Finally on vacation, the boys decided to take me on the Fins and Things trail in Moab, UT.
What a trip!
Consisting of piles of mounds, one after the other, with occasional flat roads inbetween, this area (there are multiple off roading trails here) is something else. Years of off roaders have created black pathways along the hills showing you exactly where you should drive.
There are no tire tracks along the sides of this roller coaster ride, either because people are well trained into following lines or because there's a rollover risk.
While not a technically difficult for the most part, these hills are steeper than they look. But isn't that the way of it? You think, oh that's not so bad and then bam! you're staring at blue sky unable to see what you're about to drive into.
Fun times!
And the scenery? Perfect for the requisite Jeep shots.
We may or may not have more photos of the Iron Butterfly than we do our kids at this point...
You know the feeling when you've been off-roading for a few hours and you should probably take a break? Us neither.
After leaving Fins & Things we saw what looked like a fun place to check out. And so we did.
The Gemini Trail
There never seems to be an end to the natural beauty all around you. It's like you just can't take a bad picture in Moab (700 + photos later...)
Add to this the constant mystery of what's beyond those enormous sedimentary gatekeepers will someday get us in trouble...but not today...we had back up!
I think we might have left the Gemini trail for a bit in our usual "what's over there" method of travel but our meanderings were rewarded with an exceptional topside view of a deep gorge cutting through the landscape.
Quite a bit of exploration on foot was done around the end of this epic hole in the ground because, well, it was fun.
Back on the Gemini Trail trying to find the Gemini Bridge we had our first (and hopefully last) off-roading tire fail. Passing through an area from some Land of the Lost episode with a staggeringly high cliff on one side and what had all the appearance of a giant ant colony on the other, we blew a tire.
We were faced with a choice, change the tire and return home or change the tire and carefully continue on our journey.
Was it really a choice?
Naturally, we continued onwards.
Night was falling fast when we reached a parking area in the middle of nowhere. The trail beyond was looking rougher than we wanted to risk on a temporary tire so we did the only logical thing...we piled into our friend's jeep and sallied forth.
Of all of the crazy places and trails we were on this week, this part was by far the most...entertaining. In the full darkness of night a cliff towered over us on one side, a long, steep drop off disappeared into blackness on the other. The lack of doors on our friend's jeep was clearly showing how narrow the road was becoming.
Once the only option to keep going forward was a footpath leading off into the colossal rock wall we were forced to turn around, being woefully unprepared for a night hike.
With Butterfly once again bopping (carefully!) over the rocky road we headed home.
Tomorrow would bring more adventures and a new member to our little gang of intrepid explorers.
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