Chicken Corners

 

Chicken Corners

This was a new off-road to us, and one we didn’t pursue to the end – but, we will in the future!!  Let’s take a look at what we did see…

This road starts out hugging the cliff face, as do many off-roads around Moab!   As you can see from the top of the image, it was a sunny day.  The cliffs kept us nice and cool, though!!

Here are a couple of views from different sides of the road.  One is the cool shade of the cliff faces and the other is the floor of the canyon in the bright sunshine!  All of these scenes were new to us, since we’d never been on this road before.  Interestingly, we were accompanied on this road by lots and lots of ATVs and UTVs.  We realized that the reason there were so many of these vehicles on the road was because the road didn’t end in a National Park, where those vehicles were prohibited.

As we traveled down the road, we saw some petroglyphs at what was called The Birth Rock.  The petroglyphs depicted childbirth, especially the one on the far left.  This huge bolder is found just a few steps off the road.

As we continued on the road, you can see how it’s winding its way further into the canyon.  At this point, the road wasn’t too bad, although we did head down quite a steep slope to head further down toward the floor of the canyon.

These images truly illustrate the fact that sometimes rocks from the cliffs fall close to the road.  As you can see that one big boy is mighty close to the road!!!

When we reached a bit closer to the canyon floor, the scenery was really spectacular for another reason.  Wide open spaces, shrubby growth and the appearance of stripes on the rock formations that tell the tale of how old they really are.  I’m sure an archeologist could explain exactly what all the “stripes” mean, but that’s not me!!

As we progressed down the road, we saw yet more rock formations, including this one with the rock (boulder) that looks rather perilously perched!! 

If you look closely at this image, you’ll see a few camping folks!!  Throughout most of what we drove past, on the canyon floor, folks were boondocking (dry camping, with no hook-ups).  I thought this might be fun, except that the temps were predicted to be in the low 90s, and if you’re boondocking, that means no AC!!  Yikes!! At around this point, we decided to turn around and not pursue the rest of this road on this day.  The ATVs and UTVs were rolling down the road much faster than we felt comfortable doing, since this was our first time on the road.  So, we decided to turn around and save the rest of the road for our next trip in September!! 

Enjoy!!

 

An Old Favorite

 

An Old Favorite

There are some off-roads around Moab that we love to do, no matter how many times we’ve done them before.  The combination of Potash Road and Shaffer Trail is one of those roads.  The familiar always seems new and exciting!

Potash Road starts out by following alongside the Colorado River.  Blues and greens dominate, with the LaSal Mountains in the background.  Just looking at this scene makes one feel comfy and cool, no matter the temperatures outside!

There are always towering rock formations, although I’m not certain if I’ve photographed this one before.  The sky makes it look almost surreal, and like something I’ve not seen before.

We always make a stop at the location where the final scene of the movie “Thelma and Louise” was shot.  This is not the view that many may recognize, but it’s where I bet the background movie equipment was staged here.  Every time I think about all that’s involved with shooting a movie, in terms of equipment, I’m always left wondering how they managed to get the large trucks, etc., up to this point.  The road leading here is at times, quite steep, rocky and a bit narrow.

Here's a sort of panorama shot of the ledge that Thelma and Louise drove off.  The area is called The Gooseneck and standing somewhat close to the edge is a bit breathtaking and can make someone who is not all that afraid of heights stop and pause for a moment!!

As we drove on from the movie site, the rocks on the side of the Jeep, are quite high and rocky.  This shot was taken looking up thru the open roof of the Jeep.  It’s enough to make you a bit dizzy!

Here are a couple of views of the Shaffer Trail.  The image on the left is the trail from a distance.  If you look closely, you can see a bit of the light tan road weaving its way toward the cliff face.  The image on the right is as we begin the climb up the cliff face – that is the Shaffer Trail!!  It’s a really fun drive, but perhaps a bit scary if one doesn’t like heights.

Here we are halfway up the Shaffer Trail (top image).  Beautiful view!!  And the bottom image gives you an idea of how sharp the switchback turns are heading up (or down) the trail.  Folks take it slow, so we can always accommodate a vehicle coming in the opposite direction.  One time, we even saw a man riding a unicycle down this switchback trail!!

Here’s a view from very near the top of the cliffs.  You can see how we came from Potash Road to Shaffer Trail (arrow indicates the junction of the two roads).  You can see the Shaffer Trail appears to keep going from the point where it intersects Potash Road.  That becomes another road – one that can be followed for about 100 miles, I believe.

Even when we’re very near the top of the Shaffer Trail cliff, there’s still a bit of rock overhang above us!  Here you can see the trees along the overhang, and even a few at the very top!  By the way, at this point, we are technically in Canyonlands National Park – another back way into a National Park!!  (We have the Lifetime Senior Pass, so we aren’t breaking any rules by not paying our way in!!)

Enjoy!

