Meeting Van after work and performing the gear transfer before heading for destination Hite Marina, Lake Powell. This is where we will launch north on a jeep road into the Maze district of Canyonlands National Park. The Maze is considered the most remote part of the park. I must agree. Price of admission is 50 miles of rocky nasty road.
This is Van waking up in Hotel Hite. I think it dropped to 30 degrees during the night. Seriously.
Cruising the good section of road out of Hite. It teases you a bit.
Our first real glance of the Maze and we climbed a big mesa north. This would be the souther end of the Maze. Our destination was Maze overlook.
From the overlook, we parked the bikes, changed into hike gear and made our way down into the canyon bottom 600 feet below. I was fascinated by these formations which later served as the ultimate landmark to find our way back out.
Once in the bottom, we hiked the "Harvest Scene" pictograph panel. The lighting was terrible, but sometimes you don't have much control when you have a schedule to keep. I think Van counted 16 of these "people" painted on the wall by the ancient ones.
This was my favorite. Notice the cool googles and claws.
To give you an idea of size, here's Van posing by the "morphs".
7 miles of hiking later, we arrived at the top of the overlook. Notice the famous "chocolate drops" in the distance. The Harvest scene is located on the other side of these.
On our way out of the Maze, we snapped a photo by the fee station, minus the ranger and the fee. If you want a National Park to yourself, this is a good choice for a destination. I'm certain it will be a few years before they see a shuttle system here.
A good ride is never complete without a few maintenance problems. This is called operation "pierced hole in rear tank and transfer leaking fuel to front tank". My deepest apologies to the good folks of SUWA for leaking some fuel on your precious road. Allison take note for gift ideas?
I think this was my favorite formation I saw the entire day. "The fins" were located just a few miles north of Hite.
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