Sunday morning was perfect for the drive through Canyonlands and for pics. Ann, me and Karson. I’m not sure how my son got so tall?? Must be a camera angle thing? Sigh.
On Sunday morning we left for the White Rim trail in Canyonlands National Park. Driving out of Moab, we had a cloudless morning with perfect temperatures in the 60s. As we left, we drove past a jeep hoisted onto a sign for the Expedition Lodge motel in downtown Moab, something that must have been added in the last two years. It’s missing the drive train, but otherwise still has quite a few parts.
In contrast to the yellow jeep, our rental jeep was a white newer 4-door Wrangler. Karson rented it through Canyonlandsjeep, which he said provided the least expensive jeep rentals (the folks there were great). It was slightly lifted and had oversize tires. The one downside of the rental jeep was that we were not allowed to drop the tire pressure. As a result (and as you can imagine) the ride proved to be rougher than it otherwise had to be.
Our Rental Jeep
Our first task Sunday morning was to head to the Canyonlands NP’s ranger station to get a day pass for the White Rim trail. That proved quick and painless. While there, we learned from a ranger that the Green River was running high, so there’d be no chance of doing the fool White rim loop. So, we decided to drive 3 hours into the loop and 3 hours back out.
Soon, we were on our way to the Schafer/White rim trailhead.
The easy, wide dirt road soon yielded to a steep, narrow series of switch backs. As jeeping goes, it was easy driving, as there were no side hills or difficult terrain. But, for those challenged by heights (like my wife) the view down the cliffs was intimidating.
Once at the bottom of the ravine, the road flattened out, but became rougher. This is where we really noticed the fully inflated tires. The rocky surface made going slow and remained slow for 95% of the drive. Thankfully, we weren’t in a hurry. But, next time we do this run, we’ll be bringing a jeep will allow us to deflate the tires.
For the next six hours we have a great time, bumping slowly along the trail, talking and enjoing the view. We did encounter a couple rude motorcycles that zipped by us all too fast early along the trail, but otherwise, the few vehicles, the bicylists, and motorcyclists we encountered were polite and friendly.
Here are some pics of our journey.
We finished up about 3pm. By 5pm we’d returned the rental jeep and were on the road for our trip back Salt Lake City, as Karson had to work Monday morning. All-in-all it was a wonderfully thoughtful gift from Karson, but the best part of the gift was just hanging out with him.
No hordes of biting flys this time. Did you see any wildlife?
REMEMBER WHEN I DATED THAT BYU COED ?? — THATS THE ONLY REASON TO GO TO STINKIN UTAH !! .. though my father spent time there in the 30’s … CCC CAMP , with FRANK SINATRA , frankie coward went AWOL , BACK TO NEW JERSEY !! hahaha !!
Bob: No hordes of flies .. it was one reason I wanted to do this in May rather than June. Also, we were quite a ways from the River. I suspect in June if you get close to the river that there would be flies.
DON: Six generations of my family has been passing through or living in Utah since 1870. Why, I couldn’t say. We just keep going back there. What I can say is that Utah has changed substantially since I first moved there in 1994. I was there when the first Starbucks entered Utah at Park City, put there for Utah ski visitors because the company wasn’t sure how caffeinated products would do in Salt Lake (turns out, LDS folks love there coffee drinks, too). Now, there are espresso places throughout the state. Salt Lake City to Provo is now one big business corridor. I could go on and on regarding the changes.
TELL IT TO THE JUDGE