Devil’s Lane
Most of us had done the Elephant Hill trail at least once, but this was everyone's first time out on Devil's Lane. Why hadn't we ever come out here? It was right next to Elephant Hill and the scenery was phenomenal. It even offered a couple of fun obstacles. We'll definitely include this with all of our future Elephant Hill runs.
We had done the Beef Basin trail and we still had lots of daylight left, so we headed over to Elephant Hill via Devil's Lane. It wasn't long before we got to a couple of warning signs letting us know that the trail was going to suddenly get quite a bit more difficult. It definitely changed when we got to Bobby's Hole.
It used to be called Impossible Hill, and we could see where it probably was quite a bit more difficult before they added some "improvements" to make it less impossible. It really didn't improve it too much, though it probably slowed down the erosion and kept the hill from getting too chewed up.
We all worked our way down the fun hill, and when we got to the bottom Matt and Jeffrey both enjoyed going back up and down it. It's a pretty fun hill, with a really steep ledge near the top. Good times, all in the middle of nowhere.
We continued along the trail and Walt remembered that he had been out here before, but many years ago. He remembered S.O.B. Hill. Though there's an obstacle in Colorado with the same name, the hills are very different.
But first we got to drive through The Needles. That section of Canyonlands National Park is beautiful from a distance, but it is truly awe inspiring when you are actually in it. Stopping at the Horsehoof Arch would be a great place for lunch (probably the next time we do Elephant Hill). Sometimes it was hard to drive while gawking at all of the sights around us.
S.O.B. Hill snuck up on us. It didn't look difficult until you got to the middle of it and there was a tight "S" turn in the middle. Only the shortest of wheelbases would be able to make it through this section without having to back up and realign. Walt told us that he had first been here in his Blazer and that he needed someone to drag him through it on a tow strap. That would have been an adventure!
It wasn't long before we got to Elephant Hill. The trail is a one-way trail at that point, so we kept straight at the intersection and looped around and out of the trail. We aired up at the Elephant Hill parking area and we were soon headed back to town with plenty of daylight left.
No one ran out of gas on the way back, but almost everyone had their low fuel light come on. We were on fumes, but we didn't have any issues. It was a great first day of vacation!
