Slick Rock Hummer Tour

Monday - 28 March 2005 - Arches National Park, Utah: Good evening from a very tired girl! We had a great day - DT and I spent the morning and afternoon with my parents. I had to find a post office to ship my orders, Mom had a broken nail, and we had to have lunch in town! Steve, Kris, Michael & Delaney went on a ranger-lead hike through the Fiery Furnace area of Arches National Park. We all met later back at the campground and they told us about walking between narrow gorges - having to brace themselves between sheer rock walls to follow the ranger on his tour. They loved the hike!
Kris had arranged for us all to take a Sunset Tour in a Hummer through Highpoint Tours over the Slick Rock! It sounded like a great idea. AT THE TIME! Our handsome and experienced guide gave us a safety speech and then drove us carefully through the little town of Moab, up to Slick Rock and then proceeded to drive us straight up the side of a cliff! Remember a few days back when I was whining about the 6%-grade on the mountain pass? Well, never mind! Today, we went on several 65% grades. I don't know how the Hummer does it, it is like the wheels are made of sticky glue or something - it simply went up and up and up!

< Delaney poses for DT

The first climb was, in fact, up a "spine" - imagine driving up and over the arch from above! Delaney was terrified and wanted to go back! (Two hours later, she was crying for more and has decided to buy a Hummer!) Seriously, I was wondering what the hell we were thinking - riding in a Hummer over sheer rock walls? And we were paying for this??

Our "road" today. Yes, we went straight up this rock...


... then straight over this cliff!

At the top of the first "cliff" we stopped to look at the views and our Highpoint Tours guide showed us a dinosaur footprint. He said it was an Alosaurus print and Delaney knew all about this sort of Dinosaur, of course.
 
When we reached the top of a ridge, a huge gust of wind blew DT's (UO Duck) baseball hat off his head and off into the slick rock. We all figured it was lost, but after we crested the top of the hill, we could see the cap caught-up on a rock. The driver stopped the Hummer and DT hopped out to fetch his hat. Just as he reached it, another gust of wind carried it off into a crevasse - where it remains to this day.

We reached Sunset Point just before the sun set. From this point, you can see west over the entire town of Moab, the fertile valley surrounding town and see the beautiful, and very full, Colorado River head into a gorge towards Lake Powell, 125 miles away. The La Sal Mountains to the east are covered with snow and the sun was shining on the red rocks and it was a glorious sight.

The view north from Sunset Point - photo by DT

Then we had to go down! Egads! At several points, our Guide actually told us to tighten our seatbelts and he gunned it like mad over a sandy straight-away he called the "Dipsy Doodle" - a mad series of up-and-down moguls. It was spine-crushing. Mom banged her head on the roll-bar, Kris and DT (in the back seat) nearly went air borne - and when we finished, Delaney said "Let's do that again!". Anyway, no one was hurt and we all survived this fabulous experience - but we were all exhausted after our little Sunset Drive! If you are ever in Moab, I highly recommend a Hummer tour and we also recommend Highpoint Tours. After the tour, we were all starving and covered in red dirt! We went to the Moab Brewery and had a delicious dinner and will call it an early night.

RV Park: Arch View Resort RV Camp Park