The rest of the Jeep adventure . . .

 

Our Jeep rental went until 6pm, and it was 3pm when we arrived back at the Sand Flats Recreation Area. 

There was nobody in the Fee Booth when we arrived, and just a few people in the park.  This is definitely the quiet time of year around here!

 

Most brochures say that the Fins ‘n’ Things Trail takes 3-1/2 – 4 hours to complete.  There are two sections to the Trail, so we decided to try the first part and see how it went.

 

We got started climbing slickrock right from the very beginning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of these hills were pretty steep, and we had just white paint marks and black tire residue to follow.  On the really steep climbs, I got out so that I could “take pictures”.  On some of these climbs, Nicolas or Bryce would get out and check out the other side of the hill so that Tom would know what to expect when he got to the top!

Sometimes the down side would be so steep that one of them would also need to guide him on the way down, too!  On other hills, we had several alternatives for getting down . . . Nicolas always wanted to try the one that looked like more “fun”!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom was relieved to reach the bottom!!

We completed the rest of the first section without much trouble (in fact, I didn’t even need to get out to take any more pictures!), and with over 2 hours left to our rental.  The boys were determined to complete the full trail, so we headed over to section 2!

In the name of the trail, “Fins” refer to the steep, rounded, slickrock mounds, and “Things” refers to the gravel and fine red sand that is a result of erosion of the slickrock.  There was plenty of both! 

Nicolas just loved making the steep climbs, and he was really good at talking Tom through the climbs – slow and steady . . .

Bryce’s favorite part was anything that made me scream . . . and there was plenty of that!

Particularly, between the “Fins” the trail twisted and turned through the sand, and Tom took those turns as fast as he could in order to throw me around in the backseat!

Nicolas managed to keep us on the trail, and out of any trouble, and we reached the final leg of the trail which was a series of fins in a row . . . we needed to go out to the end and then back again!

There was a shortcut that would have taken us back to the main road, skipping this section of the trail, but Nicolas wasn’t hearing any of that!!

I guess we were up to the challenge, and we started up the first hill!

There were several questionable turns, and a few moments of indecision, but we made it through them all!

They were afraid I wouldn’t get back in the Jeep if I got out, so Bryce took over taking the pictures!

The final climb was REALLY steep, so Bryce and I got out and walked around, after he guided them up the hill.

There they go!

That was it – we made it through the entire trail in about 2-1/2 hours!

 

Tom’s nerves were shot by then!  LOL!

 

We had a half hour to get back to town, fill up with gas, and spray it off at the car wash . . . plenty of time!!

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at the City Market to fill up with gas (right next door to Outlaw Rentals – thank goodness!), and after we finished filling up, the Jeep WOULD NOT START!! 

Tom tried several times, and then walked over to Outlaw to get Dwayne.  He came back with one of the other Jeeps and jump-started ours.  We made it back to Outlaw’s parking lot, and he determined that the battery had boiled dry!  We had been smelling a sulphur odor most of the afternoon (we thought it was coming from the rocks!), and Dwayne said it was the battery boiling.

We were SO lucky that it didn’t die out on the trail somewhere!!!!  Somebody was definitely watching over us that day!

It was a really fun day, one that the boys will remember for a LONG time, and fortunately a lucky day for us, too!