Colors of the Grand Staircase

The story continues through the grand Staircase Wilderness....
After we made it relatively easily through the puddle, we had another 15 miles to Escalante. We had climbed canyons, crossed rivers and plowed our way through muddy puddles - nothing could stop us now.

That is when we saw a big white Dodge Ram truck coming towards us, the first car we had seen along the 74 miles. The driver of the truck was signaling for us to stop. I figured he wanted to know the road conditions. We both rolled down our windows. It was the ranger wanting to know where we came from and when. We gave him a brief description of our adventure and expected to continue driving on our merry way when he said, "You can't go any farther." I laughed, didn't he realize all the obstacles we already past? He suggested we go back which was impossible since we knew we couldn't go up the steep wet sandy river bank we slide down into the river bed about 20 miles back.

That is when he offered to help us go through the 10-12 areas of quick sand that we had to pass through in the wash. I again thought it couldn't be that bad. The first area we came to needed a little digging out so we didn't bottom out as we drove through the rutted road. We also need to stay right away from the undermined wash out on the left side of the road. Piece of cake!

A mile or two later we came to a long deep rutted area of wet sloppy sand. Lots of digging need here. The ranger suggested we try another road. So we followed him to another river bed. This area was wetter and deeper. Hummmm!!! He then drove his truck back and forth trying to dry out the river bed for us. He was doing a fine job until he drove a little to the left and buried the truck up the the axle as he tried to maneuver out of the hole he got himself in.

That is when we decided it would be much smarter to spend the night in the wilderness again and hope the wash dries out a bit.

So we set up camp on a flat rock looking down valley to a gorgeous view and built a camp fire.

The next day the ranger arrived and we had to dig out a bit and drive through another large mud puddle but pretty much we drove out relatively easy. The car is dirty up to the windows and we both needed a shower but we were 'rescued'!!!


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