1146 September 27, 2024 Long Canyon Road And Pucker Pass

I took a lethargic and unremarkable walk in the neighborhood behind the campground.  I did not have my usual morning energy.  The walk ended with a ¼ mile uphill.  I will find somewhere else to walk tomorrow!

We packed the cooler and the Jeep and went for a 4WD ride.  We started on the Potash-Lower Colorado River Scenic Byway.  There were dramatic, sheer cliffs.  There was a petroglyph site and a dinosaur tracks site that was reachable by hiking.  We bypassed that today.  There were rock climbers climbing in pairs. 

We turned onto Long Canyon Road to Pucker Pass.

There were lots of balanced rocks.  These seem to defy explanation and gravity!

We saw dozens of chipmunks scurrying across the road and into the boulders as we approached.

The layers of rock and the passage of time that is indicated by those layers is awe inspiring.

We took a series of switchbacks, steadily climbing.  There were steep drop-offs.

The view below and behind…

A hoodoo.

The road was narrow and I could taste crunchy bits of dust!

More below and behind…

We passed through bighorn sheep habitat near their water source but no sheep today.

We stopped for a snack and Tim took the roof off the Jeep.  We had been craning our necks to see the tops of the cliffs and now we could see it all.

He took it off just in time.  We arrived at this arch and drove through.

The pass became narrow and we were still climbing.   We finally reached the summit.

Thanks, Tim, for researching and finding this fun trail!

From the summit, the road was gravel and smooth and wide and flat.  We rode past oil rigs.

We took the park road into Canyonlands National Park at Island in the Sky.  This was but an appetizer to whet our appetite for Sunday’s big trip!  We walked the trail to the Shafer Trail Overlook.  This is the winding road that leads down to the White Rim Trail.  We will take this road down when we come back.

We traveled across the Lone Mesa.  Traveling on this large wide-open mesa, it doesn’t really look like anything special…that is until you have the chance to peer over the edge.  We have seen this park before but that didn’t diminish the impact of that spectacular view into the canyons from Grand View Point Overlook.  We walked along the ledge and we could see far below, the White Rim Road.

We stopped to hike and take pictures at Candlestick Tower Overlook.

We drove to Upheaval Dome and hiked the 1/3 mile steep trail up to the edge of the crater. This circular depression in the rock is more than two miles across. It was probably caused by the impact of a meteorite.

It was late afternoon and time to go back to Moab.  We are eagerly looking forward to our overnight adventure!