. It went across big sections of slickrock and it would be really difficult to find if you were new to Moab trail finding. If it was dark or raining it would be very, very difficult to find.
When we got to the intersection with Lunar Canyon there was a row of white sand bags there. It was very bizarre. We decided to try to find our way through Lunar Canyon, so we turned left there. It was difficult to find, but no more difficult that route finding had been so far. It was worth the bypass. The terrain was definitely weird.
When we got back, we turned right to go back to the sand bags and the initial intersection with Lunar Canyon. That way we could see the whole trail. When we got back to the intersection we turned around and backtracked. Then we went through the gate and headed back out to the trailhead.
When we got out we finished up the rest of Hidden Canyon. It was a great day filled with lots of scenery and challenges.
Reports from Other Days: 2
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Hidden Canyon Overlook. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
