Check out our sunrise...
Feels symbolic.
It's the dawn of the day
Dad has waited for his whole life.
Today we rented Jeeps to drive
through the backroads of Moab.
Moab is known for it's jeeping--
look it up.
It's a thing.
A HUGE thing.
Our rides:
Team White Jeep: Pappo, Mema, Jack and Wes
Team Gold Jeep: Dad, Mom, me and Tuck
Our map:
Our route today--Dome Plateau
with a couple of arches and such along the way.
Mom was our navigator,
trying to interpret the vague turn-by-turn directions
and landmarks in the map book
We started off small--
some hills, some bumpy trails
The view from the inside
and the cool view outside
Before long,
the hills got A LOT bigger
but they were no match for the jeeps
and Dad and Pappo's awesome driving skills
Our first stop was this huge cave
Can you see us inside?
We're sort of swallowed up
Then it was back on the trail
because we had more to see!
We came to La Boca Arch
La Boca means "mouth"--
guess we're being chewed up!
Everyone doing ok?
A little shaken from all the bumps
but getting more courageous every hill!
How about this one???
What goes up,
must come down
Now they are getting into it--
look, Dad, no hands!
It was gorgeous out on
BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land
with all the hills and mountains
By mid-afternoon,
we reached our summit:
Dome Plateau
and its amazing view of the Colorado River
We felt like we were in a Jeep commercial
Not a bad place for lunch
and some quiet reflection
It had been a heck of a day
Dad was living his dream!
We could have stayed all afternoon,
but we had more things to see
So up some more hills we went
and past some awesome plateaus and hills
Mom caught this great picture of the soil out there--
see all the ridges and bumps?
It's called cryptobiotic soil.
It's all these microorganisms growing in the desert.
According to the Park Rangers,
without them,
Utah would turn into one giant sand dune.
We thought they were really cool.
We eventually came to this huge slab of slickrock
aka sandstone.
It was begging to be climbed,
calling out to Dad
Can we do it?
Oh yes we can!
Pappo followed suit
We were feeling awesome--
this jeep thing is incredible!
so Mom decided to take us on the
"more difficult but fun" route on the map
(look for it--it's clearly labeled on there!)
It started out ok--
we were headed down a rocky creek bed
but things got...crazy?...quickly.
Dad didn't see a big drop off
and for a brief moment or two,
the Gold Jeep
was only on 2 wheels
and leaning slightly (or a lot) towards the driver's side.
At this point,
I started pleading to get out of the Jeep
(memorable phrase of the day
"I'd rather get out of this jeep
then die in this jeep!").
All 4 wheels were quickly back on the earth,
but we all leapt out all the same.
(Mom and Dad would like to clarify--
we were never really in danger of rolling.
But it was a terrifying sensation all the same!)
Pappo quickly decided they were NOT following us through there.
But then his attempt at a 3-point-turn
got White Jeep wedged between an enormous boulder
and a smaller but poorly positioned smaller boulder.
But one massive rock ramp and a
96-point-turn later,
he was turned around,
poised to go back the way we came.
So that just left us
and some huge holes and boulders.
We had to build up a path
for the jeep to drive across.
Can you see our handiwork?
You've never seen the 4 of us
work together faster or better.
A wide-view scope of the problem
Here's the good news--
we're writing the blog,
so clearly we got out.
The bad news?
We made it through this one
but then we had to build a few more ramps
down the way.
But we saw those coming.
We looked like experienced jeepers by then.
We eventually popped out of the creek bed
back on the main road.
But we had the map--
and White Jeep was no where to be found.
(Did we mention there's minimal cell service?)
We waited for a while
and eventually headed back to see if we could find them.
Again,
we're writing this,
so clearly we did.
We waited at these old abandoned mining cabins
and eventually we all reunited.
We made it back to the highway
in time to see the sun setting on the cliffs
How about that sunset?
Once the adrenaline wore off
and our pasta dinners kicked in,
we slept like the rocks we drove over.
That's one adventure we'll be talking about for years.
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