New and Old

 

New and Old

Our first stop on this latest trip was to Moab, Utah, for a few days.  We love checking out the many backroads in the area.  The first road we ventured down was a new one to us that ended in one of our favorite national parks, Arches National Park.  Take a look….

The road is called Willow Springs Road, and after passing some areas where campers were dry camping, we started to see some really lovely desert landscapes, and some prickly pear cacti as well!  I am always drawn to the vivid colors of the desert – green shrubs, red clay early and beautiful blue skies with white puffy clouds.

At the first stop along the way, Jeff and Max set out in search of something very cool to see….

Dinosaur tracks!!  The tracks are set in a boarded off, somewhat protected area.  The rangers seem to make sure that no shrub growth starts in the boarded off area.  These tracks were made approximately 165 million years ago by a human sized predator.  The dinosaur walked in these areas which were tidelands of an inland sea that lay just to the east of the area where we were standing.  To date, more than 2500 tracks like this have been found in the area.  However, the winds of time will still eventually reclaim these footprints of the past. It was nice to be able to see these before they are gone!!

When Max gets a bit warm, he often will look for shade where he can find it, including behind the Jeep!!

Good thing we have a book that maps the road!  Looking back, it’s a bit tough at times to see the road we just drove down!!  And, up ahead, we can see the La Sal Mountains.

About mid-way through our drive, we passed from BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land into Arches National Park.  You can see it as a bit of an outcropping of rocks in the distance.

As we drove closer and closer, more of the features of Arches National Park became visible, until we finally ended up on the road within Arches at the formation known as Balanced Rock (right, above).

At that point, we simply drove on the paved road out of the park, passing familiar formations such as The Three Gossips (seen in profile on the right) and a view of a lovely easy hike called Park Avenue (on the left).  This was a fun new road with a nicely familiar ending to it!

Enjoy!

 

 

Exploring

On another day, we drove in the opposite direction for a different type of exploration – visiting places we’d been before to get a different perspective.

We’ve seen this cabin several times, as it’s along a well-traveled road in the area.  However, each time we pass it, it seems to add to its story of days gone by, and abandonment.  The porch is falling apart a bit more, and the roof over the porch is sagging each time we see it.  I wonder how long until it collapses upon itself.

Just beyond the cabin, are two buildings.  The first one, an adobe structure, is truly beginning to fall into itself.  I am guessing, but I think it might have been a stable, of sorts, when the cabin was thriving and there were livestock to keep.  The second is more of a traditional wood barn, and I’m imagining that it was perhaps a storage barn of some sort, holding farm equipment and tools.

As we drove along another dirt road, we would periodically travel close to a creek or stream.  It wasn’t very big, yet it offered a lovely reflection photo of the greenery growing along its banks.  I was quite surprised by this, as the running water of a stream/creek, doesn’t often lend itself to these types of images.  The second image is of a wider area along this same creek or stream.  It seems to be somewhat of a bog here.  Perhaps that occurred because in a couple of places, Jeff could see a beaver dam.  Maybe the water found a new path around the dams after they were built.

There were some pretty purple sort of daisy type flowers all along the roadside.  I think they might be asters.  In any event, there were some lovely images to be had.  Can you see the bee in the image with the quote?

And, finally a perfect dandelion!  With the breezes that blow in New Mexico, it’s not often one comes across these!  I thought the quote captures the idea of the passage of time, which I always think of when I see a dandelion gone to seed.

Enjoy!

 

Follow the Winding Road

On another day at Red River, we started up the road along the middle fork of the Red River, but we turned off onto a dirt road closer to the beginning of the middle fork road.

We began up the road, and it quickly became a road of switchbacks as we made our way up a fairly steep mountain side.  Driving along these forested roads tend to have a somewhat calming effect on me, although I don’t know why.

As we climbed higher, our views were quite stunning.  The photo on the left was looking down on the town of Red River, and the one on the right, follows the Middle Fork Road, that we traveled down just the day before.

And, just as we reached the top of the road, and thought we’d turn off onto another road to continue over the back road area, we reached a dead end.  We could tell where the road used to go, but the fence across it, as well as the sign, told us we’d go no farther.  As it turns out Flying Horse Ranch, is a horse ranch and, perhaps the best term is a sort of dude ranch.  Typically, they would offer chuckwagon dinners and shows on the weekends, but not during these COVID times.  The ranch and facilities are accessed via the highway we were thinking we could drive to.  Darn!

Here was our final view at the top.  Some great aspen trees.  In just a few weeks, those green leaves will be a wonderful golden yellow!

Enjoy!

Moab – Hidden Canyon

We continued our adventure from the Tusher Tunnel down the dirt road and eventually came across what is called the Hidden Canyon, and a real treat at the end of this part of the adventure…..

