FISHER TOWERS, UTAH
September 13, 2006
By Tim Briese
The Fisher Towers are a famous Utah landmark located along the Colorado River northeast of Moab. They are sandstone towers that soar hundreds of feet into the air, visible from miles around. I have seen many photos of the towers on calendars and posters, often framed with the La Sal Mountains in the background.
My wife Teresa and I were passing through the area on a trip to Arizona and decided to stop and hike the trail that winds through the canyons at the base of the towers. We drove in from Colorado that day and arrived at the trailhead around 4 p.m. The sun was sinking toward the western horizon, casting a ruddy orange glow upon the sandstone. The day was still quite warm, because summer lingers well into September in the canyon country desert.
After donning our hiking boots and packs we hit the trail with our lab Jorie. The sandy trail crossed a slickrock bench south of the parking area and then dropped into a wash that drains away from the towers. The trail was well-marked with cairns, which was helpful in a couple of places where it crossed bare rock and the route was not obvious. We have always enjoyed canyon country hikes such as this one because of the fascinating and colorful rocky terrain.
We hiked up out of the wash and proceeded in a generally southeastward direction around the base of the towers, which soared impressively high above to our left. Juniper trees and cacti grew out of the sparse soil, amazingly adapted to the desert environment. A couple of times when the trail grew faint and we could no longer see shoe prints in the orange sand, we had to pause for a moment and look for the next cairn. There were frequent fine views of Castle Valley off to the southwest that we paused to enjoy, too.
After a mile or so we came around a corner and were treated to a fine view of the mightiest tower of them all, the Titan, soaring majestically directly ahead. At this point the trail turned left and went into a canyon, contouring along its sloping northern side. We could see that the trail crossed the rough canyon bottom a couple of hundred yards ahead before contouring back out of the canyon on the other side. We followed the trail until we reached the point where it crossed the canyon bottom. There was a narrow sandstone ledge here that was immediately followed by a six foot drop that had to be negotiated. A crude metal ladder was provided to assist hikers in this tricky spot. Jorie was very intimidated by this drop and would not go near it. I intended to pick her up and carry her down the ladder but she would have none of that. She whimpered and cowered down while we tried to coax her along the ledge over to the ladder for several minutes. Picking her up and carrying her across the ledge was not an option because it was too narrow and hazardous to traverse while carrying a squirming dog.
After a few minutes we decided that this was as far as we would be able to go so we turned around. It turned out to be a good time to do so, because the sun was rapidly dropping toward the horizon. On the way back we saw a couple of rock climbers working their way up a crack on a tower high above. It appeared that they might be spending the night up there, or at least finishing their climb in the dark! The Fisher Towers enjoy a world class reputation as a rock climbing destination. When we were here a few years before we had seen climbers near the summit of a corkscrew-shaped pinnacle several hundred feet high.
Sunset was approaching as we returned to the trailhead. The towers blazed in a deep reddish-orange color in the waning sunlight, in bold contrast to the deep blue sky above. Long shadows lay across the Colorado River Valley below. Around 6 p.m. we loaded up and headed down the river road toward Moab, where we stayed that night.
