Red Rocks, Coprolite, and Soda Geysers on the Orange OHV Trail
By Lynn R. Blamires
The Orange Trail
The Orange OHV Trail is located south of Green River, Utah. I don’t know any other trail in the state named after a color. I know that trails are given color-coded difficulty ratings—a green circle for easy, a blue square for moderately difficult, and black diamonds for most difficult. Hog Canyon near Kanab has a level of difficulty above black diamonds—double red diamonds.
Green River – miles and miles of trail
Green River is home to the Green River Watermelon Crawl, an OHV jamboree held in March, and for a good reason, there are miles and miles of OHV trails in this area. Green River is in Emery County, just east of the San Rafael Swell, and is surrounded by old mining claims. The Orange Trail is one of many trails open to exploration in Emery County.
The Orange Trail is another world
Seven machines joined me for a ride on the Orange Trail last week. As we turned our backs on Green River, our eyes were opened to a world very different from what we were used to seeing. There were no trees. We rode between massive rock formations, through the shadows of rock canyons, and layered rock buttes.
White Sands Missile Range
We were on the west edge of the Utah Launch Complex, White Sands Missile Range. Athena rockets and Pershing missiles were launched from here to land in White Sands, New Mexico, over 400 miles south. There were 244 missile launches from this complex between 1964 and 1975.
Trails were fast and perilous
The trail was fast in some places, but it was not without peril. We had some tricky sections to negotiate. It was confidence-building to negotiate these technical segments successfully. Some heavy rain preceded our ride, so the dust was minimal.
Entering red rock country
We turned onto the Ruby Ranch Road and rode to the White Sands Riding Area. We rode through a wash that skirted the dunes and into a beautiful area of red rock country. Finding some shade in the shadow of a red rock cliff, we stopped for lunch.
This is my favorite part of any ride. It is a social time, where we get to know each other better and talk about the ride. There was a better place to have lunch, but we were hungry, and it was a good place to stop.
The grotto
After lunch, we went to the better lunch place. It was a dead-end grotto we accessed through a narrow canyon. It was big enough for all eight machines to be together, with enough room to turn around.
Climbing a rock wall
Exiting the grotto, we climbed a sandy trail that brought us above the grotto and to the base of a rock wall. We didn’t stop there – we climbed the steep face into another huge rock grotto. I got out of my machine and felt like yelling and beating my chest because I didn’t die, but I didn’t. Nobody else did either.
What goes up must come down
We explored the trail for another way out. There wasn’t one, so we were faced with the challenge of going back down the way we had come up. Everybody made it. Nobody died. We skipped the yelling and chest-beating part and moved on.
Soda geysers
On our way back to Green River, we stopped at three points of interest. The first was a soda geyser. Similar to the reaction you get when you drop Mentos mints into a bottle of Coke. Several of these occurred back in the 1930s, when prospectors were drilling for oil—they hit water and a pocket of carbon dioxide gas, creating a cold water “soda geyser.” This geyser was not active.
Petrified dinosaur dung
The next point of interest was a giant pile of coprolite – petrified dinosaur dung. This is the second of two I have found in this area. Several people in our group had never heard of such a thing. Apparently, dinosaurs didn’t go just anywhere. There were appointed places to do their business. Curiously enough, people in our group sniffed these rocks.
The Crystal Geyser
The last point of interest was the Crystal Geyser, just outside of Green River. This soda geyser is active, but it goes off irregularly. Water can reach 80 feet high when it happens, but you have to be patient to see it. We weren’t, so we left. The terraces below the geyser, where the water runs into the Green River, are beautiful.
Keep the rubber side down
We made it back to Green River with dinner on our minds. We finished a ride of about 64 miles—it was good to see civilization again. When you go, take plenty of water, keep the rubber side down, and see what this other world has to offer.
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