Potash Road, Shaffer Trail and More

When you drive along the road that passes through Moab, to one side, you have open spaces with mountains in the distance.  On the other, you see high red rock bluffs, towering over the town and everything around.  You are most likely amazed and impressed by the height of those bluffs, but probably don’t think much about what lies beyond those bluffs.  Well, come and see what is behind those bluffs…..

On Potash Road, the first sight to be seen is an arch that’s not part of Arches and a differently shaped one – Jug Handle Arch.  It does look like the handle of a jug with the rock formation being the “jug”!

The next rather amazing sight to see is what first looks like either rushing water or ice/snow.  In reality, it’s salt!!  There is an operation going on behind the bluffs that gathers salt deposits from the earth.  And, these are the results!

As we traveled further along Potash Road, we took a little side road around a large rock formation called Pyramid Butte.  At the far end of Pyramid Butte, we came to our first spectacular view of the Colorado River.  I wasn’t comfortable getting any closer to the edge to take this shot!!

The next view we came to was actually the site of a movie from several years ago – Thelma and Louise.  This site is called Gooseneck Point, and it is where Thelma and Louise drove off the cliff at the end of the movie.  I couldn’t help but think of how difficult it was to bring all the cameras, etc., needed for this movie shot over the rough back dirt roads we had traveled!

Our next stop was along another side road, called White Rim Trail.  It’s actually 100 miles long, but we only traveled a few miles to another formation called Musselman’s Arch.  As you look at this image, you may be wondering where the arch is.  Well, Jeff and Max are standing on top of it!!  A very different view of and experience with an arch! I was rather nervous about Jeff taking Max on top of the arch.  It’s about 6 feet wide, but he is a puppy!  Still, the one thing that I feel good about with Max is that, for all his enthusiasm and exuberance, he is a cautious pup when confronted with something new.  As you can see, he was happy to stick close to Jeff in this instance!

Our next great experience was when we moved on to the Shaffer Trail.  I love the top view of the road as it seems to disappear into the bluffs.  But, as you can see from the bottom image, we don’t come to a dead end.  Instead, we drive up the side!!  It is a bit hair-raising, but rather exhilarating!

The next off-road we travel down is called Pucker Pass, and you can see why!  The road is barely wider than the Jeep and just when you think you’ve covered the most it has to offer, you come to the fall rock, with an opening just large enough and tall enough to accommodate a Jeep!  All of this made for a great morning of exploring!

Enjoy!