Terrified of Heights… So We Took Our Van Down Shafer Trail!!

Hello! It’s finally here, my first official blog post! I’ve wanted to do this for a while, but just never got around to it. Something else always took priority. Do people still blog? ;) Who cares? Better now than never. After everything it took to get this blog set up today I finally made it to the writing part! While putting together the YouTube video for this experience I just knew there was more to the story than what the video captured. I kept trying to squeeze it into the video somehow, but it just wasn’t working.

In the past I’ve used voiceovers to document in videos. It was always my script, but it felt odd reading it myself. Funny story… Once I was showing my mom one of our videos and she was like, “Who’s that lady with you guys?”. It took me a minute to realize she thought the voiceover artist was actually on the trip with us. Hilarious!

Back to the blog… So in addition to the voiceovers, Jim is on screen a lot, but that’s just not my strength. He’s a natural. I’ve been doing it more lately, but I still have a lot of room for improvement. So the point of my first blog post and those that come after is a way to preserve our memories as completely as possible. Photos, videos, and social media platforms are great, but some things just get missed.

I’ve always been a writer. I’ve just not really shared it other than when posting on social media, writing descriptions for my various forms of art, or scripts for our videos. Otherwise it’s just been between me and a notebook, or a song, or a poem. So anyway enough about me, let’s finally get to this blog post.

Last month we went to Utah. It was a bittersweet trip, the initial reason for our trip was to attend graveside services for my grandmother, but we wanted to have some fun too. That’s how she would have wanted it and honestly anytime we’re anywhere near Moab we have to hit, at bare minimum, Onion Creek Trail, Moab Garage Co. or Love Muffin Cafe, depending on the day, and Pasta Jay’s. It usually consists of much more than that though.

2022 — Onion Creek Trail. One of our mandatory Moab stops.

Oh and our new favorite, Cactus Jack’s! We’ve been going to Moab together for years and had never been there until October 2025. Both Moab Garage & Love Muffin were closed so Cactus Jack’s was the next place we tried for breakfast. Anyway… This is not a blog about the best food in Moab, perhaps another day. Moving on.

So, I am terrified of heights, but I deal with it because even though Jim claims otherwise, he is fearless, and our adventures often include heights. I do have my limits though. This Moab trip when Jim mentioned doing Shafer Trail I didn’t hesitate. We’d previously done it in our Jeep. Plus, despite Jean-Claude (our van) being 10,000 lbs. or so, I wasn’t nervous because we’d just had it in for service at Warner Vans and everything checked out fine. So I was confident I could handle it. The only restriction I had was I didn’t want to drive.

I’m primarily the driver from day to day, but I just won’t do it when heights are involved. If I’m not behind the wheel I can choose to look away if things get too intense or I can also freely exit the vehicle. That’s universally frowned upon when driving. ;) I don’t know when this happened to me because when I was younger I would drive my parents’ vehicles anywhere, but this fear is my life now. I’ve always been afraid of heights, but never to this extent. Perhaps it’s because I have more responsibilities or maybe because I pay for the vehicles now. Not sure, but it is what it is.

So that morning after breakfast and coffee we headed to Canyonlands National Park. We decided we’d do the trail from the top down. Once we got onto the dirt road I pulled over so Jim could drive. We got to the start of the switchbacks and I immediately realized we had not done this trail before. I was thinking it was Long Canyon Road, where you go through the tunnel created by a fallen rock… NOT the same. Not even close. Long Canyon is probably technically more difficult, but you’re not on the edge of a cliff anticipating a 1500-foot plunge to the bottom if your brakes fail or your driver misses a turn. Long Canyon feels tucked safely between canyon walls. Shafer does not.

2021 — Long Canyon Road in our Jeep. NOT Shafer Trail…

Shafer initially looked very intimidating, but it actually wasn’t as bad as my brain had imagined. Perhaps the universe was cooperating. The road was in great condition. The weather was amazing. There weren’t a lot of people on the trail. So I could just relax, trust in Jim’s skills, and enjoy the view.

That was the plan until we got to the first switchback that put me directly on the edge. Jim took the turn wide, as one does, and it looked and felt like we were going over the edge. It definitely got my heart pounding and I had some adult words to share. That was the only time it was really intense though. So, if you’re afraid of heights don’t let this trail deter you. It’s not as bad as it seems or as extreme as you hear people say. I’m sure it can be depending on the conditions, but we had nearly perfect conditions that day.

