New Year's Day Trip

New Year's Day was just beautiful (sunny but cold) so we got up early and decided a drive was in order. We decided to up the Potash Road just outside of Moab and go to Chicken Flats which is supposed to be a fairly easy to moderate four wheel drive. Since the roads are still snow packed and icy in the areas where the sun doesn't hit and we haven't made it above freezing but a day or two we thought this would be OK. Along the Potash Road we say a sign that said Jug Handle Arch and this is what we saw. We had never heard of this one before so were excited to see it. There was a sign for parking so we pulled in and took several shots. Then we noticed another sign further in and it read Longs Canyon so we looked it up in our book and it said it was an easy drive and most 2-wheel drives could make it. So we decided to go there instead.
Along the canyon we came to several icy and snow packed places and several places we would NOT take a car. The views were just awesome. We were really glad we decided to come here. The rock balanced in the center really caught our attention. Then...
as we drove further down the canyon we discovered the rock from another angle and were really surprised!
We came to this rock tunnel and I got out to take the picture and almost fell. The road leading up to the tunnel was nothing but ice. Even Rick admitted in some of the really narrow places the ruts were pretty bad and slick. With the canyon drop off on my side of the FJ, yes, I was a bit nervous at times when we slid a little.

Rick got out and took this shot of the tunnel after we had been thru. You can see all the snow and ruts in the road. And this was a nice wide place and not too bad of a drop off. When this road ended we were at Utah 313 which goes to Dead Horse Point State Park and so we went there. It had really changed since the last time we had been there. It is much improved. However, the sun was at the wrong angle for good photos (although we took some anyway). I'm just not posting them. All in all, we had a lovely morning and then went back to Moab for lunch. Those of you who know us know we love to eat at a place on the Oregon Coast called LeRoy's Blue Whale. I love their finger steaks there. Well, the Golden Stake Restaurant here in Moab also does finger steaks! Not quite as good as LeRoy's, but at least I can get them here and I really enjoyed them. You know we'll be eating there again.