Summer/Fall 2023, Nine State Tour, 8.20.23 - 9.25.23, Part 5 of 9: Moab, Utah

I’m sure it would be a good debate, but I would argue that there is no state in the country that can boast the vast riches of awe-inspiring scenery as Utah. The desert southwest just tugs at the imagination and stirs the soul in ways that no other place can do. Don’t get me wrong. I love my mountains and Lord knows I’ve seen some incredible sights in the Swiss Alps, the Canadian Rockies, the Colorado Rockies and right here at home in the North Cascades. But I get a different feel in the desert southwest. The mighty five - Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands, all national parks, have such a huge abundance of mind-bending scenery that it’s almost unfair that they could all be in one state. Yet beyond the borders of these parks are untold acres of equally stunning things to see. One could spend several lifetimes exploring southern Utah and never even come close to experiencing what this state has to offer.

As a couple, only recently did Bridgit and I start coming to Utah. Now that we have been there several times together, Bridgit has become equally enamored with the magic of the desert. So it was with great excitement that we rolled into Moab on my sixty-sixth birthday for an eight day visit. Our plan was to spend three days with my sister Amy and her husband Bob, who had been in Capitol Reef prior to meeting us in Moab. Once they left, Bridgit and I would stay another five days before moving on to the next leg of our journey. We had originally planned to camp in a first come, first serve rustic campground just outside the boundary to Canyonlands National Park called Horsethief Campground. With no hookups, we thought eight nights might be tough, especially with temperatures hovering in the low nineties so instead we booked a site at an RV campground right in Moab. It certainly wasn’t as scenic but it was much more convenient to base ourselves there and then take the Jeep wherever we decided to explore. Plus we could run our air conditioner!

The drive from Colorado National Monument to Moab was only two hours so we were there long before we could check in. We parked the Navibahn at the hotel my sister and brother in law were staying at and drove the Jeep up along the Colorado River on the beautiful UT 128. About twenty miles up we turned right onto the Onion Creek Road. This was considered an easy Jeep road. The road goes up through a very beautiful canyon and after about ten miles pops out on top of a plateau with great views. Along the way the road crosses Onion Creek some twenty-seven times but the water is only an inch or two deep so it was nothing too treacherous. The rock in the canyon was deep red with lots of pinnacles, but in some sections we also had greenish and yellowish rock mingling with the red rock which looked really nice. We drove up to the plateau and turned around. On the way back we found a nice big cottonwood tree in a pullout so we stopped for lunch there. Onion Creek was a perfect way to get things started in the Moab area, easy but very picturesque.

That evening we all went out for a birthday dinner celebration and then had cake back at their hotel. They had ordered me a custom cake and it even had a frosting Turret Arch from Arches National Park!

In the morning we got up and out right at sunrise. All the rock along the road was lit up and just looked fantastic. Anywhere you go in that entire area is just beautiful. What a place! Anyway, we drove up the highway and turned off on the Potash Road which runs along the Colorado River and parked at the trailhead for Corona Arch. I had been told that it is hardly worth visiting since it was so popular and crowded, but as almost always is the case, when you hike early, you avoid the crowds. It was pleasantly cool at seven-thirty in the morning. The hike is pretty easy. It is an out and back just around three miles total. Most of it is hiking on slickrock which I love to do. We climbed gradually until we got to the “hard” section. This was a steep bit of slickrock but a chain had been installed to help with the climb. Above that there was a ladder you had to climb to get past a ten foot step. Once these obstacles were conquered, we simply followed a slickrock shelf around to Corona Arch. There were a few people there but we had ample opportunity to photograph the arch with no people in the picture. The arch is really in a beautiful setting. It has a height of one hundred five feet and is one hundred forty feet wide. Over ten years ago, people managed to attach a rope swing and actually swung through the arch but after a guy miscalculated his swing and splatted they put a ban on allowing that type of thing on many arches.

Being the early risers that we are, the day was still young by the time we finished our Corona Arch hike so we drove into Canyonlands National Park for a quickie visit. Canyonlands is a huge park, divided into three districts. The division is created by two rivers. The Colorado comes down from the northeast and the Green River comes down from the northwest. They join in the heart of the park and continue as the Colorado down towards Lake Powell. The northernmost district of Canyonlands is called the Island In The Sky. Bridgit and I had been there two years ago with our friends Mike and Sandy but Amy and Bob had never been there.

