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By
Golden Webb
It should come as no surprise that one of Utah’s most spectacular backcountry destinations is just a stone’s throw from Moab. The Behind the Rocks Wilderness Study Area, a compact but rugged region of fins, domes, arches and hidden gardens, lies just outside the town’s borders, literally within sight of Moab’s main street. Next time you’re in the vicinity of that bustling thoroughfare, take a minute and direct your gaze to the southwest. The view breaks on a great red Navajo sandstone wall that bounds the Moab Valley. Hidden beyond its towering facade lies a maze of arches and fins that rival the Devils Garden and Klondike Bluffs of Arches National Park in beauty and surpass those popular tourist attractions in wildness.
This 1,800-foot precipice marks the eastern terminus of the Land Behind the Rocks, where Arches meets Canyonlands. In the words of local author Fran Barnes the area concentrates the geological and cultural features of Arches and Needles within a "50-square-mile labyrinth of slickrock, fins, domes, arches, giant caverns, sand dunes, deeply cut canyons and lofty rimlands." Roughly 25,000 acres of Navajo sandstone fins rise just beyond the wall that marks the Moab Rim, sheltering narrow, secret gardens that can only be explored on foot.
Past Pritchett Canyon this unearthly landscape gives way to a region of contorted domes, ledges and small canyons that shed away to the deep chasms of Hunters and Kane Springs canyons. These 400- to 1,000-foot deep, sheer-walled canyons expose perennial springs at the bottom of the Kayenta Formation, dripping seeps and hanging gardens that feed into year-round streams and riparian areas.
Hidden within this labyrinth of strange and beautiful erosional forms is a concentration of arches similar to that of Arches National Park. Otto Arch, Balcony Arch and Picture Frame Arch are among the 20 major, named rock spans. An additional 20 remain unnamed, and more are discovered every few years. As in Arches, most of the spans have formed in the Navajo and Entrada sandstones. The area is so rugged that one of the largest known arches was not discovered until 1970. Pritchett Arch is perhaps the best known of the rock spans in Behind the Rocks. Resembling Rainbow Bridge in Glen Canyon, this 100-foot-wide, 700-foot-high span was pictured in the February 1910 issue of National Geographic.
Behind the Rocks was inhabited extensively by the ancient Anasazi and Fremont peoples; evidence suggests that the two cultures overlapped here. Intrepid explorers will discover numerous petroglyph panels, habitation caves, chert-knapping middens (similar to those found in Canyonlands’ Indian and Salt creeks) and stone ruins such as the "Indian Fortress," which covers five acres and includes fine rock art and historical inscriptions.
Scattered amidst the fins and domes are pinyon-juniper forest and brush-dominated parks. The landscape harbors mule deer, coyote, bobcat, cottontail, chukar, cougar and desert bighorn sheep; the cliff faces provide nesting habitat for raptors: red-tailed hawk, great horned owl, prairie falcon, kestrel, and the occasional visiting golden eagle ride the high thermals. Peregrine falcons nest in Hunters Canyon.
Behind the Rocks offers outstanding hiking, rock climbing and bouldering opportunities, as well as mountain biking on established dirt roads. The area is becoming increasingly popular, especially among solitude-seeking Moabites. Simple exploratory forays and day hikes are the best option here; backpacking is difficult because of a lack of reliable water sources. The quiet, private stone corridors between the fins are a delight to explore and offer a close look at unique erosional forms. Because there are no established trails within Behind the Rocks, there is a strong sense of exploration as you slip deeper and deeper into its tangled warren of knobs, domes and fins. A person with the time and the means could spend weeks in Behind the Rocks exploring new routes amid real solitude.
But the very features that make Behind the Rocks so wild and beautiful make it a dangerous place for the unprepared. It’s remarkably easy to get swallowed up and lost within the mazes of narrow corridors. Fin canyons often end in pour-offs that require ropework to proceed, and the topography of the land is rough and unforgiving.
There are numerous routes into this complex and visually stunning area. Perhaps the easiest is from Hwy. 163, 13 miles south of Moab. A main access road suitable for high-clearance vehicles skirts the southern edge of Behind the Rocks and offers an overlook of Kane Creek Canyon; side spurs slip directly into the slickrock jungle.
Four-wheel-drive access can be had via the Moab Rim Road, the Hidden Valley Trail or the Pritchett Canyon Jeep-way, each of which branches south into the Land Behind the Rocks from Kane Creek Drive.
The Hidden Valley Trail ascends steep switchbacks to Hidden Valley, a broad slickrock shelf between the Moab Rim and Spanish Valley that offers nice views of Behind the Rocks and Moab Valley and hooks up with the Moab Rim Road/Trail. Drive south on Hwy. 191 three miles from Moab. Turn right on Angel Rock Road (Milepost 122) and go two blocks to Rimrock Lane, then turn right and drive 500 yards to the parking area.
Kane Creek Drive leaves Moab and passes through The Portal of the Colorado River along the river’s south bank. About a mile inside The Portal and 2.5 miles southwest of Moab, the Moab Rim Road splits south. This primitive four-wheel-drive road climbs over broken slickrock to the Moab Rim.
About four miles inside The Portal, Kane Creek Drive leaves the gorge and enters Kane Creek Canyon. Pritchett Canyon enters from the southeast. This narrow, highly scenic gorge offers an off-road Jeep-way route into Behind the Rocks and forms a loop with the Hunter Canyon footpath.
The moderately difficult, 6-mile out-and-back Hunters Canyon footpath winds along the canyon bottom through groves of cottonwood and heavy plant growth. About a half-mile in on the right side is Hunters Arch. The trailhead is located three miles up the dirt road in Kane Creek Canyon.