Chinese Arch, Spiral Jetty, Kelton, Russian Graves, Devil's Playground & Grouse

[sLcREX]

Our trip started out with meeting at the Pilot gas station in Brigham City off of I-15 with Dave (moab_cj5) and 3 additional Jeeps. I was the last one to arrive so after fueling up for the trip and grabbing a snack we were on our way. We got on the main road and headed towards Promontory, UT and the Golden Spike area. We skipped the visitor's center and continued onto the graded road.
Our first stop in this trip was the Chinese Arch, Dave gave us a run down of the story behind the arch and the railroad. He did alot of that during this trip, thanks Dave!

After getting a good look we proceeded on towards the Spiral Jetty. I had only ever seen it in pictures before so I was pretty excited to finally see it for myself. On our way in we noticed the water level was pretty low of what was supposed to be the lake so we suspected the Jetty might not even be submerged like most pictures have led to believe. Once we arrived we confirmed our hunch. On the plus side we were able to go out there and walk onto the spiral itself which I havent really seen pictures of that before, so that was a plus.

Once we wrapped up at the Spiral Jetty we were onto the next location. Our goal for the day before nightfall was to arrive at Kelton, on our way there we stopped in at the Elephant Arch I believe it's called. Which I can certainly see how it got its name, it was another cool spot to walk around in. By this time one of our companions was out for the trip since it was gonna start being nightfall soon and they were not going to stay for the camp.

After this trip we headed on towards Kelton, we did spot the Kelton Cemetary so we made a quick stop there and had a look around before continuing on. Didnt get a good picture unfortunately. It looks better in my LCD display on my camera....lol

Light was starting to run out on us so we were trying to hurry on our way to the camp site but finding a suitable place was starting to become a challenge. Fortunately we found just the spot arriving at approximately 6pm, which turned out to be a pretty excellent area all things considered. Once there we quickly worked to set up the tents and get a fire going.

Our one and only group shot, from left to right; Steve, forgot your name sorry, Eric, Dave, me (Noe) and there was one more person but I think he went to bed early.

I went up behind the camp ground to snap a picture of the stars, they were out in full effect thanks to the clear skies! It was amazing, too bad I couldnt quite capture the beauty of it.

After a few tries I just took a quick shot of the camp site from where I was standing and got this picture

Now if you couldn't quite see it in that picture....can someone tell me WTF this is? Looks like a face forming in the smoke?!

We went to bed around 11pm, fortunately there was plenty of wood to keep the fire going and still some for the following morning. That wrapped up Day 1 of the trip.

 

[sLcREX]

Picking up on Day 2 I woke right about 7am when I heard some shuffling outside. So I got dressed and walked out to a frosty morning. The temperature was at 20 degrees so we quickly got the fire started. There was a good 1/4" of ice crystals on top of the tents. Fortunately my tent stayed dry inside and didnt build any condensation, at least none that I could tell. Soon after everyone started coming out of the tents and getting the breakfast ready.

Sun hadnt come out yet so I snapped a couple of shots of the morning's sunrise behind all the inversion.

Once camp was wrapped up we starting making our way further West towards the Russian Graveyards. Dave had some good history on this site, I believe he said they were set up there to try and harvest the land but after about 4 years nothing ever came to fruition. I'll let Dave fill in the history on this since I'm probably making some vague descriptions of it.

Quick picture of the rigs seeing as I havent posted any yet

And yes I was the only Toyota

From here we continued on our way towards Devil's Playground, on our way there we had to cross through a huge washout or pipe line that spanned several feet, fortunately the crossing wasnt as bad as the rest of it. Seeing as this was the only real obstacle we had come across (besides fenced off routes we couldnt cross) we all got out and just watched one another cross it lol

 

[sLcREX]

Next up was to head a bit north if my sense of navigation serves me well. Dave was leading so I didnt keep track too much of which direction we were headed in. More so trying to see past the dust On our way we came across remaining tracks of what I believe was the old Railroad, not sure if it is in fact it or if it may have been relocated because right next to it was Terrace Cemetary. A few minutes further up the road we came to another remnat of a railroad bridge.

After a few high speed trails we finally came up to the entrance to Devil's Playground, here's some pictures

I believe this is highway UT-30 that cuts across the landscape

While looking at the region one of the guys told me that my tire was going flat. So I walked back to the 4Runner and sure enough something had punctured my tire in the playground and it was deflating. With some help from the guys we quickly got me switched into my spare tire.

But not having a secondary spare or a plug kit and a compressor I was SOL if something else were to puncture my tire out here. So I decided that rather than be a liability to the rest of the group I may need to cut my losses and head back home. At least I managed to see a bit of Devil's Playground, although I guess I should have looped around the whole region before heading back. But this is the end of my report, I'll post up some pictures that I took from my phone later on. But we will see the pictures Dave posts to complete the last stretch of this trip.

