Ken's Lake

Monday, June 13, 2011

Today we drove up to Ken's Lake. It is only 6.5 miles away from our RV camp. Once there we opted to keep on driving up the trail to a place called Steel Bender Trail. Not a friendly 4x4 trail.

Ken's lake is made up of 2610 acres of an open water reservoir. The diverted water falls over rock ledges, and  down stream to channel into the lake, which is used for water storage.

Moab's Spanish Valley, where Ken's lake is located,  is 10 miles long. It is a collapsed salt anticline, which is the result of several geologic forces. Geologist state that this entire area was under water at-least 7 times. The rocks are made up of sand mixed with minerals from the sea...hence, sandstone.

We parked the truck and hiked the rest of the trail. We were so excited because Gloria and Ivan, our daily trail guides, have not been here before. At least that's what we thought while we were exploring.

The first thing we came upon was two holes in the rocks. Tommy and I separated on the paths and Sire and I went one way to explore and he the other. What Sire and I found was a cave. He found it first. He was inside it by the time I reached it. Oh, before I go any further, let me clue you in alittle....Tommy said we were going to Ken's Lake with Sire today.  A nice, relaxing, sitting around on the beach, watching him fetch - all afternoon. I had on white shorts and flip flops! NOT exactly hiking attire. I had taken off my flip flops and walked barefoot the entire time. It wasn't really that bad except for all the little spurs that are hidden in the sand that decided to attach themselves to my feet - constantly!

modern day petroglyphs

 

 

La Sal Mountains

very, very, very cooolllldddd water!! 100% snow melt.

can you see Sire? I was trying to get prospective.

So Sire and  I walk around this cave and around the rock and are having a great time. I am really happy he came with me as opposed to Tommy because if there was a wild animal around he would sense it and I would know to run. On the way back down the trail we hear Tommy calling us. We look UP! He is inside this cave about 80 feet  up in the rock. How he got there was a mystery.

Ken Lake

Can you see our truck and how very small it looks?

He told me how to negotiate my way up, and Sire and I joined him. The coolest thing about his cave was that it was an old movie set. The cave was covered in chicken wire and stucco to re create a natural cave. There were still lighting apparatus hanging from the ceilings. They had air brushed petroglyphs on the inside walls. I wonder what move was filmed here. It was awesome!  There were 10 different rooms to explore and each one was different.

When we got back to the truck we decided to walk up the really bad jeep trail. We only went about 1/2 mile because my feet were starting to get really sore. We found an arch on our travels and thought about Gloria and Ivan, once again, who did not see this place before. We were so excited to go home and tell them all about it. They seem to know every nook and cranny here in Moab. They have been coming here for over 20 years. Us -  2 years! Hopefully, many, many more!

 

 

Tommy and Sire walking down to the waterfall.

doesn't this look like a Chevy Commercial?

We did stop at the lake on the way down. AFTER Tommy decided to walk down the waterfall with Sire. 250  feet down, nothing but rock. I drove the truck down to the bottom to meet back up with them. They were successful. I was happy they made it. The water is all snow melt and is extremely cold and is running extremely fast! I was really worried about the boys but they did good.

Who knows whats on the schedule for tomorrow, but Thursday is another day with Gloria and Ivan. We plan on going jeeping.... stay tuned. Thanks for reading.