We moved from Arches National Park into a campground in Moab, Utah (2 miles down the road!) on Friday afternoon and joined our friends Mike & Lorraine (we met them at the Alfa Rally) for the Memorial Day week-end. Moab is the “Mecca” for off the road vehicles – ATV’s, dirt bikes and Jeeps of all kinds. We thought of our brother-in-law, Ray that loves to bike. It is the perfect spot for outdoor activities – you hardly see a car that does not have a bike rack; a canoe; a kayak; or a trailer with an ATV and everyone wears hiking boots! Mike & Lorraine have a Jeep and so we went “off roading” with them yesterday. Oh my god! We are getting a lot more daring in our old age than we (or at least me) ever were!
Mike & I called it our “oh, shit!” day! He is experienced in driving these trails and they have a great book that describes all the trails in detail and rates them as easy, moderate or “foolish to even try” so we trusted him completely – until he said his first “oh, shit!” It was so much fun and the scenery is spectacular! You will definitely need to see these pictures to believe what we did!
The first drive took us back to Bull Canyon and then to two natural bridges –Gemini Bridges - we saw them from the bottom up and then drove up and saw them from the top down! Gorgeous! The road was narrow, bumpy and steep but not too scary. Then we went down a trail that takes you under a huge rock that has fallen and lays against the cliff and then becomes very, very steep and narrow. I think that’s where I started praying! After we survived that we enjoyed our picnic lunch along the Colorado River.
After lunch they took us to a place called “Potato Salad Hill” – how it got its name I can’t imagine. It is a steep(60 degrees at least!) rocky hill where daredevil Jeep drivers go to challenge nature. We sat on a side hill and watched these Jeeps try to crawl up or down this hill – praying they didn’t tip over backwards! All of them made it but I don’t know how they did it! Eventually, two guys showed up in what Roger called a “souped up homebuilt rock crawler” and zoomed right up it with no problem! Roger jokingly said - “what a show off, I’d like to see him do it backwards!” and honest to god, he did! I got a good video of him.
While we were there Mike met some guys he knows and they invited us to follow them on a couple moderate trails. So off we go on a really daring ride! First we had to let air out of Mike’s tires – to soften them so they would hold onto the rock better. Then we went up and down “Lion’s Back” and “Fins & Things.” And when I say “up and down” I mean straight up and straight down huge rock formations. That’s when the “oh, sh…ts” really started! It was awesome! Mike & Lorraine have two Westies – Scottie and Maggie – Maggie spent part of the time on the floor in the backseat with her head under Mike’s drivers seat! There were times when I wanted to join her!
On our way back to Moab we passed part of the “Slickrock Trail” – a 9.6 mile mountain biking trail considered to be the ultimate mountain biking experience. We saw cyclists doing what we had just done in a Jeep on their bikes! Certainly, not the place for me!
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