HIKING HAPPENINGS - September 2025

As afternoon temperatures in Moab were still reaching into the 90s and 100s, I was looking for some relief. Hiking in a pine forest sounded like just the thing. Driving south from Moab 54 miles on US 191 to Monticello (gaining 3,000 feet in elevation), I proceeded south another 13 miles and turned right/west at the sign to Devil’s Canyon Campground (elevation 7,400 feet). After following the Abajo Loop State Scenic Backway 0.7 miles, I turned right/east into the campground, crossed a cattle guard, and turned left/north past the camp host’s site to follow the loop for sites #17–41. After less than a mile, I arrived at the very end of the lollipop at site #41 where the trailhead for the Interpretive Nature Trail begins. (For more hiking trails at higher elevations, you can continue on the Scenic Backway around the base of Abajo Peak.)

The trail drops down from the road and begins an easy graveled loop below the camp sites, great for many abilities, including my (human) hiking companion who was recently recovering from back surgery. Fifteen numbered posts mark information in a brochure available in the trailhead’s metal box. The campground sits in the Manti-La Sal National Forest at the foot of the Abajo Mountains, also known as the Blue Mountains, another Colorado Plateau sky island including the La Sals and the Henrys. Devil’s Canyon itself is a rugged serpentine gorge carved into the San Rafael Swell with a drainage that starts near San Rafael Knob (at 7,921 feet, the swell’s highest point), cuts through Estrada sandstone layers, featuring pour-offs, tributary canyons, and elevation changes in the canyon floor.

Ancient peoples used many of the forest’s natural resources including pine nuts, produced by pinyon pines (Pinus edulis), which were—and are today—roasted and eaten. Tribes also wove the fibrous leaves of the narrowleaf yucca (Yucca angustissima) into baskets, sandals, rope, and twine, also consuming the stalks, flowers, and buds. The roots were processed into soap and yellow dye to color yarn.The sap of the Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) was used for glue and waterproofing, and tribal peoples also ground the seeds into flour. The plump, blue female seed cones (misnamed berries) of the Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma) were used for medicines, its resin for tea and oil, and its drought-resistant wood for fence posts and firewood. The small red fruits of the bitter apple (Peraphyllum ramosissimum) are eaten by humans, elk, deer, and birds for their vitamin C, plus, the sweetened and cooked fruits can be made into jam. Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii), common across the Colorado Plateau, produce acorns, a food rich in fat and protein that can be stored for long periods, and, when soaked or boiled to remove the bitter tannins, are roasted or ground into flour.

Ancestral Puebloans were in this area from about 50–1300 Common Era (CE). They then migrated away, mostly to what is now New Mexico and Arizona. Tribal descendants such as the Hopi, Zuni, Utes, and Diné still use these forest products. Other informational stops describe lightning strikes, bark beetles, barbed wire, and forest life cycles. A short side trail from station 11 leads east to a viewpoint of the Bitter Apple Ruin on the opposite side of the canyon. A granary sits in a small alcove high up on a cliff face. (I wish I’d brought my binoculars!) These granaries protected caches of grain, beans, nuts, seeds, and corn from rodents and kept them dry from rains and floods. The harvest I preserved on this day was a refreshing respite from the Moab Valley heat, lovely rich scents of pinyon and Ponderosa pines, and the ssshhhhhhhh of the wind through their needles in this mountain foothill ecosystem just an hour from my desert home.

California beach girl Kathy Grossman is an artist, writer, and nature journalist who’s lived in Moab since 2011.