We stopped at the visitor center and the Shafer Overlook before driving out to see the Green River Overlook. I had shot a sunrise there in 2021 but the light on this late morning was actually really nice and the canyons carved by the Green River looked incredible. We could also see a jeep road winding along the rims of the canyons but more on that later!

My sister is not a gigantic fan of death-defying dropoffs and driving up sheer rocks. On the other hand, her husband Bob lives for adventure and had asked me long before the trip if we could possibly do a bit of jeeping with a little more terror factor than Onion Creek. As a result, Bridgit and Amy decided to spend a day together so I could take Bob out to seek a greater adventure. We left before sunrise and didn’t return until dusk. We drove four different jeep roads and logged in over seventy-five miles of jeeping. What a day!

Our first trail was to drive the Gemini Bridges Road. We started on the bottom off of US 191. Turning onto the Gemini Bridges Road, we climbed along the face of a cliff and then entered the bottom of a canyon. The road was more chellanging than Onion Creek. It was bumpier and had several rocky areas to climb over, but nothing too scary. We passed by some really nice dispersed campsites before climbing again. We passed by the turnoff to another Jeep trail called Metal Masher. Uh, no thanks. Eventually we sort of topped out and came to a bike trail called Great Escape. Bridgit and I had driven to this point from the other direction on our visit in 2021. Bob and I parked here and hiked out to the rim of Bull Canyon. This gave us great views across the canyon to the actuall Gemini Bridges and some of the cool looking side canyons. Then we drove a bit further to the Bridges trailhead and hiked down to the Gemini Bridges. By the way, we saw no one on this entire part of our day.

**People who sleep late miss out on light like this!**

**Looking across Bull Canyon to Gemini Bridges**

From Gemini Bridges the rough part of the drive was past us and it was a short easy drive to pop out onto the paved road leading into Canyonlands National Park.

Our next road was to take the Shafer Switchbacks down to the junction of Potash Road and the White Rim Trail. We chose to drive a bit of the White Rim and then turned around and drove back up the Shafer Switchbacks to get to our third road of the day. The Shafer Switchbacks are a pretty steep grade and to keep from burning up the brakes I geared down to 4WD low. It looks really scary but in most places the track was almost wide enough for two vehicles. It was quite thrilling driving down them but we handled it with ease.

**The view from the top of Shafer Switchbacks**

**The only thing missing is John Wayne**

**Looking back towards the Shafer Switchbacks (left of center)**

**And we thought the Shafer Switchbacks were scary!**

Next up on our epic day of jeeping was to head back out of Canyonlands and turn down the road towards Dead Horse Point. A little ways down that road we turned onto a dirt road that took us to Long Canyon. This seven mile canyon starts out wide up on a hill but then drops steeply into a narrow gorge known as Pucker Pass. At the lower end of Pucker Pass is a large boulder that had fallen across the road that we had to drive under. Nothing too hard but fun stuff. Beyond the boulder we came to a few switchbacks that provided outstanding views looking down to the Colorado River and beyond to the incredible area of fins just behind Moab. There are numerous very hard jeep trails through that area. I’d love to explore in there but I haven’t found any intermediate trails that go back there. They’re all hard. Really hard.

**Looking down Long Canyon towards Moab**

At the bottom of Long Canyon we came to the Potash Road. We followed it back towards Moab, passing the Corona Arch Trailhead along the way. This section of the road is very beautiful along the river. When we reached Moab it was around two-thirty. This was perfect. I had wanted to save the final drive for late afternoon to capture the good afternoon light. We drove to the other end of Moab and took the Kane Creek Road. Our plan was to drive out to Hurrah Pass and then beyond to a spot known as Chicken Corners. So far all the roads we had driven were rated easy in my off-roading book but Chicken Corners was considered an intermediate trail. It is a long drive, over twenty miles each way. There are several explanations as to how Chicken Corners got its name but it basically refers to the final corner around a rock face. On your left is a tall cliff of rock. To the right is a sheer dropoff all the way down to the Colorado River. There is very little dirt on either side of your vehicle between the two. Add several large bumpy potholes and boulders to the mix and you have Chicken Corners. They say that it used to be a pack trail and those who were too terrified or “chicken” would walk through this section. Knowing these conditions, Bob and I pointed the Jeep in the direction of Chicken Corners and with a crack of the whip we boldly rode off towards our destiny. Our first stop was at the Birthing Rock, a large boulder just off the side of the road. It is covered on all sides with native American rock art dating back to the Anasazi as early as 1AD, the Fremont (AD450-AD1250) and much more recently, the Ute (AD1880).

