05-26-13

Yesterday’s ride didn’t turn out the way we planned.

We were heading for a trail that went to the Bartlett Overlook but some how we misread the directions and missed the turnoff.
We drove along a good dirt road Trying to find a sand road that went off to the right. The directions said something about crossing a cattle guard then turning right on a sandy road.
We crossed a cattle guard and a short distance further we came to a sandy wash.
We turned right and followed the wash.

Eventually we came to some slickrock and climbed over it to more sand but never came to the steep ledge that was described in the directions.

We continued through the wash and came to some old buildings that were made out of railroad ties.

After taking some pictures of these buildings we continued in the sandy wash. Eventually we came to a dirt road going east/west.
By then we were sure that we were not on the trail we wanted.
We decided that it didn’t really matter as anywhere was good as long as we were out driving around the country side.
We turned east and drove for a short distance where a smaller dirt road entered from the north. We turned onto this trail and followed it to a quarry with no outlet. We drove back down the trail to the dirt road and turned west.
We followed this road for several miles enjoying the scenery, having given up on finding the Bartlett Overlook trail.

Eventually we came to some big bluffs.

We drove around to the west side of the bluffs and took a couple of right turns and came to a large area of slickrock.

The area looked familiar but it wasn’t until we stopped for lunch that we figured out where we were.

We were on the Rainbow Terrace.

We had been here a few years ago.
Oh well, it is a fun ride anyway. The only down side is that since we have done this trail before we can’t mark it off in the book.

After lunch we continued across the slickrock for a while and came to the end where the trail becomes a narrow sandy road.

We followed this road until we came to the Blue Hills Road where we turned east.

It was a good ride and we still have two more weeks here so we will try to get to Bartlett Overlook.

Today is moving day. We have to leave Moab Rim RV Park and will be  moving into the OK RV Park, a couple miles south of this park.