My morning started with a quiet drive up 313 at 5am to watch the sunrise up in Dead Horse Point. Walked outside and waved the at Milky Way in the sky, drove around some free range cattle and arrived at my point of interest with 2 minutes to spare. My companion chose to sleep in that morning and after riding 30 hours straight with my unending caffeine filled commentary I can’t say I blame him. He also drove the third shift.

My man

There were maybe 8 people in the overlook area once the sun came up. I walked about and took some pics with my camera. Point and click practice shots. My first two were with the lens cap on.

Baby steps

After watching what may be my top 5 sunrise moments of my life I walked back in my truck and sat it in for the first time.

Real first time, in its element. Our element. I sat quietly and looked over the point it was also the first time I relaxed since we left. There’s a very common occurrence on my trips that I’m beginning to recognize.

I always encounter bad traffic on the way out but not so much the way back.

The first camping night is always the rockiest. I’m overstimulated from driving, exhausted and usually have some sort of camping malfunction or weather issue. We’ll circle back shortly.

It felt good lying there, truck wide open 50°

Drove back down the canyon hills to pick up Shane from the Airbnb and grabbed breakfast. I’m not the biggest breakfast fan it sits on my all day long but if I’m traveling one of my favorite activities is to go into town and sit down at an outdoor cafe. I get to people watch with a pastry in my mouth and a local brewed coffee. I chose the diner breakfast I’m an eggs and toast guy.

Can’t recall the name of the restaurant it seems a mainstay but it was delicious. Moab has some good food for a tourist destination.

Stopped at the local grocery to get some grub for camping, firewood, water and drove back up 313 to find a camping spot. Took a detour to drive down Potash road to check out some petroglyphs.

Tons of BLM land up here with a labyrinth of dirt and gravel roads. We camped in this area last year Shane was a big fan of the last spot we found last year so we set our sights on it again. When you consider the amount of little zigzags of trails are up here and the fact that every rock and landmark looks exactly the same it gets tough to retrace your steps up here from a year ago. We put some miles on those trails looking for it. We looked at a few other spots and I’d veto if the trails were clay filled. Rain was a guarantee that evening. I like Moab but I don’t want to sit in my truck on a trail in the middle of nowhere 3 feet in the mud. We found the spot literally as we were about to turn back. We set up camp for the first time, took an hour break from each other’s presence and then tossed a frisbee I’d bought in Moab earlier. Like good South Carolina rednecks we had a little target practice near a little ravine. Hootin’ and hollering like we were 19 years old working together at the Hyatt again. I grazed the target my first shot. Didn’t come close after that. It’s all legal out here calm your tatas.

Built a fire in a makeshift rock pit and we sat down to relax. The Utah desert winds weren’t having that shit so it blew a girthy gust through our campsite and my awning went up in the air about eight feet and the poles flew in the air like javelins. One narrowly missing Shane’s head. I jumped up to unlatch it from the rack so it wouldn’t bend up like an umbrella. We nearly lost a big heavy awning the first night. I had it bungeed and tied down at several points and Mother Nature just looked at it and said “how cute” and then blew us a windy kiss. I found my camp chair about 30 feet down the desert. For some reason at the same exact moment Shane’s phone started alarming us of a flash flood warning. It was a tad jarring. We aren’t in the paths of any floods were are camped above a ravine with about 200 yards to spare. Came real close to changing campsites. We moved the truck sideways to shield Shane’s cot tent from the wind.

Kinda happy not to have that RTT anymore. This is exactly why I changed camping rigs. The rain came at bedtime and has been steady since. Only packing we have is rolling Shane’s cot up and rolling out. Should be gravel roads all the way out. I don’t like getting stuck. My first trip to Utah my old truck got stuck in some sand at Lake Powell while pulling my trailer. I bought a 4WD the minute I got home.

Today’s itinerary will be discussed I figured the rain would shake things up we had Hanksville on our schedule but Hank is all clay off roads. Not gonna happen. At least not today. We may scoot down to Escalante and 4WD to some slot canyons. Camp and head out to Bryce and hang out.

It’s only 5:45am here my sleep patterns haven’t budge yet so I’ve been up for a while. Also forgot to buy coffee. So now I’m under stimulated.

Gonna put my headphones on and enjoy some quiet before I wake up sleeping beauty.

Cheers