I had breakfast at one of the apparently two open breakfast places, then headed east out of town on highway 89 for around 9 miles and turned north on Johnson Canyon Road, very pretty, taking it north for about 16 miles until I turned right on Deer Springs Road, which was unpaved. This road was mostly OK, and Margaret would have HATED it. I had a bit of trouble on a washboard section, and slowed down. The only other rare traffic on this road was folks in their pickup trucks with ATVs in the back, or guys in camo (most with rifles) driving around on their ATVs. I noticed the clay was darker than usual, and realized it was from the recent rains. At one point the road took a sudden, big dip into a wash. I was probably going 10 or maybe 15 miles/hour, and as I was heading downhill I hit the brakes. They did nothing, and I sped up a bit as I “bounced” on the bottom of the wash and headed back uphill. Luckily the angles were such that the airbags didn’t deploy (yay!) and there was probably no way the car would be able to go *up* the way I came, so I kept going. The road didn’t get worse, but it did sometimes get narrower and steeper. In total, this leg of the trip was around 33 miles long. Toward the end of the road, there was a park or campground of some sort, and I have the (possibly true) recollection of several folks driving their pickup trucks the other way being surprised to see me in my car coming from the way I did.
Anyway, I turned left on Road 400 (Kodachrome Road) and drove north to Cannonville and Route 12, then east on 12 through Escalante, made a quick stop at the Kiva Koffeehouse, to Route 24 east, thru Capitol Reef National Park and up to I-70, then south on 191 to Moab, where I met my photography guide for dinner at (a nice Thai restaurant), and decided if I was gonna be in the area for a shoot, I might as well wake up early and take some sunrise photos.