All in all it was an awesome experience and with great company! This was an excellent group and I'd be happy to go on another trip with them. I havent really found a need to upgrade tires since getting my 4Runner and although the size hasnt been an issue so far, I think more importantly I will look to getting a more aggressive tire before future trips to hold up to the terrain. I think that would've prevented the tire getting punctured so easily.

 

[sLcREX]

Here's a quick video I put together of the crossing. Thanks to Mike for holding the GoPro while everyone crossed.


[video=youtube_share;hYHihJJguEs]http://youtu.be/hYHihJJguEs[/video]

 

[frieed]

But not having a secondary spare or a plug kit and a compressor I was SOL if something else were to puncture my tire out here. So I decided that rather than be a liability to the rest of the group I may need to cut my losses and head back home.

Wow, a group that size and no one had plug kit or compressor...

Great pics though, shame you couldn't make the whole trip.

Now if you had been driving a Jeep, you'd have had several back-up spares

 

[sLcREX]

Wow, a group that size and no one had plug kit or compressor...

Great pics though, shame you couldn't make the whole trip.

Now if you had been driving a Jeep, you'd have had several back-up spares

I know, it was definitely an unfortunate situation. I had even looked at my plug kit the morning before I left and was planning on putting it in along with the rest of my recovery gear but in the end I spaced it and I didnt pack it out with me. At least that would've solved part of the issue. But a compressor is on my christmas wishlist this year so we'll see.

But you're right, the Jeeps would've had my bases covered, there were 33" 35" and 37"s in the group lol.

 

[moab_cj5]

Great write up! Ill post up some more pics too, and pick up the story after you took off.

BTW, Greg and his wife Wendy left early, and Mike is in the group pic while Brandon was in the tent sleeping and trying to stay warm...

 

[sLcREX]

Great write up! Ill post up some more pics too, and pic up where you took off.

BTW, Greg and his wife Wendy left early, and Mike is in the group pic while Brandon was in the tent sleeping and trying to stay warm...

Thanks! Feel free to add in any commentary on any of the parts I mentioned or didn't mention to complete the story.

 

[Tonkaman]

One reason I shy away from that area is its reputation for flattening tires. Until I get a second spare tire I don't think I'll explore out there

 

[moab_cj5]

I won't recap the whole trip, but I will add some photos and trail descriptions after Maldito X left.

Here was my Jeep loaded down and ready to head out. What you can't see in the pic is how full the back of the Jeep is. I didn't fold the rear seat down, but there wasn't much more room to be had back there.



In the end, I didn't end up needing to carry gas since I filled up in Grouse Creek, but having it set my mind at ease for the unknown, and this trip was all about the unknown for me.
This rack is fine for trips like this, but I did have to remove it once to go through the wash Maldito X mentioned above. I need to come up with a better way to carry extra gas outside my Jeep. I am personally not a fan of carrying it inside my vehicle.

Getting ahead of myself, here was the route we took. The purple line is the route my gps recorded as we drove.



We only passed though open gates where there was no indication of property ownership, or closed gates (that we closed after us) where there was nothing posted. We never knowingly trespassed.
When Maldito X mentioned we went North from Russian Knoll, we actually headed West and South West from there.

Here was the whole group of vehicles at Chinese Arch. I think this was the only group shot of the vehicles with everyone that participated in at least part of the trip. The other 3 Jeeps are from Jeep Forum.



Here are some pics I took at the Spiral Jetty. The salt covering the rocks was insane. It looked like ice all over the ground and rocks.



Playing around behind Elephant Arch. I figured I would use 4 low on the first day, and this was the only chance I would end up with.



Here was the first wash we had to pass through after Russian Knoll. Not nearly as intense as the 2nd one where I had to remove my rack to get through.



This little section of road made me nervous. I was the widest track on the trip and I wasn't sure if I would need to use the railroad tie in the last hole to get through. My track are easy to spot because they are the widest of the tracks seen. I had at most half a tire on solid ground making it through. Thanks to Mike for spotting me through without incident!



This was a cool knoll along the trail North of Alkali Flats.

 

[moab_cj5]

Backing up a bit, here is the link I found describing the Russian settlement South of Park Valley: http://www.molokane.org/places/USA/Utah/index.html. A very interesting read, and great history of the area.
I served my LDS mission in Ukraine, and still remember some Russian, so this was a very interesting stop for me. Being a little selfish, I planned this stop purely for me. The others seemed to indulge this stop and everyone had a good attitude. Also, if we hadn't made this little stop, we would have missed the wash crossings, and the really narrow road mentioned above (those areas added some spice and variety to the high speed dirt roads out there).



