Hey friends, welcome back to Grand Adventure!
I'm your host Marc Guido, and in this week's episode we're going to take you
for a three-day trip across the White Rim in Canyonlands National Park, so
stay tuned!
Most folks see the Island In the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park
from the paved road that travels along the canyon rim, which we shared in
Episode 98. Some others see it from the Colorado and Green Rivers on the canyon
floor, as we did by kayak back in Episode 95, which we'll link to on the screen
right here. A few folks, however, will see Canyonlands from halfway in between, on
the White Rim. The White Rim Road is an 89.4 mile-long unpaved
four-wheel-drive route that traverses the top of the White Rim Sandstone
formation below the Island In the Sky Mesa. We originally filmed our three-day
trip along the White Rim in November 2013, but we're only now sharing it with
our Grand Adventurers for the first time. Because of that, some of these film
clips aren't quite up to our usual standards, but the White Rim is just too
special a place to not share. We chose to make the trip in a counterclockwise
direction, beginning with the steep switchbacks of
Mineral Bottom Road.
This is another place where you won't be bringing your RV. Acceptable vehicles
include four-wheel drive vehicles with low range gearing,
mountain bikes, and street-legal dirt bikes. Trips along the White Rim
typically take two to three days, with overnight camping available by National
Park Service permit only at specified sites along the route. Our friend Jon
planned the mountain bike the entire route. Friends Marc and Karen were along
to provide support. Our own plan was half and half, with me driving about half the
time, and mountain biking the other half as Patricia drove our Tacoma. Driving,
however, turned out to be too much fun, and I would never hop on the saddle the
entire trip. Upon reaching the Green River, the White Rim Road forks left from
the Mineral Bottom Road, and heads southward along the river bank, quickly
crossing the boundary from BLM land into Canyonlands National Park.
Not far into the National Park we arrive at the three-mile round trip
hike to Fort Bottom Ruin that we visited on our Green River kayak trip. A marvel
of ancient Anasazi architecture, plus a 19th century cabin, make the Fort Bottom
hike a worthy diversion from the road.
The White Rim Road was constructed in the 1950s by the US Atomic Energy
Commission to provide access for individual prospectors intent on mining
uranium deposits for use in nuclear weapons production during the Cold War.
Large deposits had been found in similar areas within the region; however, the
mines along the White Rim Road produced very little uranium, and all the mines
were abandoned. Back when Canyonlands was being
developed as a National Park, paving the road was given consideration, to turn it
into a scenic drive. Thankfully for trips such as ours, that plan was abandoned.
While our elevation on the White Rim remains somewhat constant, the Green
River carves a deeper channel through the sandstone as we continue to follow
it downstream. Our first night's camp is at the Candlestick campsite, now high
above the Green River and below its stunning namesake Candlestick formation
above. Marc, Karen and John are tent camping this trip, while Patricia and I will
truck camp in the bed of our Tacoma.
Day Two takes us across Murphy Hogback, roughly the halfway point of the White
Rim Road, and one of the road's steepest climbs and descents.
A short 1.4-mile side road out to White Crack affords stunning views of
Canyonlands' Needles District across the Colorado River.
We pass below the Grand View Point Overlook up on the rim, before setting up
our second night's camp at the Gooseberry campsite.
Our third and final day on the White Rim will take his past Washer Woman Arch and
the side trail to the Colorado River at Lathrop Canyon, before returning to the
rim via the precipitous switchbacks of the Shafer Trail.
Since September 2015, permits have been required for both day
use and overnight trips on the White Rim, whether by motor vehicle or by bicycle. A
maximum of 100 day use permits are issued per day, with 50 reserved for
motorized vehicles and 50 for bicycles. A total of 25 permits of each type are
available as advance reservations, while the other 25 permits are available on
the day of a trip. Each vehicle and bicycle in a group requires its own
permit, including any stowed bicycles that are expected to be ridden at any
point along the road. Group sizes are limited to three motor vehicles and 15
bicycles. All overnight stays require a backcountry permit and the $30 fee for
the full stay, whereas there's no charge for day use permits. The demand for
permits frequently exceeds the number available in spring and fall months,
especially March, April, May, September and October. A high clearance four-wheel
drive vehicle with a low gear range is required by park regulation, and a
breakdown requiring a tow can be expected to cost a minimum of $1,000.
Pets are not permitted regardless of whether they could be kept inside a
vehicle at all times. Campfires are not permitted either.
So while the logistics behind a White Rim trip may seem daunting, this is a 4x4
camping trip of a lifetime. It is worth every little bit of regulation that you
need to go through to prepare for a trip. We highly recommend it. Now just a
reminder, if you haven't yet seen our Episode 136, our contest is still open to
give away a Hiboost Travel 4G 2.0 RV cell phone booster. It's a
$450 value! So if you haven't yet watched that episode, click on the
link right here on the screen that we're going to put up for you right now, so you
can go back and watch it, and enter for your chance to win your own cell phone
booster from Grand Adventure and from Hiboost. And if you'd like to check out
what we use on our own RV travels, click on the link down below in the video
description of our Grand Adventure Shop on Amazon. We do get a small commission
from every one of your purchases, but every single thing that we list in that
shop are things that we use ourselves, and we are happy enough with the quality
that we can vouch for them for you to purchase for yourselves. If you like this
video, please be sure to give us a big "thumbs up" down below. Also down below
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please remember, life is nothing but a Grand Adventure! We'll see you then.