Up bright and early as I have to be in town at 7:30 to swap out the Jeep. Wendy and the kids will stay back to clean up and get organized. The trip in goes quick as there is no traffic on the road, and I am in town in 30 minutes. I pull into Cliffhanger Jeep and swap out for the 4 door Rubicon. This one is brand new – only a few scratches – and he reminds me that scratches are OK. You wouldn’t be having fun if you did not beat it up a bit. I head off to check out some outfitters to talk to them about white water rafting. Both places I go tell me that all they have in Moab are float trips with a little Class 1 and 2 rapids. All the bigger water is further down and requires a 3 – 5 day run..I’m a bit disappointed as we had read that white water rafting is big here.
I stop at the grocery store for more water and ice, and then head back to camp. The trip back is much slower. Not only is there a line of 50 – 60 cars waiting to get in, but once in I hit slow traffic, work crews and a couple really slow tractors. It takes me over an hour to get back to the campground, but at least while stopped on the road, I get a chance to take in the scenery. It is around 10:30, so we decide to pack a lunch before we head out. We still don’t have our groove on with stuff in the RV and gear for hiking (water, lotions, cameras, etc.) and it takes us another hour to get going.
Today we have opted for a 20+ mile 4-wheel Jeep drive that will take us to a short trailhead to see some more arches. The drive starts off down a nice dirt road for 6 miles. Along the way we see chipmunks with white tails darting across the road and lizards. No signs of any other wildlife on this trip so far.
We come up to a truck stopped on the side. He is setting up a bunch of equipment, so we stop and tell him we are curious about what he is doing. I say it looks like he is collecting bugs. He replies that it is nothing that glamorous, he is a grad student collecting dust… No really, his thesis is about the impact that the dust raised from these back roads have on the vegetation in the area. They are trying to determine if they should pull back or expand the use of these roads. He says there are only 10 to 12 vehicles a day that make this run. As we leave, we talk about how fortunate we are to be able to take in these sights that so few see. Hundreds of thousands make the trip here every year, but just a handful actually do any hiking and even fewer get the opportunity to see the back trails like this.
We make a turn on to a side road that will loop us back to the trail head. We see a large Ford truck heading our way. He stops to ask if we are really thinking about doing this drive. He got back about a mile and turned around. We forge on, but this has Wendy and Georgia a little concerned. When we hit the first big washout with rocks that rise up knee high, they are ready to bail. I tell them that ranger suggested this trail and that when I talked it over with the guy at Cliffhanger, he said it would be a good moderate trail to get my feet wet on. When the 4 wheel high gear won’t budge us any further up the hill, and the tires start spinning, they again are more than a little concerned. I try to convince them that these vehicles are made for this. I am not at all concerned. I had driven a couple jeeps years ago back on farm land and in a couple rock quarries. I know that as long as you take it slow, and pick a path that will keep you from bottoming out; these Jeeps can handle a lot more than this.
I drop it into 4 wheel low and slowly climb up the rocks. Charlotte is laughing in the back seat. She says “Dad – this is SO cool”, Jackson is also having a blast, but Wendy and Georgia still are not convinced. It does not help that when Wendy offers to let Georgia sit up on her lap, I say no way. I want all the kids buckled in…
A couple more runs up and down some washouts and some climbs though some sand and we come to a hill that is very steep. We have no problems climbing up, but once on top, I can’t see over to pick a path down the other side. I pull over at the top and we see another Jeep coming up the hill behind us. They pull over to talk. It is an older couple with their 4 year old grandson in the back. He tells me that this is a nice fun trail, and although he has not done it before, it does not seem there are any tough spots.
We all take some pictures at the top of this hill, and then I head back down the other side. It is comforting to know there is someone behind us. A couple miles further in, we see a large ATV coming the other way. It again is an elderly couple (probably in their late 70’s) who are out in “one of these things” for the first time. He is smiles from ear to ear and says as soon as he gets home, he is buying one of these. He tells us the rest of the route is a little smoother so we push on.
We end up at the trail head, grab our lunch and water and take off for the arch in the near distance. An easy hike, but we get turned around a couple times finding the path. We gave Jackson permission to go on ahead, and by the time we are half way, we can see him under the arch. This is the last time we allow him to go ahead. Although he is close, it is too easy to get separated and you can’t always hear when someone is calling you
Wendy is on a mission to find heart shaped rocks. She found a nice (heavy) one yesterday, and wants one to commemorate this 4 wheel excursion. The one she finds is one of the best we have seen and into the pack it goes. I keep reminding her that taking items from a National Park is a felony. I know it is not really enforced, but not sure that it is setting the correct example for the kids. But, into the bag it goes for the collection.
We sit and enjoy lunch. There are a couple other hikers here who made the trip from the other side. A 10 mile hike that they say was tough in this heat. It is 93 today. We rest a bit, take some pictures and take in all the surroundings. We then head back for the short walk back to the Jeep.
Georgia is feeling the heat, and the drive back on the bumpy winding road does not help. The drive back is mostly sand with some steep hills, but there are a few spots that I have to get out and pick a route down a washout. We get to stop and see Whale’s Eye Arch, and again take in the fact that only a couple people a day are able to see this. When we finally hit the dirt road, we are all ready to get out of the Jeep for a while. The 9.3 mile drive out took an hour and a half to navigate. Add that to the hour and a half that we took to drive in and it has taken its toll on everyone.
We had planned on stopping at the Fiery Furnace on the way back to camp, but decide we are all a little too hot and worn out. We do stop at Balancing Rock for a few pictures, but then beeline back to camp.
We decide that although they don’t have showers, a good rinse off in the sinks would do us all well. The water is cold, but refreshing. Back to the RV, and we can fire up the A/C for a while and relax. Charlotte works on pictures and shows them to Wendy while I work on getting the internet connection up. We don’t have a cell signal, but I had set up an antenna that I mounted to the back of the RV. It needs to be tuned as it actually degrades the signal when I hook it into the hotspot. A little tinkering, and all of a sudden we have 3 bars. Not bad and the kids are all happy that they can post pictures.
Dinner, a fire and some more research on white water rafting now that I have an internet connection. The others head to bed, and I stay up with Charlotte to see if we can get some pictures of the stars. As we are sitting looking up, we both see a magnificent shooting star. She is online looking up the correct ISO, speed and shutter setting. We play around a bit and I convince her to just experiment. She finally gets a shot with some dots in it, but there is a lot of background light from the fire. A mouse runs across her feet (well I tell her it was a mouse – Jackson saw it earlier and said it was a rat). She decides she doesn’t want to sit here anymore, so we grab the camera and head out a couple hundred feet into the brush. We find a nice log to set the camera on and point it toward the Big Dipper. The picture turns out great!
It is great that the kids are enjoying this trip as much as Wendy and I. They really are amazed at what they are seeing and experiencing..