The dawn of our second day, the chill in the air as I wander around snapping images of this morning. Movement was stirring among our group as they woke up to this beautiful day.
Bryan & Susan Lavender:
"The Park Service has a permit
system that limits the number of people on the trail on any given day and keeps
the competition for campsites from being an issue. You don’t have to worry
about finding a spot to camp at the end of the day because you know your
campsite is reserved and waiting for you. There aren’t may campsites along the
way, which combined with the limited number of daily permits, results in a
wilderness experience that features NO crowds. So all that vast expanse of
beautiful country and there is nobody jostling your elbow to take a selfie!
Perfect!"
Kevin
and Linda MacAfee:
"The
road was slow going given recent storms but we made great progress, stopping
often for photos. We ran into a few vehicles traveling the opposite
direction who advised that the road towards the end at Hardscrabble was in very
bad shape and probably not passable by full size trucks with campers."
Along the way the Lavender's photograph a small arch that even I had missed during the last 5 journeys on this magnificent trail and one shouldn't overlook the different forms of life in the surrounding area, even the small ones.
White Rim Trail holds many challenges for us truck campers especially hardside campers. With the weight of our rigs up high extra attention has to be done on the truck suspension to counter the sway of that weight moving around up high. A week before our WRT adventure another storm had rolled through the "Island in the Sky" region making the trail more interesting!
Entering Buck Canyon area one can see Washer Woman Arch and Monster Tower in the distance (above). WRT would take us very close to these natural wonders and a off camber section that I personally call "The Big Tilt" (video below)
After the "Big Tilt" Kevin took over as the lead vehicle, his rig is setup to travel this type of trail much better than the rest of us. We were well within the Monument Basin area
A few more rocky miles we crossed paths with a fellow off roader.
Our group stopped awhile to gather some more information about the Hardscrabble shelf road. It appears that the shelf road has several wash out on the road that our rigs may not be able to navigate.
After a few more miles our group arrived at Gooseberry campsite, it was time to stretch and get some of the road bumps out of our bodies.
After a bit of walking around, workin the some of the knots out it was time to get down the tail. We still had to make Murphy's campsite by day ends
My personal thanks to Bryan & Susan Lavender and Kevin & Linda MacAfee, John & Vickie for the permission to use some of their photos and their thoughts during our time on the WRT.
