The Four Blevins : Day Four

Canyonlands National Park was on the agenda for today.

Let's begin with what quickly became one of the worst mornings I've had in a very long time. We started out this morning on time and ready to get to the park before the heat hit, so we left the house a little before 7:00. It was supposed to be about a 40 minute drive. We put the park in the navigation system and started out. The navigation told us to turn left on a certain road, so we did... There was no large sign stating "CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK" with a big arrow, so that should have been our clue to NOT take this road. Oh well. We drove for about 15 minutes or so on a beautiful road with the river on one side and a wall of rock on the other. Great scenery.

We ended up at what looked like an industrial plant (which we later discovered was a salt plant. That's neither here nor there, but know you know anyway). The navigation told us to turn on a road which had signs that it was a private road and to keep out. We continued straight instead of turning and the navigation quickly recalculated and showed we could continue and get to the park in about the same amount of time, so we kept on going. The pavement ran out and we continued on Potash Road that looked like this...

We were in the bottom of a canyon and the scenery was gorgeous.

This is where Brian started saying phrases like "It's an adventure!" 😒 We came upon a sign that said the next 5 miles were owned by Moab Salt but could be used by the public as long as we stayed on the road. Okay then. Navigation still showed us going to the park, so we soldiered on. The road was REALLY bumpy. Like rediculously bumpy. It was funny in the beginning, but started to become a little more annoying and eventually I started to feel a little nauseous. Ugh. At this point, we had been driving on this road for a while. Still looked like this... Hadn't met a single car or seen a soul.

We did go around one corner that was sharp and dropped steeply off into the canyon. I almost came out of my seat. Once we got by it, I made Brian turn around and take a picture.

Brian hopped out to take some more pictures because it really was very pretty. (I'm thinking he made another comment around this time about how nothing really good happened at Mesa Verde and that yesterday's story was the crazy long hike at Arches and this 'adventure' would be today's story.) That man cracks me up!

After bumping around for about an hour and a half (and meeting one motorcycle and one truck), this is where the really bad stuff started. We had driven into this canyon and there was just a steep canyon wall in front of us. I was wondering how the heck we were going to get up on the top, because there was no road... But yet the navigation showed one. Evidently, there was a road called Shafer Trail Road that went from the bottom to the top in a series of switchbacks. Let me tell you a little about this road, friends. It was a gravel road, not wide enough for two cars to fit and the drop off was RIGHT at the side of the road. We started up and I began to freak out (as in sitting quietly with my eyes straight ahead not saying a word as not to scare the boys). Remember the curve that scared me a few pictures back? It was NOTHING. We spent the next 20ish minutes (seemed like FOREVER) going up the Worst. Road. Ever. The boys sat in the back, oblivious and talking about Pokemon and video games. Brian did a GREAT job driving- he was calm and collected as always. I sat with my eyes closed, white knuckling it while I prayed. Hard. God took care of us and we didn't meet any more cars and made it to the top. I could tell the road started to get wider and we were on more of a plateau. That's when the tears came. I started bawling and Hudson said "Why is Mom crying?" 😀 We made it to the visitors center and Brian took the boys to the bathroom while I got myself together.

We started out into the park and our first stop was the Shafer Canyon Overview. Brian got these pictures of the road.

I was emotionally wrung out after we got out of that canyon. After I stopped crying I was still a little shaky and it took me a while to feel somewhat normal. Brian said I should google Shafer Trail Road, so I did. And of course the first thing to come up is from dangerousroads.com. Here's what they have to say about it.

"Shafer Trail Road-Shafer Canyon Road is a 18 miles dangerous dirt track located in Moab, a city in Grand County, in eastern Utah, in the western United States. It requires extreme caution at the best of times for vehicles and mountain bikes, but especially so in inclement weather and at night.

This road has humbled many egos. It’s not for the sissies and shouldn’t be attempted by novice drivers. The road is in dreadful condition and requires strong nerves to negotiate it. It’s certainly breathtaking and it has a fearsome reputation. It still remains an adrenaline-pumping journey and is definitely not for the faint of lungs, heart, or legs. Words can’t describe the road and pictures don’t do it justice. This is a great trail for someone who is looking for an off road experience, but doesn’t have access a highly modified rock crawler. Virtually any four-wheel drive vehicle will succeed in navigating this well maintained road. Highlights of this trip include well marked Indian petroglyphs and amazing natural stone arches. You’ll also have an opportunity to tackle the Schafer Switchbacks, a breathtaking climb with expansive views of the surrounding canyon-lands."

So there ya go. There are videos on YouTube of people driving Shafer Trail Road because they are whackadoodle CRAZY.

Moving on... Canyonlands isn't a huge park (at least the part we went to), so we went on ahead with our schedule because I knew we'd be done in early afternoon. Our next stop- Mesa Arch. It was a short trail that led you to an arch the had the canyon behind it. Beautiful!