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Show Elephant Hill . . . Continued from Page Bl of various makes; sand buggies bug-gies that are specially geared gear-ed fur climbing; low-geared, high clearance trail cycles; and several ' kinds of multi-wheeled multi-wheeled "all-terrain" vehicles. vehic-les. The first three of these kinds of off-road vehicles regularly re-gularly travel Elephant Hill, the jeeps with relative ease, the sand buggies with a bit more effort End driving skill, and the trail cycles with considerable con-siderable skill and effort. At present, for some obscure legal le-gal reason, all-terrain vehicles vehic-les are not permitted by the Park Service to travel the jeep trails within the Park, atlhough they are competent and certainly safer and much less destructive of the trails than cycles. So to tackle Elephant Hill, use your jeep, buggy or cycle. If you do not have such a machine, or are visiting the area without your off-road equipment, rent a jeep for a day. They are available at the entrance to the Needles section of Canyonlands National Nat-ional Park, at Canyonlands Resort, as well as in Moab. You're On Your Own Now you are on your way, with some kind of rough-and-ready machine under you, anxious to tackle Elephant Hill. You note signs pointing the way, beginning at the Park Service Squaw Flat Campground. As you draw-nearer draw-nearer and nearer, your palms grow sweaty, your grip tightens on the steering wheel or seat or handle bars, and your eyes get kind of glassy. Could the trail really be as bad as they say? Is it really dangerous? Yes, it is dangerous. This short stretch of trail gives a cadeless or inexperienced driver dri-ver plenty of opportunity to make mistakes. - Yet somehow, some-how, many hundreds of vehicles ve-hicles conquer Elephant Hill every year without mishap. True, a poorly handled jeep did roll over once, but 'no one was hurt. In fact, within Park Service history, the human hu-man injury rate on this horribly hor-ribly broken stretch of trail is nil. Compare this with almost any freeway interchange inter-change you care to name. Breakdowns Do Occur Of course, mechanical breakdowns break-downs do occur on the hill, and many vehicles have had to have help in getting back up the other side on the return re-turn trip, either from vehicle ve-hicle or driver limitations:. But the trail is so abominably abominab-ly rough, twisting and steep that traveling too fast the greatest cause of accidents-is accidents-is not impractical, it is almost al-most impossible! But there's Elephant Hill! A sign says so. After a slight pause for courage gathering, it's up we go! At first a deceptively gentle climb, and then woops! Is THAT the trail? That thirty degree wall of broken rock steps? Yes, dear canyonlands resident or visitor, that's the trail! .Forward, .For-ward, ho! Very shortly, a breather, a level, solid rock turnaround, necessary because only a trail cycle could turn sharply sharp-ly enough to make the next bend without backing around to re-aim the vehicle. Then on up, and up, and up rough, but not too bad if you take it slow and easy and you reach the top, with nothing noth-ing facing you but a few hundred hun-dred yards of level, easy trail, with a magnificent view in all directions. Take a good look at that view. It will give your pulsj a chance settle down. Then it's on again and oh, NO! That CAN'T be the trail f But it is. And you're committed now. Only chickens chick-ens turn back at this point. (Yes, it does happen!) Like a Dive Bomber So it's down like a dive-bomber dive-bomber in slow motion, then level off and shuffle a bit to make a sharp turn, then nose down again into a deadend! What now? Simple! You just BACK down the next switchback. Don't try a turn around or you'll get into trouble. Just back down, slow and easy, keeping all wheels on the narrow trail. And don't look at the canyon can-yon below you! Back into another dead end, shift into forward, then ease on down for another hundred yards or so - and you're there! You made it'. Of course you still have to come back the same way. But don't let that thought ruin your day. Think, instead of the great beauty and more gentle adventures that are ahead of you a whole, long day of it. Or more, if you plan to camp out at the Devil's Pocket campground a few miles along the trail. What happens if you get stuck getting back up Elephant Ele-phant Hill at the end of your beautiful day? It is steeper and rougher coming back than going over, as many have discovered to their dismay. dis-may. That, too, is easy. Whether the vehicle is yours or a rental, ren-tal, just get a message to Canyonlands Resort, and they will soon come to your rescue with a winch truck that can get you up the hill, or even back to the Resort if you have had a mechanical breakdown. How did Elephant Hill get its name? From Elephant Canyon, which the trail drops into beyond the hill. Who Put It There- Ho wdid this ridiculous piece of road come into existence exis-tence in the first place. Well, I once overheard a badly shaken tourist ask this question of a Park Service; ranger. The ranger's reply went something like this: "Back before this was a National Park, a couple of prospectors offered a bulldozer bulldoz-er operator $200 to make a road between two points, one on this side of Elephant Hill, one on the other. They thought he would make a decent road the long way around. But that catskinner wasn't about to make a foot longer road than he - had to for his flat $200 fee, so he built the shortest route possible, up and over Elephant Hill, with grades easy for his tractor, but a real challenge even . to four wheel drive jeeps. We hope to bypass Elephant Hill some day with a better road, when funds are available, but for now . . ." He shrugged and smiled. |