Nothing Special's Moab Trip - 2021

Lesley and I just got back from our second trip to Moab Utah.  Our first trip was in 2019 (see that trip report here).  After that trip we planned to go back to Moab in spring of 2020 with our younger son.  But then 2020 happened, so the trip got pushed back to now.  And Dan got married in November.  He and his new wife just moved to a new city and she's starting a new job, so there was no possibility of them being able to come.  So it was Lesley and I again.

Like the previous trip report I'll try to add one post each day and (mostly) cover one day of the trip in each post.  That makes it easier for me to manage, and it allows more back-and-forth on each day, which is more fun, at least for me!  (Hopefully for others as well).  This post will cover the drive out.  I'll try to add the first trail day tomorrow.

We hit the road after I got off work on Friday (May 7) in our class C motorhome, flat-towing the Bronco.  While I did get new tires for the Bronco last summer (33/12.50-15 Pro-Comp Xtreme MTs), they aren't balanced well enough for freeway travel.  So rather than risk shaking the Bronco to pieces behind the motorhome I stuck with my worn out 33/10.50-15 BFG A/T KOs.  I figured Moab slickrock gave good enough traction that those tires would do fine (as long as they survived the freeway miles ).  Spoiler alert, they did both (fine on the rocks and survived the freeway that is).

Generally the drive out was pretty uneventful except for two notable exceptions.  As we were starting up I70 out of Denver into the mountains we saw signs saying that the Eisenhower Tunnel was closed due to "police action" (more ) and that traffic was being routed over Loveland Pass.  Loveland Pass is a winding 2 lane road while the Eisenhower Tunnel is a straight shot with two lanes in each direction.  So that led to a BIG back-up.  Plus it started to snow on us as we sat in the back-up!  I'm always pushing Lesley to take Loveland as a scenic alternative to the tunnel (when we have time).  But in heavy traffic, in snow, and with next to zero visibility since we were already in the cloud on I70... not so much.  Fortunately they opened the tunnel just before we got to the turn-off for Loveland Pass, so we didn't have to take the scenic route this time.  We found out later that there had been some sort of bomb threat in the tunnel.  They closed it (obviously!) and then reopened it after they had determined it was a hoax and the tunnel was clear.

The other event was going over Vail Pass, just west of the tunnel.  I70 goes over Vail in all its 4-lane glory, and no tunnel, so going over the pass was the only option, but generally a good one.  We did get in quite a bit of snow, with very low visibility, so it was a little exciting.  But the road was never slippery, so it wasn't bad, just seemed like it could get bad.  Here's a picture in the rest stop near the top of Vail Pass where we stopped to eat dinner.  (To see what that picture is supposed to look like, see the first picture in my 2019 trip report.  That's from pretty much the same spot looking in the same direction).



I suppose another "event" was getting the motorhome's generator started at 10,666' in the cold.  It took a few tries before it would run well enough to not die as soon as it saw a load.  But eventually it ran well so we could heat up the taco meat in the microwave (I like traveling in a motorhome!).

Fortunately the weather improved as we lost some elevation on the west side of the divide.  We spent a nice Saturday night in a rest stop in the Glenwood Canyon...



... and since we had started the trip on Friday we had time to stop at a rest stop in Utah where we could get out and hike a little bit...



... before getting to our campground in Moab by noon on Sunday.  Somehow I neglected to get any pictures of our camp site, but here's a couple of views from our camp site.




So that was the trip out.  More to come...

Love the pictures
Be safe and enjoy
Dave ----

Great report!  Can't wait for the rest of the reports!

As for the idea of going over Loveland Pass in the snow, I'd say NO!  Beed there, done that, was quite scared doing so.  We did it west to east in a '69 Super Bee.  Snowing HARD and the road was getting packed.  As we were coming down the east side I looked several hairpins ahead/below and there was a little Dart with its right front hanging in the breeze.  I remember distinctly reaching up and getting the shoulder harness and buckling it on.  

So I'm really glad the tunnel opened up before you had to go over the pass.  And, glad the rest of the trip seems to have gone well.  Looking forward to the next installments.  

FuzzFace2 wrote

Love the pictures
Be safe and enjoy
Dave ----

Thanks!  There'll be more pictures!

