05/26/10 - La Sal Forest & Geyser Pass, Moab, Ut
La Sal National Forest
After our picnic the peaks started calling us - so we headed up to Geyser Pass



Forest Road
 Today we left with no particular destination in mind. The wind was blowing a little down here and so we decided to just head up into the La Sal National Forest and have an explore. As we headed up the La Sal loop we spotted a forest road that looked interesting so we decided to check it out. It was a pretty good road with, rock in spots, but nothing seriously challenging. 
Rocky Road

But there was enough to keep it interesting so I was having a ball and the honey was hanging on. I havent figured out for sure if she enjoys the bouncing, but I know she's enjoying the sights and I guess the bouncing is the price you pay for getting to them.  :))

I did spot something in a Wrangler the other day that I think would help, don't know why they didn't get it into the Hummer. That's a long handle over the glove box on the passenger side. Would give her something better to hold on to. I'll have to see what I can do along those lines.

Scouting the road ahead

and of course there were a few spots where I needed to check the road ahead to be sure I wasn't getting myself in trouble.

Picnic at an old campfire circle We evenually found an old camping spot and decided it looked like a good place for our picnic. Those chairs are coming in handy :)

We also enjoyed the fauna, and critters -
Flower of the day          Critter of the day

You'll need to blow these two up to see them :)) We did spot Bambi on the road one day and have caught a few other passing glances, but still waiting to get a picture.
Back to the main road.
 After lunch we debated between following the road we were on a little further to see where it went or heading back out to the main road to see what else we could find. Returning to the big road won the toss - we couldn't decide so we used our tradional method of decision making and tossed a coin. When we don't have a coin the alternate method is I'll pick on in my head for heads or tails and then Sheila will call it -

This pic was on the way back out to the pavement.
Looking back on the road to Geyser Pass
 As we continued up the La Sal Loop we saw a sign for Geyser Pass and decided to check it out. It was a really good road, a dirt road, but one of those graded gravel/hard pack type roads that you can do at a good pace.

This shot is looking back down the mountain at the road behind us.
Snow on the road
 Around 9000 feet we started seeing some snow on the road. Nothing we couldn't wade through at that point so we pushed on.
Ice Pack
 But we didn't get too far before it turned serious. You can't really see it from this shot but up in the shady part this got about 15 inches or so deep. There was a piece of log dropped into the run where a previous wheeler had apparently gotten stuck and jacked it up to get the log under his tire to get him going again.

Discretion being the better part of valor we decided that we'd quit a little short of the pass and head back the way we'd come as I wasn't in the mood to have to 'winch out' - and besides I don't have a winch :0 (yet).
On the way home This shot was on the way back down the hill. Gives you an idea of how nice the road was - and yet another shot of the Moab area from up on high - been a lot of those this month.

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