White Crack 2019

Bob Grant invited me to come along on a backpack to the White Crack Trail in Canyonlands. The White Crack is one of the few places on the White Rim where you can pass through the Rim's sandstone caprock down into the twisted canyon country below. I had never been to the White Rim before, so I was eager to get there.

Dave Rumbellow joined me on the drive down to Canyonlands. It took an hour for us to drive the 17 miles down the Shafer Trail to the White Rim Trail, then over bumpy slickrock to the Airport B campsite. There we found Bob and Craig McCarthy huddled in Bob's pickup, with the wind blasting away. The wind had already smashed Craig's tent, and it was completely impossible to set up any other tents in the conditions. In the end, Bob slept in the driver's seat of his truck, while Craig slept in a bivy bag in the bed; Dave and I crammed into the back of my 4Runner.

By morning, the wind had completely ceased, allowing us to find missing gear and eat a little breakfast. We packed up the vehicles and drove the remaining 20 miles to the White Crack trailhead. Since I had never been to the White Rim, I took lots of photos on the way.

We had a little time to play before we needed to start backpacking, so Bob took us out to the White Crack proper and then west to a precarious isthmus between a block of White Rim and the main plateau. When we got back, we discovered that a chatty crowd of mountain bikers and their support vehicles had plopped down at the trailhead. They were the last other people we saw before we literally dropped off the cliff down the White Crack.

One of the first things that I noticed after getting down the switchbacks was that the ground was littered with big chunks of pretty red chert or chalcedony. I had been finding zillions of worked chert flakes near the trailhead, but I had told everyone that I thought it was chalcedony of volcanic origin, similar to what I'd seen in Death Hollow. Oops — rarely have I been proven so wrong so quickly! After I got home I found a document titled Cultural Resource Investigations Near White Crack, Island-in-the-Sky District, Canyonlands National Park, Utah that talks about the chert: “The relatively high density of sites in the White Crack Area may be related to (1) the abundant availability of Cedar Mesa Chert and Chalcedony, and (2) the existence of an access route between the White Rim and the subrim canyons and benchlands. The Cedar Mesa Formation is only exposed on the southern end of Island-in-the-Sky (Huntoon et al. 1982), limiting the potential availability of Cedar Mesa Chert and Chalcedony to this part of the district.”

The flowers were lovely after a relatively wet winter. We saw notch-leaved phacelia, fishhook cactus, brilliant red Indian paintbrush, desert evening primrose, claret cup cactus, Mojave asters, and last but not least, the very spicy-smelling cliffrose in bloom. We also saw blackbrush in bloom, as well as scattered juniper trees that served as nice landmarks on the otherwise featureless plateau country. (I never saw a single piñon pine.)

We had an equipment failure after just a mile or so — one of Bob's pack straps broke. Bob repaired it by using a knife to punch a hole through the remaining part of the packstrap and pushing the retaining screw through the hole. He then secured the strap with plenty of duct tape. Of course, the other pack strap broke just 15 minutes later, and Bob repaired it the same way. We had more success with the Craig McCarthy Certified Appendage Protocol (TM) for using foam pads to augment backpacks' hip belts. We suggested that Craig could go into business with this feature — look for his booth at the next OR show.

Friday night was such a disaster that I was unable to find an opportunity to share the lovely bottle of Hook & Ladder Russian River Zinfandel that I had brought to celebrate. Instead, I jammed it into my pack and produced it at camp on Saturday night. Much taste-testing was performed, and before you know it, the bottle was empty!

go to the White Crack day 1 gallery

The next day, we hiked to the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers.

We left camp around 8 AM. The old White Crack bulldozer track continued its wiggly path across the landscape, eventually reaching an old uranium miners' camp complete with some old bedsteads and a rusty stove. There is a pretty view of the Green River gorge from the camp. Shortly after the camp, the track followed a ramp up to a wide sandy plateau. I was wondering whether we would have to navigate by GPS after this point, but it turns out that someone has generously cairned the route, and you can follow the tread and cairns all the way to the viewpoint. I personally think that this is great — it may reduce the wilderness experience slightly, but it also keeps bigfooted visitors from tromping randomly all over the delicate landscape.

The trail has fantastic views of the Needles and the Dollhouse across the rivers, and it's tough to avoid stumbling when the scenery is so amazing. The route ended at a notch between two rocky knobs, where we came out onto a flat viewing platform high above the Colorado River gorge. After planting our feet carefully so that we wouldn't get blasted away by the wind, we looked down on the mighty confluence.

It was a great view, but the wind was so nasty that we shortly backed off to an overhang out of the breeze to have some lunch. After lunch, we backtracked a bit and then worked our way on slickrock toward the prominence above the confluence, hoping to get a view into the Green River gorge. The topography was rough and the wind was fierce, and after a while we gave up and turned around. We did get some nice views, but the Green River remained elusive.

The weather became cloudy on the return trip, and we could see big thunderstorms on either side of us. We were a bit worried that our camp might have blown away, but it was intact when we got back. We hung out beneath a rock overhang that blocked the wind and the occasional sprinkles, and enjoyed dinner and libations. (I had brought a flask of 12-year Glenlivet as a treat.)

go to the White Crack day 2 gallery

The next day started out cloudy and got stormier as we packed back to the White Crack. We didn't get rained on, but the temperatures were cool. Bob's improvised backpack straps magically held up. It was Bob's [redacted]th birthday and we all congratulated him. He rewarded us by telling funny stories about the times when he was afraid that he wouldn't make it to his next birthday.

The weather report on Bob's weather radio at the trailhead did not sound at all promising, so we decided to head straight home, going back up the Shafer Trail. Dave and I made one side trip so that I could see the unique Musselman Arch.

A wonderful trip — many thanks to Bob for organizing it and inviting me!

go to the White Crack day 3 gallery