When we visited Stan and Melanie a couple of months ago, the idea to drive the White Rim Road in Canyonlands National Park was born. It was something that we could do in the truck and we wanted to try out the desert “Camp Life” that Stan and Melanie love to do. The actual White Rim Road in 71 miles long, and by the time you add in the other connecting roads and side spurs, it was around 100 miles total for the drive start to finish. A lot of people spread the drive over three days and camp twice. With campground availability and how our trip worked out, we did the drive in two days, starting on Mineral Bottom road, proceeding counter clockwise, and camping at Potato Bottom Campground.

The week before the trip, Stan sent me this ominous forecast. Needless to say, we were a bit nervous about the heat. We figured we’d be okay during the heat of the day while driving with the AC in the truck, but were worried about sleeping. In addition to packing up basically the whole house for the camping trip, we also loaded up with a ton of water and made a quick stop at Walmart on the way out of town for some battery powered fans for sleeping.

We left home in the afternoon and made it to our campsite at Potato Bottom campground late in the evening where we met up with Stan and Melanie and their kids. It was really incredible approaching the canyon and then eventually dropping in. Really, the entire drive was a constant surprise of beautiful vistas and majestic landscape. It was also fun driving it the way we did, starting at Mineral Bottom Road and ending with Shafer Trail as it seamed that Mother Nature just kept upping the ante more and more impressive sights until the very end.

I love this before and after. So, so tired in the previous picture, and very much refreshed in this picture.

It was just a short little walk down to Green River from our campsite. The power of the water is remarkable. The power to carve out vast landscapes and the power to bring life to the desert.

Day 2, the big drive. Stan and Mel’s Land Cruiser was so iconic here in this landscape. We really had a lot of fun watching them drive.

At the Black Crack, a fissure in the rock extending down to the next layer of rock 65 feet below.

Wow, what an exhilarating experience to get this picture of a Desert Bighorn Sheep. We took a spur road out to the White Crack campground. I was the first one out to the canyon rim to take a look around. With my new Sony camera in hand, I was fixated on the approaching view and finding the perfect spot to take some pictures when I heard a scraping sound to my side. I looked over and quickly saw the source – a Desert Bighorn Sheep standing about 50 feet away. My first reaction was to whip up the camera and get a picture. I managed to get just two shots in before my next reaction kicked in. What I realized I was seeing through the camera was the ram pawing the rock and looking an awful lot like he was going to ram me. We a great rush of adrenaline heightening my actions, I grabbed the nearest rock and yelled, waved my arms, and prepared for the worst. Thankfully the ram decided to abort any further confrontation and spoked away to the side away from me and the canyon. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was directly in his exit path down the canyon and was blocking his retreat.

After walking an arc around me for a bit, he was coming around towards my direction again and he began an an aggressive trot. Again, my adrenaline peaked and I cut the camera and prepared my rock. However, to my absolute surprise, he didn’t come for me, he went straight towards the canyon rim and vaulted off.

I ran round to see where he went, and there he was, heading down his trail on the canyon wall. I found where he vaulted off, and was amazed to see that he did a 15-20 foot drop down to the trail. What an incredible experience. I am so glad that we were able to work things out without a fight.

After the ram was gone and my pulse returned to normal, I was able to enjoy the vista again. Off in the distance was the Needles, which is another part of the Canyonlands park. Sometime we’ll need to go explore over there too.

I was playing around trying to cut some of the haze from the picture and ended up with this effect.  Not what I was originally going for, but I though it came out pretty cool.

Here is the whole view from the canyon rim at White Crack. It’s just so vast.

You could turn this into a great background for a quote.

This is about how we all felt. This far into day 2, we realized why many people camp for two nights on this road.

Below us are canyons within canyons within canyons, all while we’re in a canyon. No wonder they call this Canyonlands.

Here we are at the beginning of the end, climbing out of the canyons up the famous Shafer Trail road. This was awesome.

Wow, what a drive. That was incredible. Pavement has never felt so smooth either. In the end, the heat was manageable and I didn’t feel like it had any real negative effect on the trip. On the contrary, I think it actually helped out. We pretty much had the road to ourselves and we never had to make any sketchy passes with other vehicles. After finishing the drive, we headed into Moab for the night and enjoyed a shower and air conditioned room. The next morning, we did a quick drive with Stan and Mel up the Colorado river, then it was time to head home. Stan and Mel, thanks so much for hosting us on this Camp Life adventure!