The Big Smoky

So my last day in Escalante I'm sitting in a little coffee shop and a local sees my rig out front, comes in and asks who belongs to that Toyota out front.  Figuring I may have him blocked in or worse yet, he's backed into me, the cry goes out....it's mine.  He simply had been wanting to get a camper like mine for his rig so he plops down and begins to tell me about all the cool stuff to see in his neck of the woods, his life story and about his upcoming divorce.  Seeing as I had been to 90 percent of the stuff he was rambling on about and didn't have the time to hear his full life story, I quickly changed the subject to why he would like the camper set up I have.  He wants to go out and have a look so I cut my coffee break short and follow him out.  After going over every aspect of the camper, I begin to think of ways to politely get the hell out of here as I needed to start working my south towards the Overland Expo.  Plan was to head towards Page, Az. via the highway but he insists that I've got to take The Big Smoky road south out of Escalante which will dump me out in Big Water, Utah.  He states that it's 80 miles of dirt. He now has my undivided attention.  States that it goes through some of the most road accessible back country in the Grand Staircase National Monument. How could one possibly not take that. The Big Smoky it is then. Really glad I ran into this guy and he insisted that I hit this road.  Chance meetings with strangers are not only fun while traveling but can sometimes pay big dividends on out of the way spots to explore.  I spent two nights camped back on the Big Smoky and saw one other vehicle in the 80 miles of dirt it takes to pop out at Big Water. Was one of the off-road highlights of the trip.

Couple in this rig had been on the road since 1999.  They were from South Africa and had been around the world twice in it and still going.  We stopped and chatted awhile about their travels.  Wish now I had of gotten a picture of them.  Real interesting to talk with.  Only other rig I saw in two days and nights while on this road.

Map on the side of their rig showing their travels.  One thinks that they're on a pretty nice adventure until you run across people like this.

Shot this one of their rig as it was driving away.  Shows the scale of the canyons along this area.

The southern part of this road is pretty amazing.  It is known as the Kelly Grade and I can't imagine the guy that cut this in with a dozer.  Not much road in places with some serious exposure.

Bottom section of The Kelly Grade looking south towards Big Water, Utah.

Should have taken some more pictures in here as well as do some additional exploring in some of the canyons.  Only had a couple of days but certainly plan on doing this again.  Got back to pavement in Big Water and headed east to Page, Az.  Heavy rains for the two days I was here so didn't really see too much.  Basically just hung out and did some reading and hanging out.  Had hoped to take a tour of Antelope Canyon on the reservation but the weather just didn't co-operate.  Didn't feel like paying the admission fee and not be able to get any decent pictures.  Did, however, go the bend on the Colorado River just outside Page where the weather cleared for a couple of hours.