Poison Spider Mesa
Poison Spider Mesa was the first trail of the long day of running the Trifecta (Poison Spider Mesa, Golden Spike, and Gold Bar Rim). Originally, our plan was to drive Kane Creek Canyon, but with all the rain that the Moab area had been getting we thought it would be a good idea to drive trails on higher ground and stay out of the creek areas.
At Poison Spider’s parking lot, which is now paved, we ran into the Trail Ambassadors group. They were out to run Poison Spider Mesa, as well, and were talking with people on the trail on how to protect the trails in Moab. The Trail Ambassadors gave all of us a small spill kit and a poop bag kit. The spill kit is intended to help clean up a small oil spill or similar mess -- and if we really had to go, we had a kit for that, too.
After airing down, we were ready to start Poison Spider Mesa. The switchbacks near the beginning of Poison Spider Mesa were fun with some great views. We saw lots of trailers in the big parking lot across the river. That is the parking lot for the staging area for a couple of trails like Moab Rim, Kane Creek Canyon and so on.
After the switchbacks we got to the first rock ledge, which was also great fun. Matt took the hard line on the left and the rest of the group took the right-side line. At the top, the Trail Ambassadors caught up to us but stayed far back, and then they eventually passed us not too much farther down the trail.
We all went up the Prelaunch Pad, which is optional, one by one. It was a blast going up, and no one had any issues with the Prelaunch Pad. At the Waterfall obstacle we all went to the left side to go up. The Water Hole at the top was full of water and deep. It didn’t look that deep at first, but when Corrigan drove Matt's Jeep through it the water almost came in through the door openings.
At the Wedgy, we ran into a group of side-by-sides. Both groups took pictures of their group members going up Wedgy.
Then, at the slow-speed mesa, we went slowly because of all the whoop-de-doos in the trail. To be honest, we drove a touch faster to make it a bit more fun. The high-speed mesa used to allow for much faster driving because the trail is very sandy. However, there are now little whoop-de-doo bumps in the high-speed mesa as well. Better not drive too fast!
The last bit of fun on Poison Spider Mesa was the Sand Bowl, which was awesome. Everyone but Alan went down the right path down the rock slab. Alan took the center path. We had some excitement when everything in our Jeeps slid and fell forward due to the steep downhill path. This trail is such a great time, and we moved on to Golden Spike.
Reports from Other Days: 13
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Poison Spider Mesa. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
