White Rim Road

We traveled the White Rim road clockwise camping and exploring some side trips over the course of a week.

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Island in the Sky - White Rim Rd

3-10 September 2023

Four-wheel truck camper trip with Alan Whittern.

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We departed Alan's house and drove across Colorado to a location on BLM land overlooking the Shafer Trail down toward the Colorado River. The lunch break was at the Slope and Hatch taco/hot dog restaurant in Glenwood Spgs. We passed three vehicles on the final jeep road to tonight's campsite stopped due to a difficult point in the road. Turned out they were Korean's living in L.A..

A short walk in three directions from the campsite placed one at the top of several hundred foot cliffs affording spectacular views.

Alan cooked dinner every night on the trip.

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We stopped briefly at the Island in the Sky visitor center. The displays were very marginal. Then after a stop to look down upon the Shafer Trail switchbacks we headed down the road ourselves. It's one of the more breathtaking roads as it winds down a very steep slope. One switchback required Alan to back up once. Once down on the White Rim rock formation we turned right onto the road that we would follow for the next week. the Shafer trail continues to eventually lead to Moab. The White Rim Road stitches in and out around the deep canyons cut through the White Rim formation and penetrating deeper formation like the Organ.

We stopped at the second campsite of the trip, Airport C. Here Alan introduced me to the 'Star Link Caterpillar' as it rose just to the right of Airport Tower. Star link is a internet connection service incorporating thousands of small satellite. Once launched as a group, they slowly disperse in orbits to provide coverage from and to ground based user antennas. Shortly after launching when the satellites are still in close proximity they form a string of reflectors at sunset intriguingly visible as the 'caterpillar' races across the sky before dipping into the shadow of the earth. The event makes for quite a celestial eye candy display.

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A relatively short bouncy drive of 9 miles brought us to the next campsite at Gooseberry. I decided to hike up the Gooseberry trail to the park road 1500 feet above out camp. I then hiked out the White Rim Overlook to obtain a 270 degree view of the surrounding canyon lands.

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Another relatively short drive passed Monument Basin with the pillars of the Organ formation capped by blocks of the harder White Rim formation. We turned south at the junction to arrive at the White Crack campground; a single only campsite.

A large group of mountain bikers on conventional and electric bikes guided by a company called 'Escape' arrived to have lunch. They were on a five day trip to complete the 100 mile White Rim Road loop.

The arid nature of this place imprints on everything. Few animals live here. The individual plants grow separated with barren soil between them. The plants crunch brittle under a gentle squeeze. Dust coats the inside of the tent pervasively. The dryness forms the beauty and the threat of this land.

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Short drive to the Murphy campsite. Hung out. I walked about looking over the cliffs. Alan spotted the Star Link 'caterpillar' - our fourth viewing of it in four days.

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Long drive day of 32 miles to Taylor campsite. Passed adventure motorcyclist who asked about the road ahead; I believe the sand was giving him challenges. Stopped at Black Crack - couple feet wide, but very deep and 'black'. Walked to edge overlooking Green River. Two canoeists just happened to float by at the same time. We waived and said hello with them below us several hundred feet. Did a short 'canyoneering' scramble of maybe 50 meters. Drive over the Hardscrabble section meeting a pickup truck and mountain bikers on the ascent fortunately at the wide spot. Walked part way out Fort ... trail. Hamburgers for dinner. Felt hot at Taylor campsite. I took shelter for a spell under a larger fallen boulder below the pit toilet. Watched the stars come out.

Spotted a bobcat, brown with short tail, as we descended from Fort ... stop toward Green River. The bobcat took off toward the river and the dense tamarisk. Saw two female bighorn sheep with their yews.

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We cut our own path through the wilderness today. We managed to hike from the camp at Taylor to a rim looking toward Upheaval Dome. It involved route finding up through the shear cliffs of the Wingate formation. Fortunately the exposure we faced was only minimal. The round trip distance was about 9 miles and the elevation gain 1600ft. The small side canyon that we climbed out of had a spring at it's base. An old road came to the spring and some abandoned equipment remained there.

In the evening, Alan flew his drone around the stone pillars named Moses and Zeus.

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We broke camp and drove up from the White Rim formation back onto the Island-in-the-Sky to return home.