Fisher's Tower (Can we add another hike to our list of favorites?)

Our cousins, Paul and Leslie, had told us about Fisher's Towers, so we were thrilled to have the time to make the trip out to these majestic rock formations!  They look something like a red rock castle on the top of a mountain, and we would soon fall in love with this hike.

We gathered information on how to get to Fisher's Towers.  The brochure said it was 21 miles north of Moab on Highway 128.  When we had traveled 20.6 miles, we assumed that this must be the gravel road we were looking for since there aren't many roads leading off the highway in this area.  When we crossed Onion Creek in our little SUV the first time, Denisa was doubting that decision.

When we crossed Onion Creek the eighth time in our car, she insisted that we must turn around.

We went back to Highway 128, and .4 miles down the road we found the correct turn-off, even labeled "Fisher's Towers."  Two miles down that gravel road (with no creek crossings), we were in the correct parking lot and already charmed by the scenery.

Every time we turned a corner, we were greeted with more beautiful rock formations.  The tall spire over Denisa's head reminds us of something off the top of an ice cream cone!  That curly-Q is obviously bigger than it looks, because we have seen photos on the internet of a climber standing on top of it.

We've only been hiking 20 minutes, and we know we have wandered into another of God's wonders!

These rock fins dwarf Mark standing in front of them, and these are some of the smallest of the towers.

Thirty minutes into the hike, Mark took a panorama picture of the towers on all sides of us.

We turned another corner to see a huge monolith in front of us.  We also heard a tapping, and Denisa first wondered if that huge wall of rock was creaking right before it fell on our heads.  Then we realized that we weren't alone in the towers today.  There were two climbers making their way to the top of the spire in front of us.  Because they are too tiny to see in the scale of that rock, Mark circled the two climbers in red.

As you can tell from the circles, the climbers were quite a ways apart on their journey to the top.  The top climber was actually standing on a ledge, waiting for his partner.   The pictures are blurry because this distance is really stretching the abilities of our camera.  We watched them through binoculars, and could see that they had taken many supplies up with them on a climb of this nature.  There is a whole array of harnesses, and another pack with more supplies.

The lower climber seemed to be struggling.  They spoke to each other at times, and their voices echoed through the canyon.  We're not sure what they said, as it was not in English.

Just like animals entertain us, we found that we are also fascinated by climbers.  We watched for a while, and the top climber decided to take a break and eat while he waited for his partner.

As much fun as it is to sit and watch climbers, we had more towers to experience.  So we hiked on, stopping to take way too many pictures!

We finally made it 1.5 miles to "The Titan," the tallest of the spires in this area.  At 900 feet straight up, it is also a favorite among the rock climbing community.

We kept walking, and the hike took a turn away from the towers across a mesa.  We knew it was a 2.2 mile hike, but it seemed to be taking us away from this beautiful view.

We continued to follow the rock cairns across the flat mesa until we had to crawl on top of a huge boulder.  Sitting on that boulder was a wooden sign that read, "Trail Ends."

Denisa has decided that she needs to carry a sign like that in her back pocket.  Too many times we have taken very long hikes that we couldn't decide when to turn around.  She could throw down that "trail ends" sign and know that it was time to head back to the car.

Since this was an evening hike, we got to enjoy the light from the setting sun on the rocks as we hiked back.  There is still smoke in the air from the forest fires of the northwest, but The Titan was still spectacular through the haze.

Denisa was intent on getting a picture of the blue bird couple that was twittering in the trees along the trail.  She has a weakness for red sandstone, green junipers and blue birds all in one picture.

Of course we had to check on the progress of the rock climbers as we passed back by that section of the hike.

They were much closer together now.  The lower climber was now standing on the ledge, while his partner was continuing up the spire.

We really enjoyed this hike, but it's not for the faint-hearted.  The trail is narrow and slanted at places, with drop-offs into the deep canyons.

The trail rambles up and down through the canyons.  So even though there isn't a lot of elevation change from beginning to end, we still  were climbing both ways.  There was a ladder neatly cemented in place, to help with one particularly steep incline.

We loved this hike!  At only 4.4 miles round trip, it provided great views as soon as we started.  There was never a boring section, and the heights just got taller and spires more majestic as we progressed along the hike.  After spending time with the crowds in the national parks for the last several days, we were glad to have this hike completely to ourselves.  Aside from the climbers, and the two German hikers that were just finishing the hike as we arrived, we didn't see anyone else here.  As we returned to the car the sun was starting to set on that curly-Q we spotted at the beginning of our walk.  We'll remember the wonders of the Fisher Towers for a very long time!