Neon Canyon (Edge of the Earth), Escalante, Utah 

@CardboardAidedDesign Rental-car companies say it is not allowed to drive on unpaved roads and the car insurance won't cover potential damage.

@CardboardAidedDesign I think there might be a misunderstanding. I would like to drive on dirt roads myself but I am just too afraid, something happens to the car on such a road and thus ruining my vacation.

Hi Alex, yes, I rent a car, then drive carefully (as I always do) and hope I don't get into trouble on the dirt roads, if I do get into trouble then I'll need to get myself out, because I you say the rental company won't help, or at least they'll charge you the full amount plus an annoyance fee. I got a flat tyre (US tire) on HITR Rd once, changed it he spare and drove out to town to plug the hole at a mechanic. We got bogged in sand near The Gulch, dug the sand out then one Melissa pushed as I reversed out. Flying into Vegas you get to choose your own car from the lot, but we flew into Denver this time ad were given a car with lower clearance than we hired, disappointing, that immediately canceled ~5 canyons where we knew we'd need high clearance for the road in. Yes, driving on dirt roads with a rental car adds some stress, but we're on holiday (vacation) with some high-quality, adventure-of-a-lifetime objectives so the outweigh the stress, but as I said, we drive carefully and assess the road carefully while driving - one person often gets out and walks ahead if we're unsure about the road ahead. Hope that helps, Rich.

​@@richard_pattison Thank you Richard for the detailed response! I really wondered if there is a secret to it, but there seems to be none. I think your way of dealing with it is as much as you can do if you really want to reach those trailheads. I also clean the car for 15 $ myself before returning it just to reduce the risk of those immense cleaning fees and so they don't look closer than necessary. When something engine wise breaks it would help, if you get towed to a paved road first, before you call the car rental, but that hopefully always remains a worse case scenario and not a reality. Well, then it is a good reason to revisit the area for those 5 canyons and much more! PS: I have also been lying on the ground of a rental car company parking garage comparing the clearances of a Civic and an Elantra (Elantra wins) :D fun times

@@keinnamemann1 there are people and organizations that will rent out cars that are not big car rental companies. I’m not sure how to find it but I know it’s out there and I bet if you call some of the canyoneering companies in the southwest and they can point you in the right direction. You can probably also message people that have Overland RU-vid channels where they spent a lot of time in the south west and they can help you out a lot. Personally, I grew up on a farm, and we drove small Toyota sedans, Hondas, Nissans, and all of that all over the farm and treated them like giant pick up trucks, and they worked harder than most big pick up trucks do these days. We did that as children, driving tractors and electric golf carts as well. we got raised a redneck lifestyle so we have an intuition as adults for how to drive 2 Wheel Dr. vehicles better than many unexperienced people can drive a four-wheel-drive vehicle. We can clear deep ruts and boulders, or drive across different parking lots over the dividers. Lol. Definitely not an insult to anybody else, just saying that we all get raised different ways and if we let go of our anxiety, sometimes we could master the challenge ahead. So many of the people on these canyoneering and hiking channels are so hard-core, I have a lot of respect for y’all. We are all brave and afraid at different times. Or careful!