06-07-13

Boy, is it getting hot!
Yesterday was in the mid 90,s and it is supposed to get into the 100’s by Sunday.
Time to go north.
We are taking today and tomorrow to make preparations for getting underway.

Yesterday, we went to “The Top of the World”.
That is the name of the trail we were following.

We drove out Highway 128 to the Dewy Bridge and just before crossing the bridge we turned right onto a graded gravel road where there is a toilet and some camp spots. We stopped there to air down the tires, then headed up the road.

We had been on this road in 2009 (see blog for May 27,09, Wednesdays post).

There are lots of interesting rock formations along the way.

We turned west on the trail to The Top Of The World.
The trail started out easy but soon began to get rougher

and rougher.

About 3 miles up the trail we got to the first difficult  spot.

From here the trail starts a loop that goes to the overlook and back. The whole loop is rated “Difficult”. Going up the trail is a little rough but we were able to negotiate all of the challenges without much problem.

We got to the Overlook just in time for lunch. It is interesting to me, how often we get to an overlook at lunch time.

The view is pretty spectacular.

To the right you can see Fisher Towers.

 

A little further to the west the you can see the rocks of Arches National Park. In the picture below you can see two large arches on the right side of the rocks.

To the northwest is a large ranch nestled in a valley below the La Sal Mountains.

There were a few clouds over the La Sal’s. A lot of the snow has disappeared.

After lunch we continued the loop.
From here you can see into Colorado.

The trail was a bit harder going down than the other end of the loop coming up.

One way you can tell that the trail was rougher is the number of pictures Patti took from “outside” the jeep.

The next couple of pictures illustrate the value of correct tire placement

Notice the big rock next to the right rear tire.

 

Eventually we got back to the “moderate” section of the trail.

 

We found one of those beautiful blue and yellow lizards that we’ve only seen here in Utah. 

Eventually we got back to the Highway and stopped near Dewy Bridge, in the shade of some cottonwoods  where we aired up the tires.

We noticed as we drove along the Colorado River that the water has dropped some and there are more rapids.

There were a lot of rafters on the river.

When we got back to Moab we stopped at Milt’s for a milkshake and headed home for a nap. It was a great ride but it was a long hot day.