Thursday was another adventure.  We found out that we couldn't board Jax until Monday and Tuesday, so we wouldn't be going to Arches or Canyonlands until then.  What now? There are so many things to do in Moab that it is really hard to choose.  We chose La Sal Mountain Loop Road. I am so glad we did.  This is a perfect example (again) of how the landscape can change dramatically in just a few miles.  We started out in Moab-80 degrees and surrounded by towering red-rock walls and cliffs (they told us it is Entrada Sandstone).  Pure desert.

We drove 30 miles and ended up in an alpine forest (only 55 degrees) Beautiful aspens just beginning to turn gold, 60-70 ft pines, scrub oak, and even a small alpine lake.  From the forest up above, we could see the red-rock desert down below. Two completely different biomes, practically side by side.  Crazy!  The only downside was that the road was not very well maintained.  It was extremely narrow, no shoulder, edges crumbling, steep drop-offs.  Fortunately we did not meet another car so we didn't have to figure out who would have to back up to an overlook to let another car pass.  We also took a three mile detour to see the small lake. The 3 miles took 30 min because the road was a dirt washboard path, full of potholes and wash-outs.  We would have turned around after the first mile but there wasn't any place to do that.  Good thing we had a 4-wheel drive pick-up.  The Loop was 60 miles total.  It took us 4 hours because of all our photo stops and a picnic along the way.  Good day.