Desert Trip 2010 Trip report: Beyond the middle of nowhere, 5 days in 4wd

[DirtyLarry]

A couple of buddies and I took our second annual desert trip the week of July 12th to the back country of Utah for a week of trail riding, sightseeing and camping. We actually left at 6 am Saturday the 10th and returned home on Friday the 16th. We turned around 1,600 miles in the course of 6 days with around 400 miles in the dirt. Of the 400 miles, at least 200 miles were pretty severe trails (Hole in the Rock and Canyonlands National Park Maze District). Not really, technical trails, just a lot of steep low range crawling with a never ending supply of obstacles and huge drop offs on either side. The main attractions we saw along the way were the Doll House, The Maze Overlook and Ekker Butte.

We were very fortunate not to have any breakdowns, no major trail damage, over heated engines or anything again this year. We didn’t even see any snakes or scorpions. Although, we did experience temperatures as high as 122 degrees in some of the canyons with 105 degrees being the normal daytime temperature. Nights cooled down to the 60’s and 70's (31 degree low the last night we spent in the Colorado mountains)

The vehicles were a mostly stock 2002 Dodge Ram diesel with a leveling kit and 295 BFG’s and of course, my 8.1L powered K10. Both vehicles performed great the entire week.

I’ll post pictures of the highlights as I get time but you can view the trip summary on my SPOT GPS Adventure Page that also has geotabbed photos: You can zoom in to see where each photo was taken. Be patient, as this webpage loads slowly.
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view/?trip_id=213659

Day 1: Getting there



9 hours after we left home, we finally get on the Hole in the Rock trail just north of Lake Powell. We started this trail last year but ran out of time so this year we started with this trail first.




Camp 1 – Saturday night


We heard some weird noises that evening as we sat around the campfire. Turns out this little guy was right behind us in a little cave. Surprisingly, my camera lite up the night darkness like daytime.

[Prerunner1982]

Are you using Flickr for your pictures? I don't see that any were posted... so I am assuming that my work has it blocked. It doesn't block all the picture hosting sites, but I know it does block Flickr.

I enjoyed your trip last year and was excited to see you post about it again this year, but bummed now that I can see the pictures.

Can't win every time I suppose..

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by Prerunner1982

Are you using Flickr for your pictures? I don't see that any were posted... so I am assuming that my work has it blocked. It doesn't block all the picture hosting sites, but I know it does block Flickr.

I enjoyed your trip last year and was excited to see you post about it again this year, but bummed now that I can see the pictures.

Can't win every time I suppose..

Yeah, all of the pictures are hosted on Flickr. Sorry dude. Hopefully, you can take a look when you get home from work.

[DirtyLarry]

Sunday as we continue on our way down the Hole in the Rock trail.



Now this spot here got really hairy. The Dodge made it down after almost doing a barrel roll down the slick rock. See Youtube video. We decided to turn around at that point since we where 50 miles away from the nearest paved road. With open diffs the Dodge could not make it back up so I ended up winching him back to the top. It got pretty iffy there for a while. As usual, pictures and video do not serve justice to the severity of the trail.




It doesn’t look like it but this spot is really steep with 3 offcamber ledges to creep down.


The last few seconds of video you can see the LH rear tire of the Dodge pop up 3 to 4 feet in the air. It was looking like it was going over for a second. We didn’t get any video winching him back to the top as it took all three of us to do the winching and spoting.

YouTube- Hole in the Rock trail 3

Here is a video of mine crawling down the other side. It wasn't too bad of a trail but much steeper than it looks. You can hear the D-rings on the rear bumper banging like crazy. The base of the Hi-Lift jack rattles on the roof basket as well. Front tire took one of many bites out of the fender flares on here too. No fender flares where damaged on this trip believe it or not.

YouTube- Hole in the Rock trail 4

[DirtyLarry]

Awesome scenery along the way.







Relics lying out in the desert





Then a few miles down the trail towards the West was this one.

[DirtyLarry]

My buddy Bill checking out the dry river valley below. This area was called the “Fortress Ruins” which was an old Fort of sorts.





The river valley was like an Oasis


This mud hole was a surprise to see. Very stinky mosquito infested water to boot. We even got rained on for a few brief minutes.


As we ascend up the other side to our camp spot for Sunday night.

