Fallen Peace Officer Trail

It’s time for some trail running here in Moab. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow so we better go today. We ask Andy and Candy to pick the moderate trail we are going to do. They picked the Fallen Peace Officer Trail.

The trail is, obviously, dedicated to law enforcement, specifically Utah officers who lost their lives or survived multiple gunshot wounds in the line of duty.

The concept for the trail came from the November 2010 incident, where an officer was shot and survived multiple gunshot wounds while conducting a traffic stop at a Moab trailhead. Many people have been leaving some sort of a token at the memorial.

Off we go. I’d like to think that every uphill, downhill, tight squeeze, and turn represents the difficulties and challenges a Peace Officer faces each day. Speaking of which, here is our first big hill and rock obstacle.

Rock obstacles can be fun, but mostly they just jostle you around a lot.

Our first “squeeze.”

At the top of one of the many hills we climb are these weird rocks. They look almost like they were melted.

I would have to say John and I really enjoy traveling on the slick rock. When it is dry it’s like sandpaper and everything sticks to it, like tires. But when it’s wet nothing sticks to it.

It really is just fun!

Some of the trail doesn’t look that difficult, I know, but when you are there driving along you can sure appreciate a high-clearance vehicle. Whew, almost hit the skid plate on this one!

I love how far you can see when you get to the top of a rise. Can you see the trail out in front of us, the white strips?

Sandy sections of the road give us a break from the bumpy, rocky roads.

This hill doesn’t look that steep when you view this picture, but when you are sitting in your Jeep looking down—it gives you the feeling of being on a roller coaster that just topped the first big rise and you are anticipating the fast ride down the other side.

There is some really cool landscape along this trail.

Wait, we have to stop and let John do some rockhounding.

It really is fun to see what you can do with your Jeep.

Like finding out it can crawl down what are sometimes called stairs, basically, rocks that create a stair-like form. Yes, Virginia, Jeeps can go down the stairs.

Fun, huh?

And Jeeps can go up stairs.

Come on Andy, you guys can make it.

We noticed one tribute to a Fallen Peace Officer. This is a relatively new trail so as time goes on I hope more tributes are paid to law enforcement officers.