XR650R Dual Sport Project & Travels

Onion Creek - 2004

Onion Creek is an easy, scenic putt through a narrow canyon with 27 water crossings.  It also leads to the roads for Rose Garden Hill and Thompson canyon, which I combined with this ride.

The Paradox salts are "evaporite" minerals, deposited in drying seas long ago and then becoming overlain by sediment.  They are plastic and can flow under pressure.  Because they're lighter than the surrounding rock, they can sometimes reach the surface.  The Paradox salts are very thick in places and underlie much of the Moab region.  The visible deposits at Onion Creek are composed of the non-soluble components of the original formation.

The Onion Creek (red) and Fisher Tower (green) roads branch off Hwy 128 North of Castle Valley Road.	There's a sign by the Onion Creek turnoff, but it says Fisher Valley Ranch.	The start of the road.	This description was posted further down the road.
The Totem Pole in the Cutler sandstone.  The canyon is narrow much of the way.	View of the creek.  Did I say there are 27 water crossings?	The Paradox salts, I presume.	A shallow climb out of the canyon, and........
....keep climbing.......	......we emerge into Fisher Valley.  The arrow shows about where I was when I shot Fisher Valley from above, in the La Sal report.  We're looking Southeast.	Looking East at the rock formation that I annotated in the La Sal report.  Bear left before the rock to reach Rose Garden Hill.  Bear right to reach Thompson Canyon.  There's a smaller oblique outcropping just to the North of this one.  We'll see them from the Hideout Canyon overlook on the Thompson Canyon Trail.