As far as "Be safe and enjoy", been there, done that, I guess.  This may be a spoiler alert, but no one and nothing got hurt, and it was a fun trip!  But unfortunately it's over now.  Except that I get to relive it as I share it here!

Gary Lewis wrote

....  As for the idea of going over Loveland Pass in the snow, I'd say NO!  Beed there, done that, was quite scared doing so....

I don't think it would've been that bad for us.  The temp was high enough (and had been for quite a while) that it was all melting as it hit the pavement.  And there was a LOT of traffic going over Loveland right then, which would have helped keep the road clear.  But still, it wouldn't have been any fun, and with no visibility the scenic route wasn't even scenic.  Add in the heavy traffic and yes, we were VERY glad the tunnel opened up in time for us (and that it wasn't blown up!)

Cool! Beautiful scenery!

Monday - Elephant Hill

On our last trip to Moab we spent one tourist day at Arches National Park.  On this trip Lesley wanted to go to Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park.  As we were researching what to do at those parks we found that Canyonlands promotes fourwheeling (trucks, not ATVs) in the park!  Elephant Hill is one of the trails that sounded good to me.  Lesley thought it sounded too hard, but I convinced her to let us try it, promising I'd turn around if I needed to.  Turns out I didn't need to!

The trail starts immediately as you leave the parking lot at a hiking trail head.  It heads up a steep hill with a switchback so tight that you need to run out straight to where there's a wide area to get turned around.  Here I am starting up just after turning around there.


Just up from there the Bronco got to flex a bit for the camera...


After you top the hill you start down the other side.  I got out and walked it to see if we needed to turn around.  It was steep enough that I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to drive up if it was in Colorado (where the rocks are slipperier than the very sticky "slickrock" in Utah).  As it was I was glad there were three Jeeps that were heading up as I was scouting.  I got to watch their lines and see what worked and what didn't work (there was plenty of both).  Part way down this section there's another switchback that's too tight for most vehicles, but without a turn-around point like there was coming up.  So you just back down to the next switchback.

Here are a couple of pictures coming down that hill.



From there the trail was mostly pretty easy with a few interesting challenges.  The easy sections were generally smooth enough that you could go pretty fast (15 mph speed limit) and not get beat up, so that was really nice.  Here are a couple of the interesting parts...



The trail gets down to another trail called Devil's Lane, which is mostly a pretty fast two-track.  We took that south.  There was one interesting part on that section of trail where you drive over some pretty big rocks as you make a tight turn.  This picture shows the rocks you need to drive over but doesn't do justice to how tight the turn was.  As I was internet scouting the trail before the trip I saw several people who felt they needed to back through this to avoid having to make the tight turn.  I found it not too difficult to make a three-point turn (which meant backing up onto the rocks that it looks like I'm missing).


They you get back to the relatively fast two-track again...


Devil's Lane takes you down to a hiking trail called the Joint Trail, that takes you to what I would call slot canyons (but the ranger corrected me and told me they were joints, hence the trail name).  We didn't go too far on the trail, but far enough to get into the joints and take some pictures...


At that point we headed back north on Devil's Lane.  We had intended to go farther north to The Confluence, where the Green River flows into the Colorado River, but it was getting a little late and the sky was looking a little threatening.  I didn't relish the thought of going up Elephant Hill in the rain, so we cut it short and headed back.

There were a couple of mid-size trucks struggling to make it up Elephant Hill when we got there.  They both made it, but not without a lot of retries to get the right line, and a lot of help from their spotters.  Then Lesley hiked up with the video camera (so sorry, no good still pictures).  As I drove up she enjoyed hearing them wonder when she was going to start spotting, because there was no way I'd make it up without  help.  And then the Bronco walked right up.  It sounds like I'm bragging, and maybe I am.  But I know that I and my Bronco are really nothing that special, it was more that these trucks were pretty stock and the drivers were pretty green.  Still, it was nice to not fall on my face when I had an audience!

Here's a screen capture from the video of me starting up what's probably the steepest part...


From there it was relatively easy to go over the top and down the front side.  It started raining as we were airing up in the parking lot at the trailhead, so we didn't beat it by much.