Beyond the Birthing Rock the road began to deteriorate. Soon it was considerably rougher than any of the other roads we had been on that day. There were lots of sections where we had to climb jagged shelf rocks and some steep hills with deep sand. A narrow section of road that climbed up along a steep cliff side finally got us to Hurrah Pass. Driving up and over a big rock shelf put us officially on top of the pass.

**The road to Hurrah Pass goes up at an angle from left to right in the photo**

We felt accomplished getting to Hurrah Pass but we still had nine more miles to get to Chicken Corners and the book said the road got worse after the pass. This was a very rough, narrow road with sections of exposure and I didn’t think driving back through this in the dark sounded like the best idea I ever had. Based on our timing and average miles per hour, I decided that whether or not we made it to Chicken Corners I would turn around at four-thirty.

Pressing on, we dropped down a very narrow section of rough rock and into a valley of sorts. Alternating between sandy sections and rocky bits we passed by a large rock called Catacomb Rock. I had seen a video of this rock and really wanted to stop and explore the myriad of little caves and tunnels throughout this giant petrified piece of Swiss cheese but I knew if we did I would miss my cutoff turnaround time. I’ll just have to come back for this one.

At four-thirty we were so close to Chicken Corners we could see it so we pushed on the final half mile or so. The entire section known as Chicken Corners is really pretty short and personally I thought the scary factor was a tad over-hyped. It just wasn’t that bad. On the other side it opened up to a very large flat plateau which is where we stopped. I think the road goes maybe another third of a mile or so but we were happy just to get this far. The views were gorgeous. We were high above the Colorado River and the surrounding red rock cliffs were all brilliant in the late afternoon light. Knowing we had to get back, we didn’t linger very long. We snapped some photos and made our way back through the infamous Chicken Corners. On the way back the light just kept getting better and better. We stopped numerous times for photos and once I’d made it back down the hill beyond Hurrah Pass I knew we would be okay.

It was a spectacular adventure. Bob and I both agreed that we found challenges right near the top of our comfort level. I was really pleased with the planning for the day. I think the difficulty progressed with each new road so by the time we took on Chicken Corners we were better prepared as to how to drive it. Of course the scenery all day was jaw-dropping and our jeeping day will be one I will cherish forever.

**Looking back at Chicken Corners from the end of the road**

**The Colorado River from Chicken Corners**

**The road leading back up to Hurrah Pass angles up to the left side of the photo**

**Spectacular vistas coming back down from Hurrah Pass**

So the next morning was to be our final day with Amy and Bob. We were going to drive back into Canyonlands but when I turned on the ignition I had a low tire pressure light. Hmm. I filled up the tire at a gas station but then called a tire center in town to see if I might have a slow leak. It was determined that not only did it have a slow leak, it had four slow leaks and all the other tires were shot. Chicken Corners took its toll! Actually, this turned out to be a blessing. These were the original stock tires and had already seen numerous jeep trails. They most likely weren’t designed for the type of jeeping they had already seen. And the next day Bridgit and I had a plan to do a two day, hundred mile jeep road. Even if the tires had survived Chicken Corners, it is very likely they wouldn’t have made it through that trip so I had them put on a brand new set of Falken Wild Peak A/T tires. A full 8/10 of an inch wider and much beefier tread including side tread and we were ready to go for our biggest Jeep adventure we’d ever been on. But I stray.

Amy and Bob drove us that last day while the Jeep was in the shop. We drove into the Island In The Sky and went all the way to the end of the road and hiked out to Grandview Point. Bridgit and I had done this at sunset in 2021 but it is such a pretty and easy hike that we were glad to be doing it again. From there we took a short hike to Mesa Arch and that pretty much wrapped up our visit with Amy and Bob. They would be heading back to Denver and Bridgit and I had an epic adventure waiting for us the following day.

Summer/Fall 2023, Nine State Tour, 8.20.23 - 9.25.23, Part 5 of 9: Moab, Utah

Summer/Fall 2023, Nine State Tour, 8.20.23 - 9.25.23, Part 4 of 9: Colorado National Monument

Summer/Fall 2023, Nine State Tour, 8.20.23 - 9.25.23, Part 6 of 9: The White Rim Trail