Nothing Special's Moab Trip - 2021

[Nothing Special]

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...

[FuzzFace2]

Love the pictures

Be safe and enjoy

Dave ----

[Gary Lewis]

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.

[Nothing Special]

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!

.... 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!)

 

[grumpin]

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!

.... 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!

[Nothing Special]

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.

[Gary Lewis]

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.

[Nothing Special]

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.

[Gary Lewis]

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.

[Nothing Special]

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.