05-25-13

Yesterdays ride was pretty easy.
We headed east of Moab on Sand Flats road and entered the Sand Flats Recreation area. There was a fee of $5.  
When we turned onto Sand Flats Road we got into the middle of a long line of rent-a-jeeps.

After we went past the pay booth we stopped on the side of the road and let the jeeps pass us.
We followed them up the road until they turned off at “Fins and Things” (a fun slick rock trail) that we had been on a couple of years ago.

 
We continued along the road for several miles taking in the views

 

 
until we came to the “Porcupine Rim Trail”.
I decided to give it a try so we turned left and started down the trail. At first it was a pretty standard dirt trail.

Then it got a little harder.

A short ways further it got even harder.

After about a mile we came to the first serious obstacle.

We made it over this it without too much trouble.
Looking down the road we could see that there were more and more difficult obstacles.

  

I decided that since we were alone and had no clue where the road went and there was just enough room to turn around where we were, that it would be smart to do so.
After backing and filling a couple of times we got turned around and headed back to the main road.

When we got to the main road we turned left. We followed Sand Flats Road enjoying the views.

Along the way we took a few side trails. One went to the Castle Valley overlook.

We followed another trail through the woods for awhile and turned around at a spot with a view to the west.

There were also some interesting rock formations visible from this trail.

Eventually we got to the paved La Sal Mountain Loop Road and followed it toward Moab.
After a few miles we turned onto the road to Oowah Lake. The road was well maintained gravel and climbed into the mountains. It wound through Pines and groves of Aspens

along a tumbling stream.

  

When we got to Oowah Lake

we decided that this was a good place to have lunch. We sat around there for a while after lunch and watched a few people fishing.

  

Eventually we headed back down the mountain to the the pavement and turned left toward Moab again.
Coming down through some “S” curves we could see an old dilapidated log cabin on a hill.

A little further down the road we passed a couple of farms with nice views of the Moab valley and the rocks to the west.

The zippers on our little green lunch box/soft cooler finally failed so when we got back to Moab we went to at a couple of places to see if we could replace it. We finally found a small one at The Family Dollar store. It doesn’t have as much room as the old one but it will work until we can get to a Walmart which is where we got the green one.

In the evening we could see the full moon rising behind the La Sal Mountains.

Today we are going to try the Bartlett Overlook trail. It is rated difficult in the back roads book. Most of it is rated moderate except for a short section that looks pretty difficult. We will see how far we get. Either way we will have a good time driving around in the country.