We were fortunate to be able to squeeze in a ride this year
– it snowed on the day we had originally made the reservation for and we
weren’t about to go out in that freezing temperatures! The rental company (Highpoint Hummer –
we highly recommend them) let us change the reservation at no additional
cost. Today was a beautiful day
for a ride! The sun was out and
the temperatures were perfect!
We headed up the standard route – just of highway 191
outside of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. An offshoot trail from our standard path is the Sevenmile Rim
trail. This has always piqued our
interest, but we seem to get there just after the long line of jeeps scheduled
on that ride for the Easter Jeep Safari.
There isn’t an easy way to navigate around that many Jeeps, so we
haven’t ever attempted it.
Well, we made it about half way until we chickened out! It was pretty extreme and we were
afraid we would roll the ATV. I
had to hop out several times to guide Carolyn over the steep, jagged rock crags
and navigate through the brush. At
one point, Carolyn was nearly vertical.
It was when we were faced with what looked like a dead end – a 6 foot
tall rock wall the other Jeeps seemed to be able to crawl up - we threw in the
towel and headed back on to the basic Determination Towers trail and drove over
to Monitor and Merrimack Buttes…
We stopped for a bit, enjoyed the sites, grabbed a bite, and
squatted behind a bush…
We drove up to the Tusher Tunnel – a cave that brings you out to the backside of the mountain for breathtaking views of the valley and the ATV terrain. We had fun here for a few minutes checking out the modern day “cave drawings” (AKA graffiti) and the awesome chunks of rocks above us as we walked through the long, dark passage.
We completed the loop, and back near 191 we headed back up into the hills to check out the Dinosaur bones. We parked the ATV and hiked over the ravine to examine the tiny remnants of the gigantic beasts from so many years ago. It was amazing to see so many different types of bones scattered along the hillsides.
We completed the ride, dropped of the ATV and headed out of Moab for home.
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