The Temple Wash trail started out smooth and flat.

Strange balanced rock on top of a spire.

Pretty soon the wash got narrow, the Tundra would only just fit through the narrowest part of the canyon.

On the western side of Temple Wash is the ghost town of Temple Mountain with its temple rock behind it. The town was founded in the late 1890s when uranium, radium and vanadium were discovered there, they were mostly exported to France and it is believed that Madame Curie actually used some of the radium in her lab. The town grew until 1918 but then cheaper sources of ore were found and it folded. In the 50s and 60s another small camp grew with the uranium boom but again folded as the boom ended. Over 2 million tons of ore were excavated!

The San Rafael Swell is a giant uplift from the Waterpocket Fold out to the San Rafael Desert. The eastern edge is defined by a range of cliffs parrallel to UT24 between Hanksville and I70 and beyond, the western side is open country with many canyons and castles.

I headed out on the start of Red Canyon Trail but it is a 37 mile loop and it was too late in the day to do that so I cut north through Rod's Valley.

There are lots of minerals in the cliffs here.

The north end of Rod's Valley has lots of trees, then a tower appeared, I thought I was back in Wyoming.

It's a mini Devil's Tower!
The topo map doesn't show any name for it so I'll call it Rod's Tower.