As we sit here in an RV Park in Bluff, Utah surrounded by beautiful red rock formations making our way home we reflect on our experiences from the last 10 days in Utah's ever inspiring area of beauty and adventure and we would like to share our experiences with our family and friends.
We have attended the Easter Jeep Safari (EJS) in Moab, Utah for 14 years where we have experienced over 35 different trails and have met a lot of friendly fun Jeepers on those trails and this year was no exception.
As the 40ft motorhome can be a bear to drive long distances we tend to break up our travel to Moab from Scottsdale in a 2-day journey where we usually stop at Cottonwood RV Park in Bluff, UT. It is a nice quiet park where we can stare at the nearby red rock cliffs or take one of the many Jeep roads in close proximity to this small town. Plus they have a couple of pretty good restaurants.
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Cottonwood RV Park
Bluff, UT
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After we settled into our site we loaded up the Jeep with snacks and out we went exploring and caching in the nearby areas. We found Forest Service Road 088 that took us to overlooks where we viewed the rock formations, mountains and valleys as far as our eyes could see. These types of areas reminds us this is why we love to take the roads less travelled. These great views made this day drive a very enjoyable adventure in the mountains, but now on to the red rock county. |
| A road less traveled but FUN for us ! |
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| A fine example of the great scenery from this back county road. |
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| The 'Causeway' cliff view on one side of the road |
Fun fact: What is a Causeway? Jack had heard of a Causeway but I had not. So a Causeway, in this case, is a bridge or cross over built on the rocky and narrow divide over a deep gorge on each side.
Arrival in Moab |
| Welcome to Moab |
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| View of La Sal Mountains from our Moab RV site. |
We participated in two event runs this year - Seven Mile Rim and Moab Rim Trails.
Both trails afforded us amazing Moab views, red rock formations and many trail challenges.
Seven Mile Rim Trail: The cliff rim portions of the trail were scenic but a little rough. Stops along the trail included the spectacular Uranium Arch and Tusher Tunnel. Both leaving us in awe of the formation and scenery. Then there were the exciting sidehill slickrock driving areas where I (Deb), as the driver, had to put my big girl pants on and brave it while the Jeep was leaning so much I thought it could tip over but Jack assured me it wasn't even close to tipping. His word against mine. LOL
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| Claret Cup Cactus |
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| Uranium Arch |
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View of the eye catching geological formations of the Merrimac and the Monitor Buttes.
Named after two Civil War ironclads, the USS Merrimac and USS Monitor. |
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| Monitor Butte in background |
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| Our Jeep stands strong in front of the mighty Merrimac Butte. |
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| Slickrock sidehill |
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| Determination Towers and our trail group |
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| Tusher Tunnel entry - A feature formed as water coming down through the crack was forced laterally on encountering an underlying impermeable layer, so that lateral flow eroded the basal part of the crack into a flared cross-section. |
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| After walking over 100 feet through it, you come out the other end of Tusher Tunnel |
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| Views from Tusher Tunnel - La Sal Mountains |
Moab Rim Trail: Another day another trail. This trail has a lot going for it. It is known for its technical 4x4 route that climbs a sheer sandstone cliff from the banks of the Colorado River. Along the way we experienced many rocky off camber ledges, slickrock, 85 percent grade and stunning overlooks of the Colorado River gorge, the town of Moab and the La Sal Mountains. There are areas of the trail that have names like 'Devils Crack, the 'Waterfall' and 'Z Turn' and did I mention the many tilted off camber slopes... This was a fun trail and it made the Jeep work to get through all the technical obstacles and a few white knuckle death grips at the tilted side hills that I'm sure were worst than the ones on Seven Mile Rim trail (as Jack said since he was driving !).
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| Making our way on the trail from the parking lot up the side of the cliff with the Colorado river in the background. |
Exploration on our own: On days that we don't have scheduled EJS trails we usually go out to find other roads less traveled. In all the years we have been coming to Moab we have never taken the Onion Creek Canyon road. It is approximately a 10 mile easy 4WD scenic route that winds through a narrow vibrant red rock canyon and finally opens up into Fisher Valley which is a cattle ranch with very green grass pastures and is neat to see with the red cliff walls in the background. As we drove this road up the canyon, we counted 35 shallow creek crossings winding through the colorful canyon. The spring or creek is called "Stinking Spring" because it has a mild sulfur odor and so named "Onion Creek". We ended our tour at Fisher Valley Ranch and returned the way we drove in back through the canyon. We noticed that other more rugged 4WD roads begin from the Ranch area but it was late in the day so we opted to return to town for dinner.
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| One of many water crossings |
Celebrations!: This year was big for celebration events throughout the week. We attended a few lunch and dinner celebrations, vintage Jeep car show events, vendor shows and other promotions. While EJS was celebrating it's 60th year in existence, the Jeep brand was also celebrating 85 years of off-road adventure along with 250 years America celebration. Jeep put together an awesome drone air extravaganza to celebrate all three of the monumental occasions. It was a great highlight to the week of having fun in our Jeep.
Thanks for coming along and celebrating the 60th Annual Easter Jeep Safari adventure with us. We hope you come back soon as we will start our Alaska adventure this summer. Stay tuned.
Happy Trails,
Jack and Deb
