… are said to provide the only true access to the vast scale of the Capitol Reef National Park and the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument (or GSENM for short) areas.

Guess what this is?
Solution to follow below…

So that’s why I got an AWD car with some clearance (huh?!) to navigate these backcountry roads. Most of them are gravel, fine gravel, sand or sand dunes literally, and consequently there’s a lot of dust and a little bit of rocks in between. Well, driving the backroads of Notom-Bullfrog and Burr Trail in Capitol Reef and then the Hell’s Backbone Road north of Escalante were in total more than 100 miles on dirt track and some of it (probably the “Hell” part) was a bit too much for the car – or at least for one tire.

Funnily enough, before leaving in the early morning, the information panel showed “front left tire pressure low” and after filling the rear left tire with some air the message disappeared. However, there was no indication that something could be wrong with the tires, so I happily left and cruised through the dust. After reaching Hwy 12 again and passing through Red Canyon, I wanted to stop for some more pictures and getting out of the car I heard a hissing sound – from the rear left tire. The source was quickly identified, it was clearly losing air. So no photos but speeding to the next town some 15 miles down the road in the hope of making it there before all the air made it out of the tube. I was lucky and got even an open tire center with a young boy of about 13 years running the entire shop and fixing the problem for 10 dollars in no time (let’s see for how long). Because: After locating the hole and before fixing it, a large screwdriver was used to get the hole bigger and the hissing noise louder (“now it is really leaking air!”). Then some red stuff was forced and squeezed into the tire, air added and off I went. This is my person of the day!

This is the rear window of the car!

And here’s the boy fixing the car!