The Road To Potash

Rolling in to Moab, we saw a road sign that read “Potash  -–>”.  Gary commented at the time that potash is a component of fertilizer.  We were looking at some local guide books about things to do beyond the national parks and one suggestion was to drive the canyon roads along the Colorado River and one of the suggested drives was the road to Potash.

So off we went to visit Potash.  It was a different drive than the others we had taken.  This time we were right at the level of the Colorado River rather than a few thousand feet above it as we had been in Canyonlands.  There had been rain and the river was very muddy and somewhat red like the majority of the rocks around here.

 

We saw on the maps that there is an area of petroglyphs on that road. 

We also found a neat arch that was a vertical one – Jug Handle Arch.

And there was a waterfall with water that really was as red as the rocks.

At the end of the state road, we arrived at Potash.  But there was no town there as we expected.  Potash was just a few big buildings and a rail car loading facility for a potash mining operation.  We drove a  bit until the pavement stopped and the road became a jeep only trail.  This was one of those times that we wished we had a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle as our “toad” as on up that jeep trail were the evaporation ponds for the potash mine as well as Thelma and Louise Point.  Yes, the over-the-cliff ending was filmed in the Moab area.  We visited a small museum dedicated to all the films that have had scenes shot in the area, and there have been a bunch of them.  It seems Hollywood directors also like these amazing sights.  It has been a favorite location for Westerns including several starring John Wayne.