Poison Spider Mesa forms one of the cliff features that is part of the Moab landscape northwest of town. The mesa is bordered on the east by Moab Valley and on the south by the Colorado River. Access is via Scenic Byway 279, the "Potash Road," and the trail climbs to the rim along with the sloping rock layers. The first few miles of trail must be retraced, but most of the travel time will be spent on a loop that reaches the rim. It has deservedly become One of our most popular trails because it has great scenery and because the jeeping is just challenging enough to be fun without quite being a vehicle buster. Incidentally, we love the name, but the population of Black Widows is probably no greater than other local areas.

Approximate mileages: 37 total, 16 off highway.

Scenery:
The vista across the fins of Behind the Rocks toward the La Sal Mountains is as fine as they come. The rim view overlooks Moab 1,000 feet below and includes panorama of about 300 degrees. The usual lunch stop is just above so-called "Little Arch." Jeep Arch (about 3 miles away) is seen clearly from near the rim.

Road Surface:
Much of the loop portion is on Navajo Sandstone slickrock, with one stretch of 0.4 miles of bare rock. There are also rock ledges, sandy washbottom, and two blow-sand hills.

Obstacles and highlights:
After some switchbacks that traffic is making rougher and a fairly fiat stretch, a sandy canyon leads to "The Waterfall" about 2 miles into the trail, where ascent is over several rock ledges that give it the "4" rating. There are steep slickrock climbs, one sand hill may be difficult to climb with tires carrying highway pressure, and one optional sand hill can be quite difficult when dry.

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