The White Rim Road (seen in the foreground) is an approximately 100 mile loop around the middle level of Canyonlands National Park. Spectacular views and a wholly surreal drive compared to a daily cross-town commute. Permits are required but relatively easy to attain with a bit of planning and a high-clearance 4×4 is needed as well. If conditions are good you can get through in a stock height truck or SUV – but conditions can change.

This was my second time through and while visually rewarding it was HOT… and buggy… so I learned a few things I’ll share with you here as well as share some pics. I drove a 2012 Tundra, its a big truck for trails and while there were a few narrow spots the trail was plenty wide, previously I drove a 4Runner pulling a small off-road trailer behind it. 

I packed relatively lightly for this trip and left behind my normal camp kitchen and instead stuck to canned chow. I’ll walk through my camp kitchen in a later post. I left the REI shade/shelter behind and that was the only piece of gear I missed. I’ve since added a bug bucket to the gear that is easy to pack and will definitely be appreciated next time things are that creepy-crawly.

It was a nice morning, shot some pictures and did some reading. It was quite hot and I let myself get a little dehydrated. Spent the afternoon hydrating and hiding from the sun, and managed to get some reading done through the evening. Sleeping was near impossible, it just never cooled down, so at the first light on the horizon I was packed and back on the trail and opted to just finish the whole route that day and then hope to get a room at the Adventure Inn in Moab.

All in all it was a short but great trip, for more pics from Utah I invite you to visit my photography site, theMirrorpool.com and check out the Utah gallery.