We arrived yesterday afternoon and this morning I drove over to the scenic drive entrance, paid my $20 to enter. First thing I noticed was a lack of signs pointing me where the drive starts. 
There was a large visitor center and larger parking lots full of buses, RV’s and cars. I saw quite a few (many) tour vehicles. They were pickup trucks with a bunch of bench seats replacing the usual truck bed. There was a roof over the benches but no sides. It was 95 degrees there at 11 am, so the lack of AC would make that 2.5 hour drive a bit uncomfortable. So I drove the Equinox instead of taking a tour, and I was glad I did! As I drove the circuit, I realized that the worst thing would be the dust, as I could see almost everyone on those benches had handkerchiefs over their faces. The tour vehicles tended to drive in small packs of three or four, and the folks behind the first truck were in a dust storm. I am not sure the passengers in the last vehicle could even see anything.
Enough of that, let me explain the road. I’ve been on some pretty rough roads in the past, but I had never traversed anything even close to this and there were 17 miles of it. For $20 you would think they would occasionally grade it. That was not part of the plan. Some places I felt like I was rock crawling in a jeep. Two miles an hour seemed like it might be too quick for the terrain, and this was supposedly a road. There were many places to stop and take pictures and just gawk at the magnificence of it all. After about an hour into the drive, I was ready to be done with the jarring and bouncing around, but it was a one-way road so I had to keep going. 
Kathy was the smart one today as she had begged off going. I’m glad I did it though as you cannot see anything from the main roads. This valley is hidden away.
