Saturday, September 14, 2013

FISHER TOWERS…ALL ABOUT THE HIKE

Thursday, September 12 – We headed about 20 miles East of Moab on SR-128 along the Colorado River this morning to hike the Fisher Towers Trail. (Reminder…you can click on any photo in any post to see it up close and personal.)

We hit the road by 7 a.m.
morning

We traveled a dirt road about 2 miles off SR-128 to reach the trailhead.

road

There it is.
Fisher towers

Courtesy of Summitpost.org
map

We had to wait out a short rain before we could begin our hike. We also got sprinkled on twice during the hike.

rain

A moderate 2.2-mile (one way) hiking trail took us along the base of the towers and spires to a scenic overlook. The trail is well marked in most places by piles of rocks called cairns. We soon began to rely on these markers to find our way among the washes, across slick rock, around the curves and up and down over the rocks. This trail has just about anything we have ever met on a hike.

Ledge walking
ledge walking

Steep up and down grades.
up and downgrades

Easiest part.
easy path

Through the wash.
DSC06646

At one point we descended a metal ladder for about 10 feet. Here we couldn't see a cairn and walked down the wash through some muddy clay before we realized we must have taken a wrong turn. After back tracking we found our error. At the base of the ladder, we should have moved UP the wash.

ladder

Marsha wasn't too thrilled about this part.
down ladder

After hiking about an hour (including “Kodak Moments” for photos), we reached the base of Titan. The tallest of the towers at 900 feet. We were hoping to see some rock climbers on the towers but none were found.

titan

titan

Next to Titan is Ancient Art rock, a skinny tower. This tower was recently featured in a Citibank commercial. A young lady is pictured standing atop this monolith modeling her new shoes (climbing shoes not high heels), and new nylons (ropes not hose). Cute!

Ancient Art rock

At trails end you reach the base of Fisher Towers. This area is called the saddle, a peninsula, 5430 feet above sea level. What a wonderful hike. One of our favorites. This trail is rated moderate on most of the sites on the Internet. We totally agree.

If you plan to hike this trail, wear good hiking boots. And DO NOT do as these people did.

dumb people 

We wished we had time to see how long it took them until they turned around. This photo was taken about 100 yards from the start of the trail.  Some people are just down-right dumb!

Just so much beauty on all sides.canyon walls

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day.