Escape from Canyonlands / Arches

I slept poorly last night due to the heat and was up early, anxious to get on the road.  It had been two hours of driving to get to this point for camp (38.34925,-109.65400) 

Little did I know the most challenging part of the road was yet to come.  We drove another six hours to escape the canyons.  It really felt like we were driving through the Grand Canyon, Canyonlands and Arches.  We were experiencing the geology and wildness of the land first hand.  No RV’s,  no busses, no other people,  no paved walkway telling you were to walk or point your camera.  We tread lightly, and stayed on the road.  It is a remote area and a very rough road, few others attempt.  In fact from the point of our camp we saw no other fresh vehicle tracks on the road.  We were the first, at least in the last three or four days.

long way down

 

Hurrah! we're almost out!

We did not escape unscathed though, a few nasty scrapes along the frame, our muffler is a bit louder now and my previously damaged bumper took some tough hits.  The bumper was on my wish list for replacement/upgrade anyway.

Once in Moab we stopped by Moab Cyclery and checked in on guide extrodenair Jacques Hadler of Escape Adventures Tours.  Jacques is the best in the biz as far as I am concerned and have been fortunate enough to have done two six day mountain bike tours with him as guide.  Jacques recommended some good eats and pointed us in the direction of good camping in the mountains, away from the heat.

After lunch we took the short drive North to Arches National Park. It was hot, 102+, better than 110 degrees in the truck.  We drank a lot of water today and emptied our misting spray bottles a couple times.   The geology is amazing here.  Too much to capture on film or describe.  We checked out Balancing Rock and the Windows before the heat got to be too much.  Back at the visitors Center Tyler earned another Badge and I purchased another patch for him.   

They had drinking water available here and we topped of the water tank plus our water bottles.  Over nine gallons total, that should last a little while.

 
Back into town  we stocked up on fruit and other staples before attempting to find access to the National Forest.  I followed Jacques directions to the best of my recollection, however I do not recollect as well as I used to and we drove into BLM land and came upon a gated ranch.  There very some cool mine cutouts overhead so we snapped a quick pic before backtracking to the last fork. 

 The other trail was named “Steel Bender”.    We skipped that road as I didn’t like the sound of it.  We drove back down to a campground I ignored on the way in.  Turns out it was managed by the BLM and was only $12 to camp.  It was nice, mostly empty and had this faux waterfall behind it aptly named Faux Falls.  The water fall was created by blasting a tunnel through the rock to a creek on the other side.  

We turned in just as the rain started.  The temperature quickly dropped to comfortable sleeping temps.  Yeah!