04-08-10

NOTE,
Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

I inspected the battery connections on Plan "B" yesterday, but didn't notice any corrosion.
I cleaned them up any way and it seems to have helped.
Only time will tell.

Around 12:00 we decided to take a ride. We drove east through Blanding
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and stopped for gas in Monticello. While we were getting gas, we bought a fried pie for Patti and a Cinnamon role for me. That was our lunch.
We continued north from Monticello.

About 20 miles north of Monticello we turned left on highway 211

toward the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.
About 15 miles down the road we came to Newspaper Rock.

we continued down the highway about 10 more miles

and turned south on Beef Basin road, a wide dirt road that looked like it gets graded about once a year, but not yet this year.
I guess the road got a lot of use during the early spring because it was pretty rutted.

A short distance down this road we stopped to check out a door in the rocks.

The door lead to a small room that looked like it might have been a powder magazine.
To the left of the door and in a gully was a mine tunnel with a grate over the mouth.

While we were there Patti took this shot of Clifford in Cleavage.


Our intention was to go all the way to Beef Basin and back. Of course I never saw a jeep road that I didn't like so we spent a lot of time checking out the trails we crossed along the way. About 16 miles down Beef Basin road we came to the turn off that goes to Salt Creek and Lavender Canyon overlook. We had our handy, "Moab Back Roads and Jeep trails" guide book with us and the book said that this road was a little rocky.
We headed up the trail.

By the time we got to the Salt Creek overlook it was about 4:30 so we decided to have dinner there.

The view was spectacular.


We could see two arches in the distance.

One I think is called Wedding Ring arch.

I don't know the name of the other one.

After dinner we continued along the trail to the Lavender Canyon overlook for more spectacular views.


The trail is a loop so we continued along driving over and around large rocks.

All along the route we were treated to beautiful views.

The trail was rough enough that by the time we got back to Beef Basin rd. it was getting late so we decided to head back to the highway and go home.
We got back to Blanding around 8:30 and stopped at the A&W for a root beer float.