I have been wanting to go down into this valley for several years, but I originally thought it was accessible only by one of those dune buggy things that climbs rocks--not for me.
However, I discovered it was accessible by a regular, enclosed 4-wheel-drive vehicle, and that there were tours available. (That helped me eliminate my original idea of renting a jeep and driving it myself. Another factor to taking a tour instead of driving myself was looking at the far end of Shafer road where it exited the canyon via a bunch of narrow switchbacks.)
Unfortunately, I was not able to get a reservation for earlier in the day, so I ended up with the 4 - 8 pm tour. WARNING: There are a lot of photos in this posting, so you might want to skim over them, but don't miss the last few photos.
The first few miles were paved, and this part went through a wall with pictographs.
The next section follows a quiet stretch of the Colorado River. We are just beginning to drop down into the canyon.
The pavement does not last long, however.
This road, both the paved part and the dirt part was built to access a potash plant. The paved part is between Moab and the plant, and the dirt part goes another 20+ miles past the plant and exits in Canyonlands National Park.
No boy scout leaders in the area, so this rock is apparently safe.
These are part of the potash drying ponds seen from the top of the mesa at Dead Horse Point.
Guess I am glad I did not rent that jeep!
Just a few photos of the mesa edges and the rock layers from the bottom.
Wonderful views!!
A long, straight section of the Shafer road. It is regularly graded, but parts of it are really just flat rock.
This looks a little iffy!
A view of the river from about halfway up to the top of the canyon.
Getting near the top now. No stops for photos, so I took these out of the window.
OOOOOhhhhh!
I took this looking straight up the cliff next to the vehicle. Scary.
This is the road we were just on!!
And a section of the switchbacks.
This was the vehicle that we rode in. At about two-thirds of the way, the driver stopped where another vehicle from the same company had broken down. They had sent a mechanic down with a third vehicle, so the passengers from the broken down vehicle rode up to the top in that one, and we had enough space for the mechanic. They will have to return tomorrow with parts for the broken-down vehicle.
All-in-all, this was a fantastic tour and well worth the price. It gave me the chance to see part of the canyon I could never have seen otherwise.
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