Road Trip - April-May 2026 - #14 - Potash

May 3

May 3, 2026

While standing in line for the bathroom at the restaurant we went to last night, I chatted with a woman, exchanging where we were from and which places we had been to. She told me, “As you leave Moab, there’s a sign for ‘Potash.’ Drive it!” I told Randy about it, and we did. Phenomenal.

You never know where you’ll get good ideas! Usually, when I am in line for the women’s room, I am indignant that we have to wait while the men just walk in to theirs. Sometimes, in high dudgeon, I go into the men’s room. I thought about doing that this time, but decided against it, and now I am very glad.

Randy and I felt like we were inside the Canyonlands rather than above them, looking down, as we were yesterday. It reminded me of the part in the Lord of the Rings movie when the hobbits are in a boat going down a river surrounded by cliffs, going through a gate with huge stones topped by sculpted gods.

I think it’s kind of cute (if I do say so myself) the way Randy and I point things out to each other as we drive.

“There’s a big rock that nearly got on the road.”
“Wow, look at that!”
“Those stones look kind of like cliff dwellings.”
“Unbelievable that this is just on the side of the road.”

For all our photos of this part of our trip, click here.

For all our photos of the whole trip, click here.

(Click on the pictures below to enlarge.)

The first thing we saw on this road was people rock climbing. They just parked their cars and climbed up. There were climbing holds (anchors? grips?) already in many spots. I loved the way friends encouraged each other as they watched or stood at the bottom to hold their ropes. “Good job!” “You’re doing great!”

Then a bunch of petroglyphs!

Ancient roof pole holes

There was a potash mine on the road (hence the name) right before the road headed off to Canyonlands. (I had to google it; potash is a group of chemicals and minerals used in fertilizer.) There were two memorial stones for two disasters at the mine. I love the way they used poetry to define their grief. And people put stones on the memorials, a sign of respect, I always think, not just for those who died but for those left in grief.