Utah: Adventure in Moab (Part 3)

Part 3…I still find it a tad absurd that this adventure has turned out to be as long as the California trip in writing. Though I may have had more words for that adventure, it’s still ridiculous that there’s a part for each DAY of this trip. Enough baffled thoughts on my part, back to the adventure! But first a huge thank you to all of you that read my posts, and an even bigger thank you to those that interact! Whether it be a like or comment on a post, follow for my website, instagram or facebook page, or- and this is the most touching and heartfelt reaction- a personal message, they all mean a great deal to me so thank you so much! It means a lot.

Now part 3! In the morning we touched base with our A-frame camping neighbors about the off-roading plans for the day. Funny enough, we even got offered by our RV neighbors to use there UTV to go REAL off-road climbing slick rock and other obstacles. Now if you haven’t already, check out part 2 to find out why it’s a tad humorous that they offered this. We thanked them but politely declined since we had rented the Jeep and wanted to get our money’s worth for the day.

After eating breakfast we grabbed what we needed for the day and- after a quick pose with the jeep- pulled ourselves into the vehicle and rolled down the road to the start of the off-roading section. Now a little description on Potash Rd. The turn off for this paved road is very noticeable right off highway 191- which is the main highway going right through Moab. The road then meets up with the river and follows it past all the campsites- I believe 3- and then turns in to dirt right past a boat launching area and a sign explaining the road ownership. The first 5 miles of the 18 mile journey to the paved road into Canyonlands National Park is owned by a private owner- which is why they were able to block any off road access that leaves the main road to the Potash Rd. campsite on state land; I’m still a little bitter.

We assume that the 5 miles of road is owned by a potash mining company that extracts potash to sell since there are several pools and equipment that line the road up until it turns to National Park Land. The first noteworthy stop along the drive occurred a little ways after we finished the 5 mile stretch, and turns out to be the spot of the famous Thelma and Louise scene where they drive off a cliff into the “Grand Canyon”. The views of the Colorado River are breathtaking in this spot.

After taking a few shots of the river, the jeep, and ourselves in front of the river, we continued down the bumpy Potash Rd. We then made our way down a precarious spot in the road where a few feet to your right is a cliff wall and a few feet to your left is a cliff that drops off into the Colorado River. After this spot in the road you come to probably my favorite view of the whole day off-roading in the Jeep. The view vaguely resembles the Horseshoe Bend found closer to the Grand Canyon where the Colorado River makes a tight turn around a tall piece of canyon rock carved out by the river. I think what makes this view so jaw dropping is the contrast between the river and rock as it almost hugs it and makes a half circle under it. I think the only thing that could make it more spectacular is if the water ran blue that day, either way it’s still one of the coolest views I’ve ever seen.

After admiring this view for a few minutes with our jaws dropped we continued down the road, passing a quaint and quiet campsite, turning right instead of left on to the White Rim Trail, and then arrived at the Shafer Switchbacks. The most fist clenching aspect of going up the switchbacks isn’t the fact that you’re gaining elevation on a road that hugs the canyon wall, its passing people on this narrow road along the canyon wall. Once we arrived at the top we headed over to the Canyonlands National Park Visitor Center.

It’s here that we left our camping neighbors, bought some trinkets from the center- get excited Emily!- and made our way out of the park and onto the Lower Gemini Bridges off-road trail. Below in the upper right corner is one of the bridges, which to be honest view wasn’t exactly as narrow and amazing as I was expecting, but understandably so considering they let people walk across the bridges. Right after the pull off to walk the trail to the bridges the road get’s a bit funky. This trail definitely had more moments where I was clutching the “oh shit!” handle (in front of me on the dash and above…) as we made our way over large rocks and slick rock and balanced on 3 tires at moments. The rock in the bottom left of this photo collage is the Gooney bird and apparently if you roll over it with your vehicles tires you get good luck. The last photo shows the view as you come down from the rock ledges and back onto highway 191.

As we drove down highway 191 to the entrance of our next off-roading trail, we realized we had underestimated how long it’d take to do the last two trails, drive to the next one, drive it, and then drive back to the rental office. We were particularly excited about the La Sal Mountains trail because there was a possibility of seeing the color changing fall foliage. We still really wanted to get up into the mountains so we compromised on doing the back half of the trail because it was suppose to be less rocky so we could go up and down quicker.

While driving up the backside of the off-road trail to the Medicine Lakes, we were graced with an ABUNDANCE of aspens. Not sure how many groves we drove through, but the top left photo in the above collage gives you an idea of what it was like. Once we reached the mountains and Medicine Lakes the South Mountain and Mt. Peale towered over us. The other aspen photo above was just my little experimental long panoramic photo while enjoying these crazy tall aspens. The photo on the left bottom is Jay’s upclose photo experiment of a patch of snow and deadwood.

It’s quite amazing the difference between these two mountains. They are only seperated by pines and a small stretch of road, but the South Mountain still had snow and was covered by trees more while Mt. Peale was dry and bare at the top with a few patches of trees at lower elevation. Right at the base of Mt. Peale is the beginning of the trickier section of the La Sal Mountains off-road trail. We hesitantly turned around and made our way back down the dirt road, made a quick stop at another pond- dried up, more of a cleared grassy depression- and then got back on the highway to go clean the jeep and fill the gas tank.

Our car trade off at Jenn’s Jeep Rentals was quick. No kitty snuggles this time. After driving and sightseeing all day we were pooped but super hungry. Not wanting to make dinner that night, we made our way over to another restaurant owned by the brother of the Canyon Explorations guide that Jay works with to order delicious sushi and seaweed salad to satisfy our hunger. We ate back at the campsite, had a few more laughs with or neighbors, and made our way to our tents to drift off to sleep. If you’ve made it this far, thank you! Hope these last three posts have given you at least one idea for a trip to Moab, UT! We sadly were not awake enough each morning to consider doing our sunrise view of Delicate Arch, so that’ll have to be added to our next trip, along with fully completing the La Sal Mountains off-road trail.

For next weeks post I’m going to open the floor to my readers so that they can choose the topic! Last time I did this I didn’t get much participation so I’m crossing my fingers this time for a better turnout. Just like last time, just hit the like button for the post you’re most interested in reading about. The first option is a post about a solo backpacking trip I did in the White Mountains several years ago with advice on solo female backpacking. The second option is the next post about our 3-month journey in New Zealand where we explore the glaciers on the west coast of the South Island. The third option is a post about the “how-to’s” of car camping, such as how to outfit the different sections of a car to make car-camping glamorous and homey. Thank you in advance for voting. Have a great weekend, and happy fall!

Mahalo and Kia Ora!