It’s a long way down and a bumpy road…

More from Moab, even though I am technically back in town…my brain is still on vacation.

After our whitewater rafting expedition (I AM HOOKED…that’s all you really need to know), of which there are no pictures online because all we had was a cheap underwater camera and no good action shots because we were paddling, we still had the better part of a day to enjoy Moab. So we decided to go off-roading in the Jeep. The appeal of driving a car over rocks must be a male thing. But I’ll admit that the appeal of not hiking while still seeing cool stuff was enough for me.

There has been a battle between me and The Photographer over giving credit for photos (he likes to steal mine, too!) and whether the photographer or the editor should be getting credit…so let me just say there’s a mix in this entry…we’ll leave it at that.

We found an easy trail, which is actually technically a dirt road for the most part, out to a landmark, Gemini Bridges. The Gemini Bridges are twin bridges formed by arches, much like these ones. They’re fairly large and after you’ve driven to the sort of trailhead, you can hike farther in to see them and you can actually walk over them. Although, you should be careful—all the guidebooks and maps warned to watch for “children and foolish adults” near the edge…There is about a ten-foot gap between them and it’s approximately 100 feet from the top to the bottom of the arches (although The Photographer and I were guessing the bottom of the canyon is probably 200 feet).

So there they are. And you can get on top of them and look down. And if you don’t have a healthy fear of heights, you might develop one. Below is the view of the bottom from the top…it gave me vertigo and I didn’t have the guts to get close enough to the edge. Neither did The Photographer. Actually, it didn’t take us long to decide that we'd like the view from the bottom better…

Now there I am looking up. That hole thing isn’t the bridges. Just a hole.

And below is The Photographer. You have to look pretty closely to find him. This gives you an idea of scale…and what was crazy was that we were totally alone. There were a few people coming in at the top when we were leaving and a few others leaving the canyon as we hiked in, but we pretty much had the place to ourselves. And it was one of those places where you look around and there is no sign of civilization for miles. Literally, not even a power line.

This next one is for my nerds. It’s the Starship Enterprise in natural rock formation. Seriously.

The view through the windshield…

And again…the first part of the road was winding, rocky, and fairly narrow. It also had a wicked drop-off on one side and pretty much no margin for error. I may have gripped the door handle the whole way up.  But it was scenic.

Gooney Bird Rock is the major landmark on the way in. And it does look like a Gooney Bird. Someone did an excellent naming job…

It’s crazy to be alone in silence amongst such enormous natural formations. It sort of makes you consider your place in the world in a different way.

And it’s fun to explore.