Canyonlands Maze District - Day 5 (May 9, 2021)

[RockyMtRebel]

After a very windy night at Standing Rock, the morning came and winds calmed down. Absolutely beautiful views and breakfast was nice. Then we packed up and headed west on Dollhouse road to tackle the most challenging section again and then head north on the Flint trail to the Maze Overlook road, which heads northeast for 13 miles to the next nights camp. We handled the rough road easily this day, it was really fun and went much faster than two days prior (or at least it felt like it). I got a video of each of us doing the hardest obstacle this time, which really wasn't that hard at all. Then we did the rest of the trail back to the intersection of the Flint Trail. We stopped to make some lunch here and the FunTrek Jeep and his buddy stopped and chatted for a bit. They were headed up to Maze Overlook also and they went ahead while we hung out and had lunch.

After lunch, we headed north on the Flint trail and it started rising and getting shelfy and it wound around a mountain and came back down the other side. After about 10 miles, the Maze Overlook turn off was reached and we headed northeast on this fun and easy road. It dropped down a sandy narrow road into a wide open basin. There were a few rocky sections but everything easily done in 2 wheel drive on this road. We kept catching up to the FunTreks guys as they were mapping and taking pictures of the trail. When we reached the end of the road and our campsite, there they were. We hung out and talked to them for a while and then after they left we set up camp. I decided to hike down to the Harvest scene in the Maze, which was mostly a scramble following cairns that had some extremely exposed areas with little holds cut into the rock for help climbing up or down. When I was just a couple hundred feet from the bottom, I got to a section that was just too technical and exposed for me to feel comfortable all alone. I turned back here, stopped on the way back a few times to take pictures and just be in this amazing place called the Maze.

Maze Overlook 2 has a few different flat spots to camp, and my spot was right on the rim. It was possibly my favorite camp spot ever! The views of the Chocolate Drops are just astounding, I took way too many pictures of them... lol


pix and videos coming soon

[RockyMtRebel]

[open_circuit]

The smaller bump on the horizon in the center of this image is standing rock, where we camped the previous night.

[Jim]

A few highlight photos are listed below.

If you'd like to see a complete set, visit this link for the day's photos:
www.JimWilliamson.net/automobile/2021-05-05--canyonlands-national-park--maze-district--with-moki-dugway/09-sun

To visit the main trip page, here's the link (all days and photos jump from here):
www.JimWilliamson.net/automobile/2021-05-05--canyonlands-national-park--maze-district--with-moki-dugway/