Day9

Escalante to Blanding Utah

         Up Lost Creek, thru Death Box Hollow, Over Hell's Backbone Bridge, Burr Trail, Wolverine Loop Trail, Across Colorado and on into Blanding.

       After a hearty breakfast next door to our Motel in Escalante we headed North toward "Death Box Hollow" on a blacktop road that turned to dirt. On our way we went by several of these irrigation devices. I thought it made a great picture in the early morning sun.
          This is a view off of Devils's Backbone Bridge in the Death Box Hollow area. Pretty rugged country. I don't think we'll try riding down there. 
       This is a view off the other side of the bridge. We finally ended up going back through Boulder town.
       We eventually ended back on the Burr Trail going East down one switch back after another and caught a side trail called the "Wolverine Loop Trail".
          This is on the Wolverine Loop Trail and this picture shows us riding right in a wash. I never looked it up in the dictionary or asked anybody----but it seemed to me a wash is a creek or river that only has water in it when it rains heavily, or floods. Otherwise they are as dry as a bone which I think they stay most of the time. In fact, I never did see any water in any of them---but Utah was in the middle of a serious drought.
         These were some neat rocks above the Wolverine Loop Trail.
        I had a hoot riding out on this slick rock. I had to be careful where I was going as there were many crevasses. I am jumping over a little one right here. A bigger one almost caught me off guard, which would have resulted in a serious endo.
         As we were riding down the trail, I noticed on my GPS that there was a spring on the right not very far off the trail----"Jackass Spring". Who knows the story behind that name ?????  It's so dry and barren everywhere, so the little bit of green here really stood out and was a pretty sight.
          We had lunch here right by Jack Ass spring---well not too close as there was cow shit everywhere around the spring.
        Here we are at Hyte, getting close to a bridge to cross the Colorado river and head East to Blanding. Look closely at the beautiful bridge. Right here I figured we had about 80 miles to go to Blanding with only about 70 miles worth of gas. There was nothing to do but go on.

      

        We lucked out right across the bridge as there was a gas station close to the marina at Hyte. We were their last customer before they closed up. Somebody was looking out for us again !!!!!
      We had to burn up the road all the way to Blanding as it was much to late in the day for any trail riding and still get to a motel. This was the only time during our trip that we rode a paved road like this for any length.

Day 10        I promised Kenny a nice relaxing, cool ride back to Moab------it was not to be !!!