Nathan posted on July 10, 2010 07:43
NH and I, Caleb and Jennifer, and Carl are all camped somewhere just above Devil’s Basin (or some such ominous name). The sky is clearing, I see a couple of stars, and we are the only other sources of light in what would be called a meadow if we weren’t in the desert.
We travelled today from Monticello, Utah, via mostly very nice dirt roads, up and back down a mountain, past Slickrock and the Lion’s Back, and into Moab. The entire drive was beautiful. We saw a doe and her twin fawns in the aspen forest coming back down the mountain. We ogled the smooth rock formations near Moab, NH wishing he might climb them all.
Carl drove on the highway to Moab (I don’t remember why, but I don’t think any of the story hangs on that detail), and we met him there after eating our lunch and walking to the local post office to mail our room key back to the Monticello Inn. Oops.
From Moab, we drove mostly gravel roads and a few crazy washouts to Green River, where we stopped to run several errands. From there, the real fun began.
Just outside (west? northwest?) of Green River, Sam’s maps instructed us to get on I-70. To travel on interstate as part of the trail is unheard-of, but I convinced NH that the roll-chart, when it said “ramp to I-70,” meant that we were actually getting on the freeway. A couple of miles later we were instructed to turn off the interstate, not by taking an exit ramp, but just making a right-hand turn onto a gravel road. We did, and it felt rebellious. :)
The gravel road, after some circuitous trails, led us into a breath-taking canyon. The walls wrapped around in interlocking curves with walls so high that we had to crane our necks to see sky. Let me just say that, once we left Moab, the temperature began to go from warm to unbearably hot. I sucked down three liters of water in quick succession, just trying to keep up with the heat. But once we descended into the canyon, the temperature must have dropped ten degrees. It was beautiful.
It was also challenging. We were essentially following a dry riverbed, sandy silt strewn with rocks ranging in size from basketball-size to townhouse-size. The trail, sometimes a gravel or sand road, crossed, intersected, and sometimes was said riverbed. We navigated the trail as carefully as we could, but still both Carl’s running boards were crunched. Also, the technical driving was slow. It took us three hours to travel some six miles. The canyon part was beautiful, but it only lasted a mile or less. The rest was a less-rewarding (and hotter) traverse up what had become ravine that wound between hills and buttes.
I think we took a wrong turn in there somewhere. Daylight waning, and a 60% chance of rain put us in an interesting juxtaposition—we could not drive after dark, and we would not camp in a dry riverbed with such a chance of rain—if not flashfloods, the rain might at least make the trail impassible, with us stuck down in the ravine.
We pressed on, and had the good luck to stumble upon a road that took us rather quickly back to the trail. While we have not got quite clear of washouts leading down to the river (this far out, it is now a real river, not just a dry riverbed), we are camped on a section of road that is on high ground. We feel safe and happy to be getting supper and beds.
Carl is serving everyone Hagandaas ice cream (yes, he has been carrying ice cream on dry ice all the way down here). There were a few sprinkles of rain, but nothing worth worrying over here. And it brought on a beautiful rainbow. I am very tired and will write more tomorrow.
Written by E Henson