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Maze Wilderness Immersion/Cataract Canyon Express (MD3/CA1)
Consider October 11 -
October 15 trip |
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 Trip OverviewDetailed ItineraryReturn Options
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| Fast Facts |
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 S.E. Utah Detail
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Main Attraction
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Solitude, 4-wheeling, ancient Native American rock art, hiking,
unbeatable scenery,
Intense Class III-V
whitewater, camping,
Canyonlands National Park
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Who Should Go
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Travelers looking for a
total immersion into the
wilderness, folks wanting a
classic big whitewater
experience, people who want
to slow down to the pace of
the desert, intense lovers
of nature, photographers
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| Adventure level |
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Length
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5 days/4 nights
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Cost
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$1148.00 per person
Wetsuits mandatory May and
June.
Camping gear rentals
available.
$1248.00 per person 2009 |
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The Big Picture
A trek into the Maze takes you into the very heart of the pristine wilderness for which Canyonlands National Park is known. Once you enter the park, you’ll know you are in one of the least-visited areas of the country. Your expedition will include visits to some of the world’s finest, undisturbed rock art panels and ruins left by ancient American Indians. You’ll visit the Great Gallery rock art panel, famous for its ghostly or shamanic imagery. In the Doll House section of the park, you will see another famous archeological treasure, the Harvest Scene. All of your hikes in the desert will leave you feeling relaxed, strong and confident, if not a little reluctant to return to civilization. After three days in the Maze region, you’ll hike down to the Colorado River and meet the Tag-A-Long Expeditions’ "excitement boat," the sturdy, J-rig raft. On this rig you’ll blast through some of the most intense whitewater in all of the United States in legendary Cataract Canyon! Two days on the river and you’ll coast onto the waters of Lake Powell, an amazing blue lake enclosed by red rock grottos and canyons. A wilderness immersion doesn’t get any better than this!
The Details
Day 1 – Lunch & Dinner
You
meet 7:00 a.m. aiming to depart from the Tag-A-Long office in Moab about 7:30 a.m. by 4X4 vehicle to travel through the high desert to Green River, Utah. Our drive will take us to the Horseshoe Canyon Trailhead for a hike down into the canyon. Our destination is the Great Gallery, a mysterious rock art panel left by ancient American Indians. These pictographs and petroglyphs illustrate the shamanistic Barrier Canyon style and loom as ghostly figures high above you on canyon walls. You’ll have time to ponder their meaning and absorb their power. Upon our return to the rim, we’ll drive over trails to our first camp at "Twin Corrals Pasture," which sits high on the plateau above the Maze. Your guides provide you with surprisingly delicious cowboy style meals. And just wait until the stars come out!
Day 2 – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
After breakfast we head for the Doll House, a fascinating area of stacked rocks in a multitude of colors and shapes. Our route takes us to the Golden Staircase via the perilous Flint Trail switchbacks. While your guide drives around the staircase, we recommend you take the delightful, three-mile hike over the Golden Staircase Trail. Your guide will meet you at the bottom. The park service restricts the number of people who can visit here overnight, so you are truly in a coveted, little-visited area. Plan to spend this day in the solitude of an uninhabited land while walking with others who value it as much as you do. At the Doll house, you enjoy wonderful privacy in one of our favorite campsites. We’ll settle in here for two nights.
Day 3 – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
After a hearty homemade breakfast, you are ready to explore the trails near the Doll House. We’ll travel from Standing Rock to the Harvest Scene, another profoundly moving rock art panel depicting humans harvesting crops. Our return hike travels through the Chocolate Drops, a colorful, whimsical collection of rock domes. Today is a full day of hiking which will tone your muscles and get you feeling confident! Your guide prepares another classic Western dinner while you kick up your feet around the campfire.
Day 4 – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
After your last breakfast in the wilderness, you take one more hike on the Old Spanish Trail to Spanish Bottom to meet your raft carrying you through Cataract Canyon. By the time we hit the banks of the Colorado River, you’ll be ready to eat lunch while you await the arrival of Tag-A-Long’s raft trip. Camp will be in Cataract Canyon tonight, beside the Colorado River.
Day 5 – Breakfast & Lunch
Here we go! The rapids and excitement build in intensity. We begin negotiating the canyon and encountering some of the most well-known and respect rapids in the United States. These rapids are as intense as any found in the Grand Canyon and will leave you breathless! We blast through "Ben Hurt, Powell’s Pocket Watch" and "Capsize" before encountering the three spectacular rapids of the legendary Big Drop. This is where the river descends more steeply than anywhere else in its journey through America! The J-rig raft, the Tag-A-Long excitement boat, adds to the fun of this big, big day on the water. After the last of the rapids, we drift out onto the blue waters of Lake Powell. This fascinating recreational lake is surrounded by the red slickrock and steep canyon walls that are seen throughout southern Utah. On the journey across the lake toward Hite Marina, there is time to relax, absorb the incredible beauty of this country, and swap stories about your adventures during the past week. When we arrive at Hite Marina, you may choose to board the charter aircraft which will be waiting to fly you back to Moab. The scenic flight takes you up the Colorado River and over the rapids you’ve just run and over Canyonlands National Park before landing at the Canyonlands Airfield. We highly recommend this memorable add-on.
Contact Michele
with your trip
interests.
Return options
1. Return by land. The ride from Hite Marina to Moab takes about four hours through the high desert country of southeastern Utah. Your arrival in Moab will be about 9:00 p.m. The cost is $73.54.
2. We strongly recommend a scenic charter flight. You fly over the Colorado River including some of the rapids you just conquered and, from an altitude of 7,000 feet, you really see the amazing formations in the Maze, Island and Needles sections of Canyonlands National Park. The flight is about 30 minutes making your arrival back in Moab about 5:30 p.m. This once-in-a-lifetime flight is only $105.00 (no tax necessary).
3. Tag-A-Long will shuttle your vehicles to Hite Marina on Lake Powell so it will be waiting for you when you arrive at the marina early in the afternoon. The cost of this service is
$231.77 per vehicle.
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