The three Jeeps going up when we were going down, and then the two trucks going up right before us were about the only vehicles we saw (one other Jeep drove by us when we were having lunch).  We did see quite a few hikers near and on the Joint Trail.  But this is a pretty lonely trail, so if you break down you might not get much help (and the park videos stress the $2000 recovery fee if you need to hire a towing company to get you out!).

Elephant Hill is quite a ways from Moab.  It took us about an hour and a half to drive the 70 miles to get to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.  And the trail takes some time too, we spent about 5 hours going about 15 miles.  So it's a full day trip.  The trail isn't for beginners or really for full size trucks.  But it was a fun trail!  After not being sure she wanted to do it, Lesley finished the day saying we weren't going to be able to top it!  (spoiler alert, we did on Wednesday, but you'll have to wait for that!).

Edit to add in January 2022:  I finally started a YouTube channel so now I can post my video from this trip.  Here is the video from Elephant Hill.

Wow!  Beautiful pictures!  

And, an excellent writeup.  Cool that the Bronco, with its driver, motored right on up w/o a spotter.  

So, how did the Bronco run?  Did the carb work pay off?  Did it idle and not die?

I'd really like to go there, but your statement that "The trail isn't for beginners or really for full size trucks" has me thinking that's not a good idea since Big Blue and I are both of those things.  Besides, I don't think he'd fit through some of those openings.  

The Bronco ran great the whole time.  I started with the .052" jets and it was starting a little hard so I dropped down to the .050"s.  That helped, but a little throttle was still necessary.  But no dying.

Otherwise the only vehicle issue was that I had to add brake fluid twice.  I guess I have a leak I need to track down too.  But on the plus side, I didn't have to add any oil, so I've at least slowed those leaks!

The main issue for a full size truck is simply fitting.  It MIGHT fit everywhere (Lesley saw a video of an H2 Hummer going through that narrow spot in one of my pictures), but there won't be much margin for error.

And I certainly wouldn't recommend this trail for a beginner, unless they are traveling with someone who can help them through it.  It's not ridiculously hard or anything, but it's not a place to learn on your own.

Glad the carb worked well.  But I understand the brake leak bit - I'm there as well.

Yeah, I need more experience, for sure.  Hope to get some of it later this year.  Looks like maybe just my brother and I'll go to Ouray.

I should probably mention that you do need a permit to drive the Elephant Hill trail.  You can get it on-line (check out the Canyonlands National Park web site) or at the ranger station.  There are a limited number given out, so we got one on-line rather than risk getting shut out after the 1.5 hour drive to the park.  Also group size is limited to three vehicles, so if you're in a bigger group you'll need to split up.

Gary Lewis wrote

....  Yeah, I need more experience, for sure.  Hope to get some of it later this year.  Looks like maybe just my brother and I'll go to Ouray.

Ouray is a good place to gain experience.  I know you remember but we discussed that a couple years ago, partly in this trip report.  Engineer Mountain Road and Poughkeepsie Gulch are particularly good choices for gaining experience in Ouray, because they are the more challenging trails there.  Have fun!!!

Thanks!  I do remember what you said, so am thinking of this as a learning exercise as well as just lots of fun.  

Tuesday - Long Canyon Road, Canyonlands Natl Park,  Shafer Switchbacks

Tuesday was a tourist day, but we still hit a couple of mild trails.  Our main goal was to drive around the roads in the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park, and do a few short hikes.

For people not familiar with it, Canyonlands Park has canyons in it.  Duh!  But the implications aren't as obvious.  The Green and Colorado rivers meet in the park, so the canyons of those rivers divide the park into three sections:  Island in the Sky is between the Green and Colorado canyons, Needles (where Elephant Hill is) is east of the Colorado, and the Maze is west of the Green - Colorado.  And there's no good way to cross any of those canyons / rivers in the park, so it's a long haul to get from one district to another.

Anyway, to keep it a little more interesting we decided that rather than take hwy 313 to the park we'd take hwy 279 to Long Canyon Road and take that up to the park.  I'm certainly not sorry we went that route, but I don't know that we'll do it again.  In was an OK dirt road for the most part, and I did all but about 20 feet of it in 2WD (definitely needed 4WD for those 20 feet though!).  We didn't pause for any pictures though.  We didn't see anyone else on the road.  If anyone wants to try this route, it's very doable for any high clearance 4WD.