YouTube- Hole in the Rock trail 5

YouTube- Hole in the Rock trail 6

[DirtyLarry]

Camp 2: Sunday night



30 minutes later all that was left of the rain storm was a few puddles.


111 degrees in the shade




Our shower arrangement. The white jug holds 15 gallons while we had 15 more gallons in the trailer. By the end of the week, we used it all up plus had to get a refill a few times. You would be surprised how warm the showers were as water baked in the sun all day. Sure felt refreshing to take a shower every night.


View of the valley from atop the hill behind us.


My other buddy testing to see if he could get cell service from atop the same hill. Ah, nope…..


There must have been a million bats out this night. We also saw the space station pass over at dusk followed by several satellites that night. Actually, you see satellites every night out there in the extreme darkness.

[DirtyLarry]

Leaving camp Monday morning. From here we are making our journey up to the Hite marina on Lake Powell for fresh ice and to refuel then head into the Canyonlands National Park area.

YouTube- Hole in the Rock trail 7

Airing the tires up as we before getting on the highway. 2 hour drive to Hite from here. From where we camped Sunday night to here was about 30 to 40 miles.


Hwy 95 to Hite


Cheese Box


Jacob’s Chair


Road construction traffic jamb on the Hite Marina Rd. First time we saw anybody in a few days.


Refilled our water, ice and gas at the marina. This is one spot where it was over 120 degrees and I paid $4 a gallon for premium unleaded to feed the 8.1L.


Bridge over the Colorado River. Just on the other side of the river we hang a right to get on the trail.

[nbrfd007]

WOW!! What a great trip. Thank you for letting us go along with you with your photos!
Tim

[Redcap]

Very cool! Keep 'em comin'!

[DirtyLarry]

Got a lot more to go. The good stuff is still coming.....

[DirtyLarry]

Airing the tires down after getting on the trail that leads into the Maze District. This spot is just a minutes up the trail after we crossed that bridge.




Much dustier trail than Hole in the Rock


The majority of the lead-in trail is pretty clean where any stock 4x4 can go






Nice little shelf for a snake to hide. No luck






A few narrow spots in the trail along the way




3rd night of camping but the first camp spot in the Maze District. This campsite is known as “The Wall”

[DirtyLarry]

Tuesday morning we headed to the Doll House













Shade!




Colorado River way down there. Superzoom


Some flexing action going in and out of The Doll House




Next stop Ekker Butte

[DirtyLarry]

As we continue on our way to Ekker Butte. A lot of steep climbs with sharp turns and huge drop-offs





Magnificent views!


Now, the next corner starts to get hairy again. I was just crawling along listening to the iPod when we all came upon this tight corner with a pretty decent drop off then Bill called on the radio from the Dodge called telling me to come take a look. At first glance, it didn’t look passable with towing the trailer.

YouTube- Canyonlands 1

Bill navigating the corner. He had asked me to come take a look, so I figured I better film it in case he falls off that cliff so I can show his family he died doing someting he loved He made it look easy!

YouTube- Canyonlands 2

Now my turn. Keep in mind, I have a Detroit locker in the rear that really makes turning a hassle especially when the tires only have 12 psi in them, as the truck just plows forward instead of turning. It took me forever and 5 cuts to get around this corner thanks to the locker. My buddy from Michigan that was doing the filming and commentary is hilarious. Half in the bag at the time too. Believe it or not, no bumpers were harmed in the making of this video

YouTube- Canyonlands 3

A little further up the trail we ran into another interesting spot. Trailboss Bill decided I should lead since my rig is shorter plus I could winch from the other side if we had to. You can hear the D-rings, rattlely Hi-Lift jack, and Detroit locker banging around the entire time. A lot a rear tire chirp from the locker as well. This spot turned out to be easy but looked more intimidating in person than on video or in pictures.

YouTube- Canyonlands 4

60 miles from any paved road to get here….Ekker Butte Awesome!

[72BlckButy]

Great pics, and an amazing trip!

[Dieselwrencher]

Very cool trip! Someday I'd like to do something like this. The things you would see and do are surely once in a life time because I'm sure the same trip can't go the same twice. Thanks again for sharing these pics with us. One quick question, how do you know what all these land marks are called? just from being there so much, or is there a guide you purchase before you go on these trips?

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

One quick question, how do you know what all these land marks are called? just from being there so much, or is there a guide you purchase before you go on these trips?

