Moab - Hurrah's Pass to Chicken Corners

Well the time had finally come. Judy cleaned the house, I packed the Jeep and we said "Good-bye" to the little cat who adopted us for 2 1/2 months.

We gassed up and hit the road the un-godly hour of 11 am. We retraced some of our old routes northward through Flag, Cameron, Tuba City, Kayenta, Monument Valley, Mexican Hat, Bluff, Blanding and on to Moab.

With one full day in Moab, we picked the Chicken Corners trail that was written up in our offroad book and recommended at the visitor center. The ranger from Fall River said we'd love it. Chicken Corners supposedly got its name because local guides would let "chickens" get out of the vehicle and walk around the rocks if they were too scared to stay in the vehicle as it passed between the "rocks and a hard place". The trail goes very close to a 1500 ft cliff, like the one seen in Thelma and Louise which can be seen on the other side of the Colorado.

The trail starts harmlessly enough on Kane Drive between the MacDonald's and Burger King. After passing along the Colorado and a number of nice camping areas, Judy spotted some ancient Indian rock art on a boulder at the side of the road.

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This graffiti was not mentioned in any of our trail books so I'm hoping it wasn't someone's cruel idea of a joke.

Soon after that we passed through a portal and entered into Canyonlands. There are tons of these trails for all types of people and vehicles. Canyonlands is just an immense area of plateaus, spires, rivers and, of course, canyons. Here we are at the beginning of our ride.

But the trail would quickly turn into a series of switchbacks to get us up and over Hurrah's Pass. No, this is not a ONE-WAY loop.

After driving through the switchbacks we eventually made it through Hurrah's Pass...

Once through the pass we were presented with even more stunning scenery, like this...

and this...

We never saw much signage but there really weren't too many decisions to make. Just keep going forward. When we saw this sign we felt that we were on the right path.

We made it to Chicken Corners and Judy did not "chicken out" as I slithered between a rock wall, some boulders and the edge of the cliff. This photo doesn't do it justice....

I wasn't lined up properly to squeeze through this narrow path so I did scrape my tires on the boulder on the left, the non-ledge, or driver's side. I commented to Judy that I wouldn't want to have 2 flat tires 25 miles from Moab.

We had our lunch sitting on the rock I scraped and then after a celebretory pose, we headed back to Moab.

On the return through Chicken Corners, the ledge was on the driver's side so I can appreciate what Judy went through...

We capped off the day taking a ride along the Colorado to the Red Cliff Inn for dinner. This was a terrific spot. The food was great and the scenery could not be beat.

Not a bad way to end the day.