The De-Tour: Day 13 — Best. Campsite. Ever.

September 29, 2017.

Parked at the head of Gemini Bridges, we expected to be woken early by Jeepers, but we weren’t. The first set headed up around 9:00am, moving slowly.

For good reason too — they were Jeeps, and so a bit fragile.

As usual, we’d ended up in a beautiful spot. Out on a ledge, it was hard to spot even from the trail, but was flat with great views and morning sun.

Having gotten in late the night before, we hadn’t aired down yet, so in addition to putting away the tents, we took a few minutes to complete a task that would save both our suspensions and our bones.

Well, at least mine and Mikes. Monte and Devin are still young guns.

We also watched as two more Jeeps headed up the road — both carrying two passengers in the ~75-year old age range. Just past our site, the trailing Jeep stopped and the passenger hopped out. As the Jeep started turning around, she “hustled” up the road and started waving her hands at the first Jeep. “Bob!” she yelled, “We’re turning around!”

By now, her Jeep had completed its 8-point turn, and was already headed back down the road without her. Bob apparently didn’t hear her, because he kept on going.

Interesting we thought. And we chalked it up to Jeeps.

And then we were off — up to Gemini Bridges, this time with Devin leading the way.

As we turned away from the highway and into the canyon, the views became even greater. Once again we were surrounded by red and capped with a deep blue — perhaps the best weather we’d had all trip.

We made frequent stops for photos.

The Gemini Bridges trail is a relatively short one — perhaps 4–6 miles to the viewpoint, so it wasn’t long before we lined up and got out of the trucks. As usual, the rigs attracted the attention of a few UTVers who were there (“assholes” was I think our designation for them), who wanted to know a bit about them, as well as the tents on top.

We also spotted this guy, who clearly took the “trail ready” moniker to heart. With a 6-inch ground clearance and a roof-rack-mounted tire, he was clearly ready for anything!

He pulled out shortly after we arrived, and as we drove back down and hour later, we passed him about a mile down the road. Jeep speed?

We headed down to the Gemini Bridges — a short walk down what used to be a road. When we got there, we each took this same look at the bridges as Devin — it was a great view of the bridges on the other side of the hole.

Only later did we all realize that we’d been standing on 4-inches of rock. From that point on, we were a bit more hesitant as we crept out for pictures.

Little did we know that Gemini Bridges was just the beginning of a day that would end at the most epic camp site ever. This is a place that can’t be missed, and you can see it in the rest of the story The Best Camp Site Ever at adventuretaco.com

Originally published at adventuretaco.com.