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| Father and Son sunset ride in the California desert 2018. |
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| Cooking up sausages before the big thunderstorm came rolling in. Island in the Sky 2009. |
Some of the best times for me are when you truly go off the beaten path! And there is no better way to do it than in an off-road vehicle like Trusty or on a dirt bike. At my age now, the off-road vehicle seems like the better option, but I still love to get out on my dirt bike whenever possible.
We had planned to camp out for the night in Island in the Sky, but off in the distance we could see massive thunder clouds moving in. Rather than brave the thunderstorm, we decided to head back to higher ground after lunch. Somehow I remember we cooked up some sausages.
When we were in Canyonlands we met a father and son from Michigan who had trailered their dirt bikes all the way out to Utah so they could ride together on the dirt roads with these majestic land formations as their backdrop. I remember thinking how cool it would be to one day do the same thing with my kids. Mind you, Mazzy was just two at the time, and Jaden wasn't even one yet!
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| At 50 I can still send it... Head crop pic by Mazzy. She didn't think that her dad could still get that much air... |
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| Only my baby girl brings the rainbow with her when she rides. California desert 2018. |
The good thing is that both of my kids have grown up dirt bike riding, so that vision of the three of us riding through Canyonlands to the Island in the Sky could very well happen one day... Yes. One day.
And now we continue with day four of my cross country road trip in 2009!
It was dark the night before when we set up camp and when I say dark, I mean dark! Not even a sliver of moon was out, so truth is we didn’t even know what spectacular views surrounded us.
Canyonlands UT is a collection of rock formations that spreads as far as the eye can see. In fact, they appear to run right into the Rocky Mountains. The formations rise above at a place where the Colorado River and the Green River come together. They are divided into three sections, The Needles, The Maze and The Island in the Sky.
There’s limited paved road access to the park so it’s best to see it by foot, mountain bike or 4X4. We set our sights on the Island in the Sky, and opted to go by 4X4! Sure a hike would have been great, but when you have Trusty, an aged luxury passenger vehicle set up to conquer the Sahara Desert, you go with the power! Even if that power doesn’t include the air conditioner for the last ¼ of the adventure. Yuck!
To say that my first impressions of the park were breathtaking would be an understatement. And it just doesn’t stop. Around every turn, down every switch back, up every rocky hill we bumped and grinded our way for 76 miles through the rock faced canyons. The colorful formations are over 10 million years in the making and because the access is so limited, we encountered only a handful of people the whole way. It was truly amazing to enjoy so much history without all the tourists!
We were finished with our off-road adventure by sunset and decided to push on to Colorado. We hit the Colorado boarder under the cover of night and found a motel in a small town called Cortez. Cortez is just outside Mesa Verde, the place we will begin our adventure tomorrow.
Day 4 – June 24, 2009
Start: Entrance to Canyonlands National Park
Destination #1: White Crack Campground (I’m not joking about this) and back
Destination #2: Cortez, CO
Mileage off-road: 76
Mileage on-road: 115 miles
Did we make it? Yes
Trusty sizes up Island in the Sky
Island in the Sky
Island in the Sky 2
Island in the Sky 3
Island in the Sky 4
Island in the Sky 5
Anthony cruising through Island in the Sky
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