AwesomeWorld Adventurers: The Hunt For Adventure

Since we had already seen all that we were capable of seeing in Bryce Canyon, we had the day to venture around Zion and find ourselves some adventure, regardless of the weather still being snowy, rainy, and windy.

We started first by visiting a little ghost town called Grafton. It was very quaint and a tad bit eerie. Upon entering, we were first greeted by about ten conspicuous cameras, which properly set the spooky feeling for a ghost town. We never actually got out and walked around the town though because it was a tad bit muddy.

After Grafton, we saw a sign for Buttes Smithsonian…it sounded intriguing so we thought we would check it out. With our adventurous spirits, we headed up the mountain towards the Smithsonian; little did we know what awaited us on the road ahead.

As we began to creep up the mountain, the dirt became mud, mud became deep mud, and deep mud came close to being quick sand. The only difference between almost quick sand and actual quick sand is that this muddy sand was sticking to our tires/truck. Even with having the most aggressive off road tires, we were unable to shed the mud from our tread blocks.

In first gear and flooring it, the truck was barely accelerating. In second gear, it would slow down to 10 mph again forcing the truck back into first gear. The accumulated weight of the muddy clay was beginning to weigh the truck down.

With nowhere really to turn around we at first reluctantly continued a little ways, hoping that this mountain would level off. But with no guardrails and a slimming, twisty, windy road ahead, we began to feel threatened by the road, or really, lack there of.

In a pivotal moment, Josh veered the truck left, let off the gas and hit the breaks simultaneously in order to stop our forward progress but also to keep the truck from sliding backwards off the mountain. When truck came to a stop, I looked to Josh and told him to take a deep breath, a drink of water and to say a prayer before he attempted to turn the truck around.

During the several point turn around, going forward inch at a time was ok, but when in reverse, Josh would let off the break just enough to crawl backwards slightly before hitting the breaks again… but the truck would continue sliding each time he hit the breaks. After about three minutes and countless point turns we were finally turned around! The worse was over. At this point, the clouds became to really start lowering in on us and we still had this treacherous mountain to crawl back down.

The tires were completely embedded with mud; there was no rubber to be seen anymore on the tires nor could you see the rims. We were carrying about 150 lbs of mud on the truck back down the mountain. We slowly crept and slid safely back down to the bottom, where we immediately drove to a car wash 30 miles away and spent 25 dollars or more cleaning off the truck. (We are still currently knocking dried up mud out from the undercarriage of the truck).

As we headed back up Zion the sun began to shine through the snow clouds and the blue sky began to appear.

We felt as though we sufficiently experienced enough adventure for one day, and began to head back to Lake Powell. Our drive back through Zion was absolutely incredible.