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Dee Blair: The View From Sunnybank

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May 1, 2011

View From Sunnybank: Moab's madness

By Dee Blair, Local columnist ----

We're in Moab, Utah, to hike the magnificent Arches National Park, just north of this town of about 5,000 people.

Two days after our arrival Moab's suddenly crammed with visitors. At least 4,000 participants and 1,400+ registered jeeps have hit town for the 45th annual Jeep Safari Festival, which lasts nine days, ending Easter Saturday evening. Children hang out car windows hooting as they head to reserved campgrounds and motels. Everyone attending this family-oriented event is eager to test their skills, and their jeeps.

Imagine any fantastic jeep color scheme, and it's here. Most boast HUGE shock absorbers. Massive tires elevate vehicles to ridiculous heights. Many have specially welded frames slanting toward the driver that tote spare tires, toolboxes and large water containers. Some have been stripped of everything but roll bars. (April's cool, so protection from the merciless desert heat isn't necessary.) Giant winches (for rescue) are welded to front chassis.

Thirty selected roads and boulder-strewn trails require permits, and range from fairly easy 2-rated ones with names like "Secret Spire" and "Chicken Corners," to much more challenging ones, like "Pritchett Canyon" and the nightmare "Wipeout," which boast a 9 rating, and require participating vehicles be equipped with winches, locking differentials and tires at least 33 inches in diameter.

Participants have adopted a favored Look -- cowboy hats or baseball caps, colorful superhero T-shirts, black (often sleeveless) leather jackets to display tattoos, and of course, wrap-around sunglasses, jeans and boots. In a souvenir shop one pigtailed child hollered, "This 'dirt shirt' looks like desert dust, Daddy!" Every family member gleefully bought one.

We staggered home from a day of hiking this afternoon hoping to clean our rental car. Nope. The do-it-yourself carwash has been taken over by lines of participants who, after spraying their filthy jeeps, sometimes playfully turn the soapy water on dusty drivers.

Hungry families -- and us -- arrive at the popular Moab Brewery down the street for hamburgers and a thorough review of the day's adventures. Patrons peer, cheer and jeer as they watch a huge suspended TV replaying scenes of participants facing mountainous boulder fields, finding themselves hopelessly wedged into jeep-eating crevices, or roaring over official super-bumpy trails. A ragged line of struggling, sweaty men try to right an upside-down jeep. Crowds are shown congregating near danger spots to cheer on their heroes who dare to tackle such terrifying terrain. Ride-along "spotters" get out to try to guide their drivers with hand motions and yelled advice. Bad choices elicit onlooker groans.

Families pour over maps as they munch fries, deciding which trails they'll try tomorrow, and who should "spot" for the driver.

McDonald's does a brisk business, beginning daily at 5 a.m. The price of one egg-and-sausage McMuffin and small black coffee is more than $4.

Vendors flock to the festival dangling the hottest four-wheel-drive products. Boy Scouts host fundraising barbecues, and tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise are given away during this adventure-packed week.

Utah gets intensely hot -- 110 degree temps aren't uncommon -- from late May through September, so major events like this one are held early. A popular antique car show will happen the weekend after Easter. Running and biking competitions offer hundreds of miles of paved trails winding through world-class scenery. This friendly little town offers so much!

Finally, on Big Saturday (April 23) at 9 a.m. more than 1,000 exhausted, newly dented jeeps will line up in the center of Moab to do a controlled "Big Bang" departure in all directions. The spectacle -- one of the largest, most colorful vehicle parades in the world -- is motorized madness at its best!

Dee Blair's Sunnybank Gardens are closed for the season. Her new book, "The View from Sunnybank," a collection of her columns, is available at Horizon Books, Amazon.com and at www.deeblair.com.

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