Off-Roading - Moab!

 

Off-Roading – Moab!

We spent a couple of days in Moab, UT, on this trip.  Moab is one of our favorite little towns due to the charm of the city, and off-roading.  We are not heavy-duty off-road folks, and really like it to see scenery that you can’t see from the regular roads.

When we start out down Potash Road, which is paved for the first few miles, we always pass really tall cliff faces that are supposed to be good for rock climbers.  This time, however, was the first time I got a chance to capture some rock climbers in action!  The image on the left shows you how tall the cliff face is, and the other two get progressively closer to the rock climber I chose to photograph for this series.  Pretty cool, but nothing I would have ever tried!!

As we continued our drive along the cliff faces, this shot shows you how close the rocks are to our Jeep. I purposefully included part of the Jeep in the shot, so you can see that we’re really right on top of them!

On this day, we chose to follow a different road for a bit.  Here are some views from White Rim Road.  This road gets a bit rougher as you travel it, probably because it becomes the road less traveled, to an extent.  We were going rather slowly by the time we turned around, but here are some great views from our trip out on White Rim Road.

We did see a group of cyclists on White Rim Road, too.  They were being followed by a “chase vehicle” that had all sorts of support equipment for them.  As we passed the “chase vehicle”, we asked the driver if they planned to ride the entire White Rim Road, and she said yes.  No wonder there was camping equipment in there!  White Rim Road runs for 110 miles!

This was our turnaround spot, also known as our lunch stop!  To one side, there was a small canyon to look down into, and to the other, what looked like a very exploratory spur road one might take, if one were driving an ATV!

As we headed back, at one point, I noticed how close the road (and our Jeep!) was to the rim of the road (right image).  And, then as I looked across a small canyon at another point, I saw how part of the rim had crumbled off and fallen off the cliff face.  Thank goodness, at that part of the drive, we weren’t close to the rim!!

This is one of my all-time favorite views – the view approaching the Shafer Trail.  I love how the road winds up to the cliff face.   And, yes, when we reach the cliff face….we drive up it!!

These two images are from the climb up the Shafer Trail.  The one on the left is as we’re just entering the “climb” portion of the trail, and the one on the right again shows you how close we come to the side of the cliff face.  To say we’re driving on a narrow road is an understatement!

One of the things that can be said about driving the Shafer Trail is that when you’ve finished the climb, you have a very visible sense of accomplishment!!  Jeff says that next time, it might be fun to drive it in the opposite direction, heading down!  We’ll see!

Enjoy!!