Top "O" The World To You

No, not Everest...but the road is Top of the World Road in Utah, and you'll feel like you're on Everest. My hope was to get there before sunset. We had done this "sanctioned" jeep trail many years ago in our jeep and always wanted to come back and camp. That was before I invented the internet with my friend Al Gore and you had to research by book or talking to someone. In this case it was a Search & Rescue guy from Moab. The views were SPECTACULAR! However we had forgotten how rough the road was. And the pix just don't tell the story. It took almost 2 hours to make the last 4 miles. At 2 points I had to take a chapter from friend Don Curly's book "Road Building 101" and "build" a road. Thank goodness the mud was minimal after our last trip even though there was enough to make the harder sections of rock steps a bit slippery and challenging.. There was 1 section where the advanced road building techniques didn't help & I added my own footnote to the book. "If all else fails place foot A on to gas pedal B and push to floor. Hold there until you have a feeling of weightlessness. You have achieved liftoff. After settling back to earth on the other side of obstacle, get out to inspect damage." In a Ford or Dodge that would be damage to the vehicle. In a GMC that would be damage to the rocks, road, trees, etc. In this case, after the dust settled, I did check my GPS enabled altimeter to find we had lowered the height of the entire mountain by 3 feet! That would explain why the trip down was much faster... I also discovered that being in a longer wheel base vehicle there is more metal on rock noise that makes my wife put her face in her hands. Silly girl. I heard friend "Boatycall" in the back of my mind saying "Crank it up" and so found the best way to put my wife at ease was to drowned out the sound of skid plates on rock with extremely loud music. We did make it just before sunset and there was much rejoicing...after the motion sickness passed. (All that rocking back and forth, whoa) I feel certain to be the first full size truck & camper to Top of the World. There was only one place level enough to camp and of course it was not taken. We woke to cloudy skies and that familiar feeling of foreboding. In minutes we were wrapped in clouds and it was snowing heavy. Honestly it was like someone turned on the snow machine. It lasted about 2 hours and just before we left, the clouds cleared in time for my camera to take some great shots. The gods were with us again. The trip down was uneventful except for one pucker moment when sliding sideways in snow to a rock ledge of about 3 feet that would not kill us but definitely put us on the ground sideways. I learned a long time ago to fight natural instincts and let go of the brake to let the wheels roll. Thankfully it worked again and catastrophe was averted.  After making it back to pavement we were headed to an RV park where I knew a Dodge and 2 Fords all with Outfitters were staging for their own expedition. So we dropped by to meet Don Curly, Nemo667 and Steve_in_29. We missed Don who had not arrived yet but were glad to meet Steve & Nemo, terrific guys, and their wives. I can see now how this forum, rv.net, can be so much fun in the outside world. Howevere when asked by Steve why we never camped with friends I had to explain that being a red-headed step-child came with a price, no friends, and that I've learned to enjoy being solo. I mean where's the thrill of possibly getting stuck if there's someone there to pull you out. I enjoyed their sense of humor also, as much was made of my "little 3/4 ton Jimmy" compared to their mega 1 ton Fords. It was funny though, as we were leaving, to look back in time to see them both putting bright red GMC emblems over their Ford insignias! I had a feeling they might wish to have "the real thing" before their trip was over. I also wondered...did Don have his GMC emblem with him on his Dodge? So from there we headed for Muley Point overlooking Monument Valley from about 25 miles away. Again, no mud! Headed back to Phoenix we have always wanted to see the Grand Falls of the Little Colorado River that flow only March thru June on a wet year. Otherwise the river is dry at this point. These falls are in the middle of nowhere on the Navajo Indian Reservation! We were grateful to see them at full flow, the water looking like liquid chocolate. After getting home and catching up on the newspaper I was startled to see an article from Moab, Utah."Geologists are puzzled as to a tectonic shift north of Onion Creek and east of Fisher Towers in an area not known for recent movement in over one million years. An entire plateau has effectively been lowered by several feet." My wife and I smiled. I wonder what the scientists will say when we make it back for some 4wheeling in the Colorado Rockies. I plan to lower some of those 14 thousand ft. peaks to around 13 thousand! *Side note: Those of you in the eastern half of Arizona feeling earth movement the weekend of March 29th, I'll be 4wheelin up Cherry Creek Road to some 900 year old ruins, and just putting my pedal to the metal! Thanks for reading, Dave Rogers Originally posted on rv.net 3/20/08