I Have A Confession

Sheepish. That's how I'm feeling right now as I prepare to fess up to one of my guilty pleasures. You see, this wasn't a quick realization on my part; I wasn't even aware that I was getting so much enjoyment out of it until just the other day when I was looking back, thinking about all of the other times I have done this, and it hit me that I might have a problem. Are you ready? Here goes: I absolutely love driving on bad roads.

Schafer Road, Canyonlands National Park

You're probably thinking wtf, that's not a problem right now, so let me explain. I don' t mean roads with pot holes, or roads with little or no evidence of painted lines on them. I don't mean roads that most urban people drive day in and day out on their commutes to work. Those are streets, highways and interstates that transport people from point A to point B. And those are great and all, I wouldn't have been able to access anywhere I've traveled without them. But the roads I really love are the ones that sometimes suck to drive on. I like the little back country roads that are sometimes gravel, sometimes dirt, and sometimes other questionable material.

Indian Cave State Park, Nebraska

I love the rocky, winding, twisted mountain roads that take you in and out of evergreen forests, through alpine meadows and directly through a creek in order to cross it. I adore the sandy roads at the bottom of desert canyons that switchback so tightly that you momentarily question whether or not your vehicle will get stuck. I fawn over the roads that take you so close to the edge of a cliff that if you were to open your door and step out, your first step would be on air. The roads that have no speed limit, but it's impossible to go over 15 miles per hour, the roads with dips and ruts in them so deep they make the potholes in the city look like a dimple on a golf ball, the roads that climb such a steep incline that all you see when you look out the windshield is brilliant blue sky. Those are the roads I live for.

Headed up the La Sal Mountains in Utah

I'm sure a lot of my love for bad roads has to do with the way I was raised and where I learned how to drive. My family always took vacations to the less-visited regions of the country, and we drove to all of them. I remember going up to Merritt Reservoir in Cherry County, Nebraska most summers when I was little camping on the beach in the middle of the sandhills; I first learned how to drive on those sandy hills covered in mixed-grass prairies, with the occasional grasshopper jumping through the open window into the the cab of the truck to hitch a ride. We took four-wheel drive roads all over that area and I fondly recall grinning broadly as I peered over the steering wheel and hood of the truck toward the next big dip in the road, knowing I would feel the swoop in my stomach as we hit the bottom and flew up the next roller coaster set of hills.

Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska

We took vacations over spring break, heading to Big Mac in western Nebraska to see the congregation of Bald Eagles around the open water. With nobody camping on the beach during the middle of a cold Nebraska winter, we had the whole lake to ourselves, which we took advantage of by driving all over the white sand beaches. All of us drove, and through enough mishaps Dad finally learned to carry boards and shovels with us whenever we had plans to go off-roading. Nearly every family vacation we took, for as long as I can remember, found us on a jeep trail or four-wheel drive trail of some sort. Many of our best camping places are located along a road inaccessible to most cars, especially in the Rocky Mountains. How else would we have found "My Spot" or "Dad's Spot," places that have no official name but are marked precisely on our maps and lodged into our brains, places that we continuously return to even if we are headed to somewhere we've never been.

Dad's Spot, Colorado

Grand Wash, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

I officially learned how to drive in the middle of winter, given that my birthday is in January. I had a lesson in driving on ice from my dad that I will never forget, and to this day am thankful for. Right after a big ice/snow storm one day shortly after I turned 16, Dad took me out to a parking lot on the western edge of town. It was big, empty, and covered in a sheet of ice. We entered from one side, and Dad told me to hit the gas. So I did. Then he pulled the emergency brake on me, and as we went into a spin, sliding across the ice, Dad calmly told me to get myself out of it. It took several tries, but I finally succeeded. After putting me through my paces a few more times, Dad finally let me drive home. Like I said, that lesson has stuck with me ever since.

Just outside of Arches National Park, Utah. No, I didn't tilt the camera.

I currently own a little 2008 Toyota Yaris, a two-wheel drive vehicle that is a great commuting car, gets fantastic gas mileage, handles just fine on flat roads, hills and mountains, and can go long distances without any trouble. Really, other than regular maintenance, some new tires, and one incident with the water pump, my car has had no problems, and I've put 90,000 miles on it. It handles just dandy in the rain and snow, and I've only ever been stuck once (in really deep snow.) My only gripe with it is that I can't take it where I really want to go. I've pushed my car almost to it's limits, asking it to drive up rocky, one lane mountain roads, while people in jeeps and ATVs stared at me, surely wondering what that dumbass taking a Yaris up a mountain thinks she's doing. I've driven my car through the bottoms of canyons and along sandy washes where I know, in the event of rain, we would be trapped. Just the other day after six inches of snow in town I intentionally took an alley way that was snow packed and bumpy, and grinned like an idiot the whole time. But I know my car's limits. I can't tell you how many times I've started out on a beach, or along a jeep trail, and turned back. My car can't handle some of that stuff with it's low clearance and two wheel drive capability. I'll reiterate what I've written before: I absolutely love driving, and my car is easy on the pocket book, but I need a four-wheel drive vehicle to get to the places I long to visit.

Pointing out Schafer Road on my most recent visit to Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Schafer Road, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

My next car will have to be something that can handle getting to the places I want go. I'm totally open to suggestions, so if you have a favorite vehicle that lets you get around snow, ice, sand, mountains and deserts, let me know!

Road from Grand View Point, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

What I'm listening to: Whispers (I Hear You) By: All That Remains