DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
It's not closed to hikers. All BLM is generally open to unrestricted hiking with only a couple of notable exceptions such as cross country travel may be restricted in high use areas and occasionally all travel is closed if re-vegetation is underway.How is it closed to hikers other than a significant increase in difficulty to access.
There's actually an interesting semi-lost hiking only now trail in the Tenmile area called the Texas Bob Dugway that you can still find running from the rim to wash. It's been closed to motorized and mechanized travel for years already so it's mostly reclaimed to a foot path. But you can still find a nice example of hand work done to carve the dugway through the rocks. I'm still constantly amazed what the indigenous people and pioneers were capable of doing to survive out there.
Edit to add, found the article about the old dugway trail. It's this sort of history, from Jack Bickers, that I don't think even the BLM knows or cares about anymore. There was a BLM employee back in the 1990s that I talked to, Dave Minor, who mentioned Moab was probably the most difficult assignment he'd had because the locals were very tough resisting federalization. Lots of torn down signs and other vandalism to whatever the g-men put in.
But I try to keep walking in the old prospector and ranching routes now closed to vehicles so hopefully they keep showing up on overhead photos and on the ground for someone after me, even if they're being removed from maps and books. Without a published GPX track I know 99.99999% of people will never bother researching and caching some water to walk around finding them, but you never know.
On the Trail with Jack Bickers: Sand Canyon - The Times-Independent
Where is Sand Canyon? Travelers of Tenmile Canyon may know it or have passed it. It attracts ATVers and, now and then, dedicated hikers. Jeepers mostly pass it by in going down Tenmile Canyon. It does not have a road. It is loaded with sand piles and big grottoes. Its access is very easy, from...
www.moabtimes.com
Last edited: