Friday, October 27, 2023 Shafer Trail

I like this place.  My humans let me do some exploring.  I like the smells.  Maybe I can find a mousie.

My morning walk… oh, there is really no place to do a walk.  I walked around the campground.  That took 5 minutes.  I will have to get my walking in doing hikes.  Plenty of that around here so it shouldn’t be a problem.

It is a sunny day with some puffy clouds.  Spouse wants to drive the Shafer Trail.  It is a 19.3 mile off road trail that starts at a Potash plant off of hwy 279, and ends in Canyonlands National Park.  It is supposedly an easy trail for 4WD vehicles with high clearance.  I actually read where 2wd with high clearance would be ok.  Hmmm, I doubt that!

As we get on 279, we see a rock climbers paradise.  We will have to come back for that. 

We follow the Colorado river till we get to the boat ramp.  Here the trail turns to dirt, and Spouse airs down the tires.  And then to rock.  Not horrible, mind you, but it is slow going.  A car that we saw heading up was now turned back.  They were Italian tourists and heard this was an easy trail, and found out it really isn’t that easy! They really should watch what they publish…

We have a guide that has specific mileage points of what you can see.  We crawl over rocks – they weren’t huge, just meant we had to go slow and navigate through them.  Beautiful vallleys and wide open spaces with the red rock cliffs escorting us.  After we pass the Potash evaporation ponds around mile 5, we enter BLM territory.

The guide offers side excursions.  We decided to take one… til we almost got stuck in sand and had to back out over rocks.  And it wasn’t the right ‘road’ as it dead ended into a fence.  Based on the tire tracks, we were not the first ones to make this mistake!  But with that, we figured we should stay on the main ‘road’.  When I saw where one of these offshoots would take us, there was NO way we would be climbing that!  Naw…  let’s stay on the main road….

Around mile 9 is the Thelma and Louise viewpoint.  On top of this magical mesa, we stopped for lunch.  Although it is only 51 degrees, the sun is shining and it is quite pleasant.  Light sleeves are enough to keep us comfortable.  Below us is the Colorado River, where we once rafted past here.  The aerial views were stunning.  The red rock walls forming a canyon.  Just think, in a billion years this area might look more like the Grand Canyon!

After mile 11, we technically enter Canyonlands National Park.  The only difference in the road is that there is a 15mph speed limit sign posted.  I guess that is just in case we can get our speed up to 15mph!

During all this time, you have to be careful if a vehicle is coming in the opposite direction, as there isn’t always room to pass.  We didn’t have much problem with that, but we did have to keep our eyes open.

At about mile 14, there are switchbacks.  SWITCHBACKS! Here is where you really need to be mindful of oncoming vehicles.  The road is narrow, and for us to make our turn, we need the entire road, otherwise we will need to back up...  On this tiny, narrow, steep road…  naw…   Spouse wanted to take this going downhill.  I am really glad we went up it.  We wouldn’t have had any brakes left if we went

down it!   1.5 miles of narrow, narrow steep switchbacks.  Then we got to ride along a narrow ledge til we got to a viewing area.  That was certainly interesting!  We did have to jockey for position a couple of times for oncoming traffic, but at least we were able to make our turns ok.  It was a fun experience!

When we got to a normal road, Spouse put some air back in the tires.  Hey, we are in Canyonlands.  Let’s explore.  It is a very interesting place.  On the mesa is miles of cattle grazing ground.  At least it was cattle grazing grounds before it became a national park.  For as far as the eye can see, you would never know you are sitting on top of the world.  You see plains… or call it a ponderosa.  But once you get to the edge, WOOSH!  An aerial view of eastern Utah into Colorado!  The red rock canyons, the valleys, the Colorado River… it is totally eye popping!  We were tired but managed to check a few of the viewpoints out.  Wow!  Maybe we will check this out more later.  For now, back to Artee and our little black beast Rudy.