Once we were in the park we hiked to Grand View Point, Upheaval Dome and Mesa Arch.  All total we walked about 5 miles.








Then we decided to take another road less traveled to get back to Moab.  The Shafer Switchbacks drop down from the mesa top and connect to Potash Road which goes through to the end of hwy 279 and back to Moab.

The Shafer Switchbacks were well worth it!  I describe them as Black Bear Road for minivans, but I don't mean that in a demeaning way.  Black Bear is an easy 4WD trail that's fun and scary because it's steep, narrow and has tight switchbacks.  The Shafer Switchbacks is an easy gravel road that's fun and scary because it's steep, narrow and has tight switchbacks.  I did the entire thing in 2WD, usually in 2nd or 3rd gear.  Anyone can do this road in any vehicle, but some people might not want to (and no, I'm not saying you should drive a semi down it!).  We saw probably 8 - 10 other vehicles on this road, going both ways.  It was never too hard to get past someone when it was needed.




That brought us down to Potash Road.  That was not well worth it.  There are certainly some good views from Potash, but there are good views everywhere out there.  It only took a little over an hour to go about 10 miles, but it was not a pleasant hour.  The road is rough, but not challenging.  It would have been better if I aired down, but I didn't want to take the time to air back up.  If I had it to do over I'd still do the Shafer Switchbacks, but then I'd turn around, go back up and head back to Moab on hwy 313.  Anyway, here are a couple of the views...




At that point were were pretty worn out from the hiking and Potash Road.  So rather than going back to camp and cooking dinner we stopped in town and had burgers and shakes at the Moab Diner.  A good way to end a good day!

Beautiful pics, Bob!  I love that country!  We've been in Canyonlands, but not on Potash Road.  And we've been near that area several times from several different directions, including a float trip on the Green.

Anyway, I hope we can make it out there in the not too distant future.  Your "travel guides" will prove very helpful, so please keep them coming!

Nice! Thanks for sharing!

Obviously most of the fun in a trip like this is the trip itself.  But planning it ahead of time is also fun, and sharing it afterward is fun too.  So you're helping me stretch my enjoyment of the trip!  Thank you!

Wednesday - Metal Masher, Gemini Bridges

I told you before that Lesley hadn't thought we'd be able to top Elephant Hill (as opposed to when she first thought we couldn't get to the top of Elephant Hill...).  She was similarly concerned about doing a trail called "Metal Masher."  But long before we were done with this trail she decided that we had, in fact, topped Elephant Hill!

Metal Masher is listed as one of the most difficult trails in the guide book I have, but the book also says that there are bypasses to the most difficult parts.  So I went in figuring we could probably get through it, even if we had to take most of the bypasses.  As it turns out, there were quite a number of places where there were optional lines ranging from easy to "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!" but there were also quite a few places where the easiest line was far from easy.  So it's not a beginner trail unless you go in figuring that you'll turn around when you get to something that's beyond your abilities.  In that case it's fine, as long as you have a good understanding of your abilities!  (This reminds me of a T-shirt I saw in a Moab store that said something like "Confidence:  The feeling you get before you completely understand the situation.)

Metal Masher is accessed off the Gemini Bridges road.  If you come in from the north you pass Gooney Bird Rock.  According to the Bleepin' Jeep YouTube channel guys there's a legend that if you touch the Gooney Bird's toes (drive across the rock at the base) it will give you luck.  The problem is, the legend doesn't specify if that will be good luck or bad luck (Doom, despair and agony, oh me).  There are plenty of tire tracks across his toes, but there's also a "bypass" from people so intent on not touching his toes that they've gone completely off the trail to avoid it.  I decided that I didn't want bad luck, and I hoped that I didn't need good luck, so I stayed off his toes (but did stay on the trail).



Here is one of those places with a range of options.  I'm going up the intermediate route.  To my left is a significantly easier route...