Back to the trip:
Devils Playground was AWESOME! It was so cool to climb on the rocks (not in the Jeep), and explore the caves and arches. This is where Maldito X headed for home, and I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing if I were in his shoes. It is crazy to think we had 4 vehicles in the group but no tire plug kits, or a compressor in the bunch.

These were all taken at the first stop in Devils Playground, but we soon found this was just the beginning of the awesomeness! Unfortunately though, we didn't get too many more pics in this immediate area due to lack of time and needing to keep moving to cover the remaining ground for the day.



Yes, that is HWY 30 that runs right along the range we were heading into to play.

As we rolled through the rest of Devils Playground, I snapped some pics of a couple places I will be back to. These would make awesome camp spots!

 

[Paudrhound]

Nice trip. Didn't realize all that was out there.

 

[moab_cj5]

This is the part of the trip I wish I would have known about before Maldito X turned around.

After leaving Devils Playground, we headed toward Rocky Pass. At the turn off the Immigrant trail was this valley with really cool rock formations in it. The fire last year cleared out all of the vegetation, and made this place feel like it was on another planet. It reminded me of Star Trek, the 70's TV show. It was sooooooo cool to walk around and explore this area.



Pictures don't even come close to doing this area justice. We easily spent an hour (and could have spent much more time) exploring all of the caves and formations in this valley.

One really cool spot is pictured below. Someone seeking shelter had climbed into the opening at the left in the picture, and built a fire. There is almost a perfect chimney above where the fire was built. At the top of the right opening there is a little hole. In that hole is a birds next pictured as best I could without climbing or disturbing the nest in the 2nd pic.



What an awesome place! I will certainly be back to explore this area again!

 

[moab_cj5]

From the rock valley, we continued toward Rocky Pass, and took fewer and fewer pictures... We opted to follow the ridge line of the Grouse Creek Mountains as far as we could before dropping into Grouse Creek to refuel and asses where to go next.

This picture is from where we had to turn around due to posted private property on the ridge. It is looking back at Devils Playground.



We dropped down to the valley on Keg Springs Road, and then headed North into Grouse Creek. We arrived there around 3:30 pm. We gassed up (the accept credit cards 24/7 now but they were open when we got there), used the rest room, and decided on a game plan for the remainder of the trip.



Looking to the Northwest, we could tell it was snowing and night was falling fast. Instead of heading toward the corner of the state, we opted to head out to the North side of the Raft River Mountains, and go through the Sawtooth National Forest. We headed out on the dirt highway toward Lynn Utah, and then turned South into the Sawtooth Forest. By this time, it was lightly snowing and dusk was settling in.

We passed this cool old building on a ranch.



When we reached the top of the forest we were greeted by snow on the road. I wasn't smart enough to grab a picture because to this point I had been mostly successful in avoiding mud on the trip. Needless to say, the road down from the top down the east side was snowy and muddy. I wasn't looking forward to cleaning the mud off so I was in a hurry and didn't think to take any pictures. It was freaking cold and starting to snow more, so as hastily as could be done safely, we descended off the mountain toward Idaho 81.



We took ID 81 to HWY 42. That is where the pavement began again (other than a couple miles of pavement through Grouse Creek). At that point I parted ways with the 2 other Jeeps in the group and made my way to I-84 near Snowville UT.

In all, we did right at 200 miles of 99% dirt. It was a total blast! I couldn't have asked for better traveling companions!

It was an adventure, and unique experience for all that went. None of us had been there before, but I think all of us want to go back.

HUGE thanks to Maldito X for tagging along, taking most of the pics, and doing the write up! I can't wait to do more trips with you!

 

[moab_cj5]

BTW, post up the video you took with your go pro please. I would like to see that!

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Nice. I've been thinking of taking a look at the Spiral Jetty.

Who built it and why?

 

[DAA]

Excellent!

- DAA

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Nice. I've been thinking of taking a look at the Spiral Jetty.

Who built it and why?

Spiral Jetty:
http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3084

 

[sLcREX]

Thanks for posting the remainder of the trip! Looks like it had some more excitement to offer as well. I will definitely have to check it out on another occasion. How was the Sawtooth National Forest? I had been curious about that place.

 

[moab_cj5]

Thanks for posting the remainder of the trip! Looks like it had some more excitement to offer as well. I will definitely have to check it out on another occasion. How was the Sawtooth National Forest? I had been curious about that place.

It was pretty what we saw in fleeting light. A place I need to go back to. There were so many roads, yet so little time...