Everything about this trail was different though. Naturally we wanted to share it on our YouTube channel for those that have never been able to experience it. However, you can’t fly drones in the area and I was too afraid to be distracted by my usual equipment, so everything is from our phones. Jim has a good phone, but mine is several generations old. I’m not interested in “upgrading” every year. Jim mounted his phone on himself and I used my phone whenever I was relaxed enough to do so. We didn’t even use mics or anything. The scenery is so spectacular you don’t really need fancy equipment anyway. You can watch our video here.

Oh, and we also got stuck! At the bottom of the switchbacks there’s a spot you can pull over and somehow Jim got us stuck. Our hitch was on one part of the ground and our front driver’s side tire was in contact with the ground, but our rear driver-side wheel was just floating. Fortunately another vehicle stopped to help. We used them as an anchor for our winch to pull the van forward until the tire was again in contact with the ground. This was the first time we’ve ever used our winch for our own recovery. Even though I gripe about it when he’s buying it, I’m so thankful Jim has us well equipped to handle things like this that can come up.

Once we got back on the road we decided to take Potash Road back to Moab rather than try the White Rim Loop. The max height listed is 9’5” and our van is over that. There are reportedly some pretty gnarly spots on it too. Our concerns were mainly Murphy Hogback and Hardscrabble Hill. I couldn’t remember if we had ever done the trail so I wasn’t sure if the van could do it. Also after descending the switchbacks, I wasn’t feeling up to the challenge anyway.

We did get to experience the Potash Ponds up close on this route though. The blues just glow against the red rock. My Dad and uncle actually worked at a potash plant my entire childhood. I don’t recall them adding blue dye for the process, but then again I didn’t spend much time at the plant as a child. I do recall them discussing the evaporation ponds and I also remember little brine shrimp.

This blue dye they put in the water is to enhance evaporation. It does that by increasing the amount of sunlight that gets absorbed. As the ponds evaporate the blue shade gets lighter and lighter and eventually the potash precipitates out of the solution. At this stage the water is a tan shade and is almost completely evaporated. At this point the potash is ready to be harvested. It is so surreal to see these ponds in varying shades of blue out in the middle of all of the red rock.

2026 — Jean-Claude at the Potash Ponds on Potash Road.

This adventure continued back home when going through the footage and putting it together for a video. I don’t know how anyone else approaches their editing for videos, but for me I make something that will remind me of the essence of the trip. Fortunately my goal isn’t subscribers or producing viral content. I’m so excited about the engagement I have gotten. It has been a welcome bonus. We’re a small channel (based on our number of subscribers), but most of the engagement we’ve gotten has been so positive and refreshing. We do get the occasional troll, but as they should have done, we just scroll on by.

My goal is enjoying what I’m doing and learning something new every day. I get excited about the things I make because it is either a success story or a learning opportunity. Win-win either way. There are so many incredible creators out there that have a system and they are locked in. There are several creators I follow and a few I even admire, but I don’t want to be them or even be like them. I just want to be me, share my journey, and have memories I can look back on at any time.

I don’t even have a niche. I am my niche. Me, my husband, and our dogs. Our mostly happy little family. Maveryk can get a little “alpha dog” if you know what I mean. So, you’ll see everything from traveling in our van, to making projects with lasers, to me singing, to our dogs, Maveryk and Miguel, and beyond.

2024 — Our little pack exploring Fins and Things in the RZR. You gotta see the dogs in their goggles!!

Hopefully Jim will do some writing here at some point too. I have to warn you though, if that happens, beware; he writes in blocks. Literally no concerns about any punctuation other than periods. No paragraphs. Just one word after another… Not that I’m perfect, but I’ll probably help him edit it. Perhaps just once I’ll post his original work so you can see what I mean. It’s very endearing.

However, in his defense, he is a word warrior. The vocabulary on this man is impressive. Not gonna lie, sometimes I have to look up the words he uses just to make sure they’re real. ;) Or the sayings. He has some of the weirdest sayings that are apparently commonly used.

In closing, thank you for reading my first post. I can’t wait to see where this leads. I love creating and watching our YouTube channel. I’m probably our most frequent viewer. Those views don’t count toward any of the metrics, I checked. :) If not me, it’s definitely my mom. I love it not only for all of our memories and the skills I’ve learned in order to do it, but also to see where it started and how it has evolved.

So yeah… First post in the bag. Stay tuned. ;)