Thank Our Lucky Stars: We Die In A Fiery Crash!

Almost

June 2016

Funny thing about thinking you’re going to die, you really do see your whole life flash before your eyes. At least I did. Except it wasn’t a flash. It was almost like a movie of my life playing out while I gripped the armrest of the truck.

I’ve actually lived a pretty awesome life!

Canyonlands National Park is one of the Big 5 in Utah! It is truly unique and spectacular! It looks like canyons in canyons in canyons. There’s a spot they call Island In The Sky, which is very cool!

You can't tell how incredible this place is by these pictures! It's almost unreal looking!

Us before we knew we were almost going to die!

There’s also a “little trail” with a sign that says Four Wheel Drive Recommended. RECOMMENDED? That sign should say

ATVs ONLY!!!

ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!

TURN BACK NOW BEFORE YOU DIE!!!!!

Larry was feeling adventurous! Heading into the park we saw the sign that pointed to the off road trail. He asked a ranger about it. He said, “Oh yeah, it’s an easy little trail, this truck will do it without a problem.” Sick, lying, bastard!

For the first few miles of the trail it was a flat gravel road winding through some pretty awesome rocks. Then we took the first switchback down the cliff! It was a road so narrow the outside tire of our duly truck was NOT on the ground in many places. It was a 2,500 foot shear cliff AND it was supposed to be a 2 lane road! By the time we knew what we were in for it was too late to go back up! We got to some switchbacks that I had to get out of the truck and help him maneuver through in 3 or 4 back and forth moves! I cursed that stupid ranger all the way down! We saw a small car coming up while we were going down and pulled over at the next switchback to allow them to pass. A few switchbacks later in the middle of the straight part we saw another truck coming up. He was close to a switchback so we expected him to pull over. HE DIDN’T!!!! We saw he was close to a sort of wide spot and expected him to pull over there! HE PASSED IT UP!!!! He saw us coming and just kept right on heading for us! We got nose to nose and stopped. We sat there for a minute with him honking and motioning with his arm for us to go around him. ON THE CLIFF SIDE! Larry got out of the truck and went to talk to him. He was drunk!!!! He expected us to either go around him right there or back up all the way up to the switchback! NO WAY!!! Larry asked why he didn’t just pull over at the switchback. He said it was our responsibility to pull over because we were going down. We were passed the switchback before we even saw him!!! He kept saying, “Just go around me!” Yeah right! Around him and down a 1,200 foot drop! They talked for a while and Larry agreed to back up a short distance to a place where WE would pull close to the non-cliff side and HE could go around us! He did and I was sure he was either going to scrape our truck as he passed or go over the cliff! I kept my phone on video mode just in case! He came within less than an inch of us and I’m quite sure at least one of his tires was off the road but he did it! Both our windows were open. I could have reached out and punched him in the face! I didn’t!

We made it down to the bottom of the canyon on all 6 wheels… alive! The plan was to drive back to Moab on the flat 4-wheel drive trail so we didn’t have to go back up the canyon. We stopped at a little outhouse at the bottom and met a jeep tour guy. Larry asked him about the rest of the trail to make sure there were no more cliffs we had to go over and found out that recent rains had washed out the trail! He said if we didn’t mind taking our new truck over 2 foot stair steps we’d be fine! Larry wasn’t okay with that! He came back and gave me the news that we had to turn around and go back up the way we came! I almost told him I’d take my dogs and walk up behind him!