In the fall of 2021, at the request of the National Park Service Southeast Utah Group, CNHA used funds donated by the ALSCO Company to purchase a High Efficiency Trail Assessment Process (HETAP) system also known as a Wheeled Instrumentation Sensor Package. The state-of-the-art single-wheel HETAP is designed for any trail and is able to squeeze through narrow clearances. The sensor package is equipped with automated GPS, along with distance and slope sensors. It is a streamlined tool for gathering critical data about trails (width, cross-slope, hazards, etc.). The HETAP produces detailed trail data, offers objective trail measurements, and provides summary trail reports.

The trail crew at Arches National Park worked through 2022 using the HETAP machine and technology to assess all of the trails in the park. With the data collected, the park purchased new signs that are now installed throughout the park, better informing all visitors about trail conditions. Arches is setting the trend nationwide, not only at trailheads but on their website as well which now features a Trails Access details section on the Physical / Mobility Accessibility page. National Park Service program leaders at the Intermountain Regional office are now encouraging other parks to follow Arches' example. Below is a sample of the Delicate Arch trail as it appears on the Arches website.

Delicate Arch Trail

TRAIL LENGTH: 3.2 mi (5.1 km)

SURFACE: hard, bedrock

OBSTRUCTIONS: steep climb, rock steps, ledge with drop-off

TYPICAL GRADE: 9%

MAXIMUM GRADE: 80%

46% of the trail exceeds 8% grade

TYPICAL TREAD WIDTH: 5 ft (1.5 m)

MINIMUM TREAD WIDTH: 3 ft (91 cm)

TYPICAL CROSS SLOPE: 6%

MAXIMUM CROSS SLOPE: 41%

20% of the trail exceeds 10% slope

Forest Service staff and Wilderness Volunteers spent eight days on the Bears Ears National Monument maintaining the Hammond Canyon trail system. The crews installed new trail signs, brushed trails, and repaired tread. They enjoyed amazing views of wildflowers and temperatures that remained cool with overcast skies, making for ideal work conditions. Much thanks to the Wilderness Volunteers for all the work they do in maintaining our trails and making it an enjoyable landscape to cherish for both visitors and the local communities.

Recreation employees have been installing signs as a result of the Great American Outdoors Act signing project that will replace most of the signs across the Forest. Sign installations will continue throughout the summer season.

Crews have been checking trails and roads, and are busy opening campgrounds and turning on water systems.

An interagency Bears Ears Rangers coordination meeting was held at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station. Forest Service employees met up with employees from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Monticello Field Office and Natural Bridges National Monument to discuss Bears Ears National Monument management and visitor use policies and regulations. Rangers also visited Puebloan sites on Cedar Mesa and discussed ways to educate the public on how to visit cultural sites with respect.

Forest Service images by Brian Murdock.

Moab Information Center 

2023 Lecture Series

Canyonlands Natural History Association (CNHA)

Thursday’s @ 5:00 p.m. 

July 13 ~ Tom Haradan ~ Bats: Masters of the Night ~ We have them in our neighborhood. Creatures so sophisticated, so adapted to their environment, so elusive, and so misunderstood— elements of a total global ecosystem so influential that their absence would change the world as we know it. Come to see them as the beguiling, winsome creatures they are.

July 20 ~ Robert Anderson ~ Soundscapes ~ Beep! Tweet!  Sounds are all around us and play an important role in our experience with the landscape. The National Park Service is beginning to understand the relationship between sound and the inherent resources within the park. By preserving the natural sound, we all can enjoy our national wonders a little more.

July 27 ~ Mallory Sandoval Lambert ~ Ecological Interactions between Mountain Goats and American Pikas ~ Mountain goat range has been extended southwards with the establishment of translocated subpopulations in Utah and Colorado. These mountain goats now share habitat with American pikas, providing an opportunity to study ecological interactions between these two alpine specialists. Join Mallory Sandoval Lambert as she talks about how her research is exploring this previously unstudied system through field-based experimentation, with a focus on the La Sal Mountains. Mallory is a two-year recipient of the Canyonlands Natural History Association Discovery Pool Grant. (Can’t make the lecture, check out Mallory’s podcast with Science Moab later this fall.)

Find out more information on the Moab Information Center here.

Pika Conservation Critter

Delicate Arch Vintage Magnet

Jr. Ranger Water Bottle