Day 41 – A day in Boulder

Rest day! And a rest day in the middle of nowhere, so it was extra restful.

Here’s Bobby entertaining JP and our extra biker before we head out for a morning of sightseeing.

The ride south out of Boulder on the way to Escalante is amazing… and also puzzling. The road is totally insane. It’s unclear to me why anyone would build a road through this canyon. There’s a part of it about 1/2 mile long that is right on top of a knife edge ridge line. 2 lanes wide, no guardrail, no shoulder… just a thousand foot drop on either side. Seriously, THERE SHOULD BE A TEST GIVEN TO DRIVERS BEFORE THEY CAN DRIVE THIS ROAD. I barely trust oncoming drivers in normal situations. When those oncoming drivers are trying to avoid a huge cliff, I’m even more skeptical of their ability.

Anyhoo, we made it the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park just outside of Escalante without incident. They had a lot of petrified wood there, though you’ll notice the MCC was more interested in hanging out down by the lake than going on any hikes with us.

There are a lot of fast, 4 legged things in this neck of the woods. Some are mammals, but a few are reptiles. This little guy was hanging out with us in the petrified forest.

Even Dax got in on some of the hiking action.

The view from the trail going up to the petrified forest was impressive (as are many views around here).

After the hike, the boys and I did some more fly fishing. Their mechanics of fly casting is getting much better. However, that still didn’t yield any fish. The fishing in the lake was supposed to be good, but we totally got skunked.

This overlook outside of Escalante gives an amazing view of the Grand Staircase National Monument. As JP says, it’s like a buffer overflow for your brain. Again, it’s hard to wrap your head around how vast a view this really is.

Check out the road in the distance. Seriously, this canyon goes on forever.

Overall it was a very restful rest day. We ate, we hiked, we hung out in hammocks. Tomorrow, we ride again.