My buddy Bill and I frequent a few Overlanding websites, buy a lot of books on southwestern desert expedition travel and subscribe to journals such as the Overland Journal. Bill is like a walking and talking trail map even for places he has never been, which is why he leads and we call him the trailboss.

[Dieselwrencher]

That is really cool. I figured you guys did your research ahead of time. You'd have to be really crazy just to wing it and hit those trails without a clue IMHO.

[DirtyLarry]

Camp 4 (second night in the Maze District)















Mark (Slim) throwing rotten Clementine’s off the cliff. There was a several second delay before you hear the slightest of a SPLAT!




Not only were we sleeping next to a cliff, it was windier than hell this night. Had to cook inside the truck. Bill’s chair is tied to the trailer by the trailers safety chains.



We all had to make a mental note that if we had to get up in the middle of the night to use the beer return station not to wonder too far from the trucks, as that first step is a dozy!


Packed up camp early Wednesday morning and headed to Moab for a day. It took 6 hours to drive from Ekker Butte back to Hwy 95 at Hite! ...all dirt and 90% in 4wd. 60 some trail miles, I believe.

Ekker Butte is only 40 miles from Moab as the crow flies but you can't drive there easily as there are several canyons between us and Moab. It was like 120 miles or so from Hite to Moab after the 6 hour ride to get off the trail at Hite. Wednesday was a llllllong day!

More later

[Dieselwrencher]

Man that is crazy to camp by the cliff. I bet it was fun though! Are there a lot of insects out there? I'm curious. Never been in a "real" desert.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Man that is crazy to camp by the cliff. I bet it was fun though! Are there a lot of insects out there? I'm curious. Never been in a "real" desert.

Actually, before we bedded down for the night I moved my truck to the other side of the Dodge so Slim could set up the tent in between both of our trucks and tie off to my wheels and the Dodge’s nerf bar being he couldn’t drive tent stakes into rock. We were still close to the cliff though.

Surprisingly, there were a lot of small flying biting knats. I still have bites all over my legs and arms. Tons of bats too! No creepy crawlers on the ground that we saw.


Along, the 6 hour drive back to Hwy 95. Easy section of the trail.


Airing the tires back up at Hwy 95 near Hite


After a few hours of Highway driving from Hite to Moab…

Camp 4 at Moab






We had a little friend hanging out with us Wednesday night


I-70 as we entered back into Colorado. People taking a pictures of us cruising down the interstate as we took pictures of them, well actually the sign


Back in the home state. Monarch Pass


We were dog tired and spent the last night right off Hwy 50 at the Blue Mesa Reservoir near Gunnison


Couldn’t take a complete shower, as there were too many other campers around. The water got pretty cold in the high country as well. When we woke up Friday morning the thermometer said 31 degrees! That was a huge change from what we were used to.



So that is it….

Over the course of the trip we used over 300 lbs if ice, drank over 100 bottles of water, few cases of beer, Cokes, etc. I did not keep track of how many gallons of fuel I burnt but the entire fuel bill to feed the 8.1L was close to $400. Before next years trip I going to get that NV4500 I have laying around installed so I can have overdrive. Direct drive is killing me on the highway on these long haul trips. The 8.1L actually did very well on fuel off-road as it pretty much lugs around at idle all the time, it was the highway travel that killed my mileage.

Don’t forget to check out the SPOT GPS Adventure page. You can zoom in to see where each picture was taken.
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view/?trip_id=213659

The entire collection of pictures from the trip are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1188958...7624408790269/

All Youtubes are here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DirtyLar...66B54CA0B63794

Last year’s Arizona Strip SPOT GPS Adventure page:
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=172579

Last year’s trip report:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=351848

[OrrieG]

Great post. One of the trips I want to take when I get the 59 done is out of Moab into the canyon lands. In the 70's I spent a lot of summer time in Northern AZ - 4 corners area tooling around in a VW van & my 59. I was limited by 2wd as to how far in I could go on some of the roads.

[Dieselwrencher]

Very cool trip! It looks like that was a lot of fun for sure! I bet that rock was really slippery when it rained on you that little bit in the first part of the trip.

[dmartin1]

that looks like an amazing trip!
heck id take a trailer back for that one old car sittin out there!but im just nuts ha.

your blazers a tank.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by dmartin1

your blazers a tank.

Thanks....but it is not a Blazer! Just a K10 with a cab-hi SnugTop topper.