Start Location: Moab, UT
Ending Location: Blanding, UT
Miles Today: 204
Trip Miles: 1520
States Visited: 4
National Parks Visited: 2
National Monuments Visited: 1
Low temp: 64.9° F
High Temp: 85.9° F
Min Elevation: 3923'
Max Elevation: 7255'
Route Map:
Utah Parks 2026 Day06
We had two items on our agenda today - a ride on the Potash
Road and visit Natural Bridges National Monument. Potash Road is billed
as a beautiful drive starting just 2 or 3 miles out of Moab. The road
is a 17 mile out and back ride for a total of 34 miles. It ends at a
dirt road that apparently eventually meets up with the Schafer Trail in
Canyonlands - we stopped here and turned around. The road winds it's
way between the Colorado River and towering cliffs. There is more
information on the road here. It was a very pleasant morning drive.
From
there we headed for Natural Bridges which was about a 115 mile drive.
We stopped at the Visitor Center and viewed a short video and then
headed out on the 9 mile one way loop road. Along the way we stopped at
each of the three main bridges - Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo where we
had short walks to a viewing station for each bridge. There are also
the remnants of ancient cliff dwellings called the Horse Collar Ruins
and we did a short hike to the overlook for those ruins. Unfortunately
they were far enough away that we didn't get a really good picture of
them. Here's a picture from the Internet and another one even closer.
During our time in the park we had occasional scattered rain drops but
never anything to worry about. Then, as we were only about a mile from
the Visitor Center, the skies opened up and we got soaked. At the
Visitor Center we put on our rain gear and, by the time we had it all
on, the rain stopped. We left the rain gear so that it would dry out on
the rest of the ride.
We then drove the short ride to
Blanding where we planned to stay for the night. The best we could do
was a Rodeway Inn and it was by far the worst place we stayed during
the trip. We ate at a local diner and it wasn't much better than the
Rodeway. To top it all off, there was a tour bus full or Japanese
tourists staying at the hotel and when we got to breakfast, the place
had been cleaned out. There were a few yogurts, some dry cereal and
some white bread left. It wasn't the tourists fault, the Rodeway must
have known they were going to be there and just didn't plan
accordingly. Then, when we got back to the room, we looked out our
window from where we could see the bike and a bunch of the tourists
were taking turns sitting on the bike and getting their pictures taken.
They didn't hurt anything but I would never think of doing anything
like that - especially in a foreign country. I doubt if we will stay in
Blanding again any time soon.
