Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park

It was a jeep day and Emmi found a new lap right off the bat:

Our yellow jeep fit right in with the jeep tour heading out from the first overlook:

You really can’t imagine the number of jeeps in this area right now, thousands—all colors, heights, sizes—thousands of jeeps!

When we were in Moab, Utah in 2011 we were weary of sightseeing and chose Arches National Park to visit and left Canyonlands for another time.  I’m glad we are back in the Moab area and had Geri and Larry to tell us what a spectacular spot it was.  The weather was warm today with a haze in the air which didn’t help my photos.

Larry and Michael both decided maybe that road wasn’t for them!

We saw lots of these signs in the national park so care of Emmi was a group effort today--

We took turns going out to the overlooks and inside the visitor’s centers.  Emmi didn’t seem to mind!

When the overlooks were right by the road we just took her with us. 

My submission for a jeep ad.

Muddy, muddy Colorado River two thousand feet below where we were standing—YIKES!  Local legend has it the Indians herded large bands of horses across the barely 30 yard wide strip of land onto this “point” then built a fence of limbs and sticks to keep the horses contained in this natural corral 2000 feet above the Colorado.  They then chose the best of the horses and the legend is left the rest of the horses out on this point to die of thirst—thus Dead Horse Point State Park.

Leaving Dead Horse Point State Park I said, “since it is getting so late, I think the guys should buy us dinner again.”  They agreed without too much arm twisting and we were soon seated in a restaurant in downtown Moab—service and food was good.  Back home we are running the generators to charge all our stuff, doing some computer work and writing this blog. 

Another Glorious Day

Our morning started off great before we even fired up the ATV’s.  We had a visitor to camp:

We were then treated to a fabulous show--

Whoops, changed his mind about landing spots, lifted up and moved over to where we could see his recovery vehicles.

Awesome!!

After all that excitement it was hard for our tour guides to find more spectacular scenery but they came through once again!

We were having a goggles issues today!

The base of that huge rock is so eroded, it may stand for years and years to come but I wouldn’t want to get too close!!

Can you believe the scenery around Moab—it is simply breathtaking!  We did some serious ATV riding—I still think Larry and Geri are trying to improve my riding skills and today they did—I climbed slick rock that was dang steep—just gave it gas and went!!  And what goes up must come down meaning I also rode down some really steep rocks!! 

It’s that way, no, it’s this way!  These guys are so much fun to be around—we are very glad they wanted to come along with us!!

We all decided to brave the jeep crowd in Moab and went in to have dinner, get gas and a few groceries.  Larry and Geri got their first jeep ride—we are going to do a jeep trip tomorrow—give the ATV’s a rest. 

How Many Times Can You Say WOW!!

A lot I guess—around every corner today you would find us saying, “Wow, can you believe this, how lucky are we” and any other manner of descriptive phrases.  It started out as a cool, cloudy day and remained so until we rolled back into camp when the sun popped out.  We were dressed for the coolness—in the photos you will see the cowboy and me in our former motorcycle gear—leather chaps and jackets—it fits the bill, we were never cold while riding.

Moab is breathtakingly beautiful, awesome, spectacular, giant country—around every corner is another glorious view, another red, towering rock.  The town of Moab was a zoo of jeeps yesterday, seems we’ve arrived during a yearly jeeping event—there were people and jeeps everywhere.  We worried it would be crowded out on the trails—shouldn’t have worried.  Other than the spot where we watched the extreme jeeping we saw less than a dozen people all day!!

Determination Towers in the distance. 

I had Bayfield Bunch Al’s disease today—I took 132 photographs and several movies of the crazy guys in jeeps trying to come up this incredibly steep, uneven rock face—they all made it!  It took me a while to sort photos tonight and I can’t possibly post all of them but here are some of the best:

Tusher Tunnel—a slot canyon which you walk through coming out the other side with another breathtaking view.  Emmi got to meet another schnauzer, Sid, at the other end of the tunnel. 

Our lunch spot—not a bad venue!!

In the left side of this photo you can see black tracks on the rocks, this is where the trail leads, there are even white paint stripes painted along the trail to keep riders on the right path!

Thanks so much Geri and Larry for a wonderful day!!  I have a video of one of the jeeps coming up that steep slope but our internet connection is not cooperating tonight—maybe tomorrow I can post it.

We Move To Moab, Utah

Almost before daylight Larry and Michael had us heading out bound for Moab, Utah.  Note the moon above their air conditioner; and no, I did not get up to see the eclipse. 

Michael and I are not tourist attraction kind of people—“STOP HERE, SEE THE WORLD’S LARGEST SNAKE”, etc.  But obviously after today we should stop at more places!!  Larry and Geri wanted us to see the Dinosaur Tracks, a spot on the Navajo Indian reservation just east of the junction of Arizona Hwy 89 and 160 near Tuba City, AZ.  This isn’t a developed touristy type place, no buildings, no hotels—just Native Americans meeting your car or rig and offering to take you out into the desert to see the tracks for a donation.  Are we ever glad we stopped.  Now, I’m not up on my dinosaurs so I can’t remember what the young man told us as we walked around the site but here are some photos of the tracks we saw.

Even Emmi got to go see the tracks!

A skeleton beginning to show itself due to time, wind, sun and erosion.  There are no archeological digs, fences or structures to protect the artifacts. 

A fossilized claw next to Geri’s hand.

Dinosaur poop—yep, that’s my foot next to the fossilized dinosaur poop—dog owners, can you imagine picking up this pile????

This is one giant track, our guide told us this was a T-Rex track—Emmi is sniffing this one out.  We enjoyed this short little diversion very, very much!  Onward we go following that Raptor all day with the scenery getting more and more spectacular!

Mexican Hat

Well, our parking spot location certainly changed—we are boondocked on BLM land just outside Moab, UT after taking on water at the Arch View Campground.  We traveled 491 miles today!!Not a bad view, right!