Road to Hidden Canyon

As we began this next stage of our day’s journey, we found ourselves traveling down this charming dirt road.  I really loved the fact that there was this small section of lush green trees in the middle of the Utah high desert area.  The trees here were just starting to change colors for fall.

Path in Hidden Canyon

After a bit, we stopped to give Miki a chance to stretch her legs (and gave us a chance to do the same!), and I noticed this lovely path along the road.  We didn’t walk down it, as we didn’t want to travel too far off the road, and we had no idea of how much traveling we had left.  I’m not certain that this was as much a walking path as it was a mountain biking path.  We did come across a number of mountain bikers on this particular stretch of off-road area!

Off-Roading

Part of what makes off-roading fun is the nature of the roads we come across!  It seems as if I’m holding the camera a bit “off” in this image, but truly, the road is rather tilted a bit!

The Only Way Down

And, this image gives you a bit of the flavor of what I mean!  As you look at the image, the area to the right of the Jeep, which was just as steep as it looks, is the area where the mountain bikers would ride their bikes up the incline!  Jeff had gotten out of the Jeep to check out the steep descent, and decided that the only way down for us was off to the side!

The Road Out

Finally, the road did sort of level out as we reached the bottom of the canyon and then made our way out.  I really loved the way the road seems to just be leading us toward more bluffs to climb.  Truly, it did turn before we reached them!  And, in case you may be wondering, we actually have a book that sort of maps out the off-roads.  I say “sort of” because we did have to stop and double check ourselves quite a bit on this adventure.  I guess the canyon’s called Hidden Canyon for a reason!

Antelope on the Run

What a treat this was!!  Generally, when we see prong-horn antelope, we see them at a distance, and not very many of them.  But, as we were leaving the canyon, a small herd suddenly seemed to appear on our left.  This is just a small section of the herd, which I think may have numbered about a dozen.  Also, when they see us, they tend to run away from us.  In this case, they started to run alongside the Jeep, so I had a wonderful opportunity to capture them in mid-stride as they raced along, with the red clay bluffs of Utah as a fabulous backdrop!  Such graceful creatures, and don’t you just love how the small babies (just born a few months ago) can already keep up with the adults.

Antelope Crossing

As they raced along, it became obvious that they intended to cross the road in front of us.  Jeff did slow down and stopped the Jeep when they decided to actually make the crossing.  Again, I just love the grace of them both running and leaping over the small ravines alongside the road.

Movin’ On

And, here’s the end of the herd making their crossing, and moving on to a different grazing ground.  How lucky we were to have been in this spot and exactly the right time to get to see this!

Enjoy!



Moab & the Tusher Tunnel

Our first day in Moab we decided to go off-roading along a new trail – one that took us to a place called the Tusher Tunnel.  The scenery was beautiful!  Take a look!

Off the Road

This is the start of today’s journey!  I really like the texture of what ended up being sort of monoliths.  The road led up and around them……and on to……..

Jeff in Tusher Tunnel

A small path (and semi-rocky, but short climb) led us to the entrance to Tusher Tunnel.  Jeff walked in it first, and then lit up his flashlight to show me the tunnel was actually something we could walk in.  Onward!

Jeff & Miki at the end of the Tunnel

Jeff & Miki waited for me at the end of the tunnel, which seemed to promise some really great views….

A Peek

As I got closer to the far side of the tunnel, I could see that it was going to open up to a really wonderful view!  It was rather cool to walk thru the dark tunnel and truly see the light at the end of it!  I think the tunnel was about ¼ - ½ the length of a city block, so it did get very dark when walking thru the middle of it.

Open View

And, here was part of the view!  I have to admit, I was quite surprised when the expanse was as open as it was!  For some reason, I thought it would open up to a smaller canyon or something – not something so open and grand!

Natural Lines

Here’s a view looking off in another direction from the mouth of the tunnel.  We were sort of walking on a path on the edge of the side of the bluff in which the tunnel was formed.  That sounds a lot scarier than it was.  There was no sheer drop off of the path and it was a rather wide walkway!

Hidden in the Tunnel

There was another smaller sort of tunnel or cave that we found walking along the backside of the tunnel, as I think of it.  Inside this smaller tunnel, we found this natural formation of what looked like a perfect circle, created naturally it seems.  We couldn’t figure out how it was created, since the tunnel or cave was dry, with no water or wetness in it to suggest any sort of erosion.  Really interesting and cool!

Miki Leads the Way

Miki grew tired of exploring that small tunnel/cave and was eager for us to move on and explore other things!

Leaving the Tunnel

Here’s a view of Jeff walking back thru the main tunnel to where our Jeep was parked.  This image gives you a good feeling of how dark it was inside the tunnel.  Before I stopped to shoot this image, I was walking with my hands up around my head, so I didn’t accidentally hit my head on the side of the tunnel.  It had a very slight bend in it, and I would have clunked myself on the head had I not done that!  But, time to move on to the next adventure!

Enjoy!