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Moab is an adventure center for Utah. Based just
outside of Arches National Park, it borders large expanses of slickrock and
dramatic canyons. This is where the four wheeling and mountain biking crowd
congregate to get their ya-yas out. Every year the Jeep Jamboree calls together
over 20,000 people and machines who cause a major traffic jam on the rock. However, that wasn't this week. This week was quiet and hot, the perfect time to take a morning 4x4 tour of the lands in a HumVee. |
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We were all a little taken aback when we showed up in the morning and saw this mating of an open top bus and Hummer. It seats twelve plus the driver. Undetered (well, slightly detered), we jumped aboard and headed out to the rock.
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The first part of the trail took us straight up the top edge of a "fin." A rock fin looks just like a shark fin, it is a vertical slab of rock, in this case just a few feet wider than the Hummer. The picture on the left is of that fin during our return from the outback. The black trail has been created by scores of tires following the same path. Why doesn't anyone take another route you ask? No you don't ask that, you are aware of the obvious. |
The next image shows the trail heading off into the distance. The gaps between the marks are pretty steep. Now, I'm not sure what all the HumVees and H2s are doing in Atherton, but it was very impressive to see what one can do when pressed into real service. Not shown in the pictures here are the walls that our driver would make the vehicle crawl over. I do have that on tape, though, so if you'd like to come by after we get home I'd be happy to show you the video. |
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The final picture on the page is at the far end of the tour, right before we turned around to come back. We stopped atop a cliff overlooking the Colorado River. Eric is about 4" taller than Kevin, but the slope of the rock makes them look the same height - about 500' taller than the river. We ended up liking the bus factor of the Hummer. If you look at the second picture on the page you can see Kevin in the front seat and Sarah and Eric in top front row seats. The view up there was great. They accused me of not wanting to ride down that steep part of the trail, but I really just wanted to run ahead to get the picture. Really. I did. Remember, each of these pictures is linked to a larger version if you want to see them in more detail. |