Day 2 of Offroading – Ben, in the mornings, has packages of breakfast Danishes and Biscotti on his tailgate for those not fixing something for breakfast. After breaking camp we took our last look at Upper Cathedral Valley.
Next, we passed a view of the Lower South Desert and headed on to the Bentonite Hills. [bentonite clay has the ability to absorb huge quantities of water, making it very useful stuff] The rounded colorful hills present an almost alien landscape. After crossing the Fremont River we took Hwy-12 to Hanksville for gas. We made our lunches at the BLM office under their shade trees.
Then it was back out Hwy-12 to Factory Butte Road. A great side trip out to Moonscape Overlook, with the large expanse of grey landscape, it could be the moon. We reached Muddy Creek where some of our maps showed that we could follow Muddy Creek west to connect up with some trails in the center of the San Rafael Swell. But the maps were outdated as the BLM and some floods had closed and erased that road. Change of plans: we headed up Wild Horse road that comes out at Goblin Valley. North of Goblin it was back into the Swell to end up at the Lone Warrior Campground. The folks from Cruise Moab Swell Overnight were camped there, we stopped in to meet some folks we know. We found a place to dry camp a mile southwest of Lone Warrior CG. This night Ben provided a great dinner of pasta with vodka sauce and sausage.
Continue to the next day Link to Day 3