Tuesday, April 18/2017

Today's ride took us to Hotel Rock.  This will be our third ride on this trail.  The first time was several years ago on a Jeep Jamboree and the second time was only a few years ago when we did it ourselves with Kermit (the side by side we currently own).  Today, we will be taking Kay to show her the sights and wonders of true Southern Utah!!
Hotel Rock Trail is a 14 mile round trip trail.  Now 14 miles does not seem like a long trip or a long day but believe me......it is an all day affair.  It consists of steep rock climbs, narrow dirt and rock surfaces, sandy wash areas and LOTS of off camber spots.  There are also a few hazardous sections that one needs to pay attention to or one could find themselves in a whole heap of trouble.  It is not so much a deadly trail but one that would prove very difficult to get a damaged quad out of.  Caution is advised.  Oh, and it is rough too cause there is about a million rocks and stair steps to navigate!!
It is said to be the most challenging trail in the Blanding, Utah area.  The trail itself runs up Little Baullie Mesa beside Arch Canyon and ends at Hotel Rock - one of the easily accessible ancient Anasazi Ruins in the area.  Trail markers consist of rock cairns (stacks of rocks) to mark your way.  One can easily follow the rubber marks left on the slick rock from previous vehicles along the way as well.
We accessed the trail and immediately started up the face of the rock.  It would be an up hill climb for most of the way.  Kay's stress level rose with each rough section and rock we had to climb over!!  It was pretty damn rough but she did great.  It was only twice, where John had to walk back and ride Henrietta over some sort of insurmountable obstacle!!  Together, Kay and I and Henrietta followed John and Booko over the rough terrain until FINALLY we got to the top and entered and much more agreeable terrain.  Basically flat grassland that eventually led us to Hotel Rock.
The end destination is truly a step back in time.  Nestled beneath a huge ledge, sits what remains of ancient ruins.  They truly are incredible to see and to be able to actually check out the windows, doors and walls of the structures is fantastic.  The one thing you come away with is that these ancient peoples must have been quite short as the structures themselves could not have been any more than four, maybe four and a half feet tall.  Wow......incredible.
All things must come to an end and it was soon time to tackle the trail back.  We really had no issues on the way back but for the two spots that John had to once again take Henrietta down.  He had agreed to do this before we even started today so that was good.
Back in camp, we sat around the campfire and shared tales of today's adventure.  Kay did great and was more than pleased with herself to have conquered what I would class as a 10 trail!!
Booko was quite tired after bouncing around in the quad and was more than happy to crawl up into a lawn chair and sleep, leaving the cats to check out the campsite unharrassed!

Trail starts going straight up

Beverage at the base of Hotel Rock

Almost down

 Life is Good!!