... but to my right is this!  No, I didn't drive up it, this is just a poser shot.  But it does give another view of the intermediate line that I did take.  It's one of the more difficult lines I've taken, so it was fun to be gaining confidence (and finding that it wasn't just not understanding!).



Here's a few more fun sections.  The first one shows the max flex I get out of my Bronco (yes, it hiked up the right rear tire just a bit).









Then we got to a section called "Mirror Gulch" (I'm guessing because the rocks on the sides have an appetite for mirrors).  It was no gimme so I hiked it first to scout it out.  While I was doing that a group of about 8 side-by-sides went up and gave me another perspective.  They stopped for lunch at the top, which meant I now had an audience!  Fortunately the Bronco was able to pretty much crawl the entire way up , only having to back up once.  The second picture below is from the top of Mirror Gulch.  This was the only place the whole week I wasn't able to crawl an obstacle.  The rock was a little dusty so I was slipping too much.  I backed up about a foot and bumped it lightly and scrambled up the second try.





There were a couple more fun spots after that before we got to an escape route a little before the bypass to "Widow Maker."  We decided that we'd had enough fun from this trail, and were thinking getting back to the pool sooner rather than later might be a good idea after yesterday's more draining day.  So we took the escape route.  This points out another really nice thing about Metal Masher.  Like Elephant Hill, a lot of the parts of the trail that aren't fun obstacles are smooth sand 2-tracks.  So it doesn't beat you up the entire time.

Overall we spent about 4 hours covering 11 miles (not counting Gemini Bridges to get to the trailhead).  Along with the group of side-by-sides we saw going up Mirror Gulch we saw two other side-by-sides come down it, another large group of side-by-sides were coming up as we were heading down toward the escape route, and there were 2 trucks at the trailhead when we went in (but we never saw them on the trail).  So it wasn't deserted, but it wasn't very busy either.


The escape route gave us a good way to get back to the trailhead so we could pick up the Gemini Bridges trail again.  We stopped and took the short hike to see the bridges.  Lesley posed for a picture with confidence born from a lack of understanding (she freaked out a bit after getting up and looking at where she had just been sitting!)



If you're just looking to see Gemini Bridges, the road from the south is a lot smoother than the road from the north.  We met a couple coming in from the north in a JL Wrangler who ended up turning around because the road was too rough and shelfy for them.  They'd have had no trouble coming in from the south.  Most people and all 'wheelers would have no trouble from the north either, but if you're just looking for a pleasant drive, come and go to the south.


So that was the best trail day of the trip.  It was a lot of fun for me to push myself a bit and find I could do it.  Lesley really enjoyed seeing the Bronco do some harder lines.  And we both really appreciated not getting beat up.  And Gemini Bridges was a great "bonus" along the way!

Edit to add in January 2023:  Here's the video from Metal Masher

Man, your Bronco has some articulation!  That, and the lack of overhang make a big difference to Big Blue.  I'm in awe of the places you and your Bronco can go!  

I don't have a desire to even attempt some of those places, but it is really cool to see what can be done.  And the scenery is glorious.  

I REALLY want to get out there at some point.  Please keep the reports coming, this is so much fun to read/watch.

Very nice scenery, I’d like to go in that area someday.

I’m impressed with your Bronco! And you!

Thanks for the kind words!

I wanted to comment about your compliments about the Bronco's articulation and off-road capabilities, but I thought that would fit better in my project thread, so I stuck it there.  The Reader's Digest condensed version is that I agree that it does work well, but it really isn't all that special (see my screen name!).  It has a few mods that work well.  And the size of an early Bronco is certainly not a bad starting point either.

As far as my abilities go, I'm a slow learner, but at least I'm trainable!  I've been 'wheeling for 36 years.  I'm not very good for having that many years of experience.  But I'm not bad and I'm getting better.  And the "getting better" is fun!

What's also fun is 'wheeling an unusual trail rig.  Bronco's didn't used to be that, but now that they've become "collectible" you don't see many out there.  And it's so easy to get a side-by-side or a Wrangler Rubicon that are more capable than my Bronco that you don't see much else on the trails.  So when people see me with an old truck they don't expect me to take it where I do, or for me to do it as successfully as I do.  It's a lot of fun to surprise them!