San Rafael Swell & Moab for the U4 Winter Event
- Thread starter Greg
- Start date
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
scoutabout said:
I know! That was a good one, we were lucky the guy in front of you had on board air. I thought we were going to have to put the spare on. You'll have to bring the Scout next time and show us how it's done in a tractor!
Did you get many pics from Saturday?
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
I Lean said:
Any ideas what all that poop was from? It was on ledges, the floor, everywhere???
scoutabout
None
I only took 1 picture on Saturday, while we were airing down at the trailhead.
I'll definitely put down the tiller and do some plowing next time!
I'll definitely put down the tiller and do some plowing next time!
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
scoutabout said:
Well then, you got one more pic than I did. I spent most of the day wondering if we were ever going to complete the trail, never thought about taking pics.
Still, it was a great time. I loved Strike Ravine, that was a neat trail... very senic, yet still challenging.Do it! I want to see it in action!
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Day 1 Thursday
Left SLC around 6:30, made a stop for food & fuel and hit the road for Wellington where we planned to meet the Gardners at 9-9:30. We arrived in Wellington right around 9:15, grabbed some snacks and headed South to Huntington. We spent a few minutes in Huntington trying to find the actual road into Buckhorn, after a small loop we were on our way. We made quick time bombing down the Buckhorn Wash Road and decided to make camp somewhere near Buchhorn Wash. We settled on one of the first trails we came upon, turned out to be Furniture Draw, a killer spot to camp. We had no clue we were in an amazing gorge until the morning light Greg kept us warm with a fire, we enjoyed the weather (warmer than SLC) and crashed ~ 1am.
Friday
We warmed up by the fire after a cold night, had breakfast and broke camp... we had alot of ground to cover so we wanted to get going. First stop was the Buckhorn Wash Pictograph panel, followed by some exploration at a small cave where we noted the desert big horn
From there we were off to the Swinging Bridge, we stopped for a minute to marvel the bridges construction and surrounding landscape, and got back on the ground. The trip down to I70 was rather quick, we made great time and had plenty left to explore some more. We decided to cross I70 at Exit 129 (NOW called 131!) and head over to Dutchman Arch and the Head of Sinbad Pictographs. Amazingly it seemed like ever road we followed took us to another picto panel, ranging from dozens of paintings... to just a few.
We then crossed back under the freeway (in another culvert) and headed south to find Swaseys cabin and the Lone Warrior pictograph. We spent a few minutes checking out the cabin, and the short hike to the icebox.
From Swaseys cabin we continued to head West towards Eagle Canyon where it started to get fun. A recent snowfal left the trail a bit slippery, the fist could of ruts were getting us worried about a potentially long day. The trail continues down to the bottom of the canyon on narrow trails, surrounded by some of the most amazing landscapes you could imagine! Under the bride and back to the other side of Eagle Canyon where we decided to stay on the trail in the hopes it would take us back to I70 as we had assumed it would. Sure enough we wandered back up to I70 where we once again crossed underneath via an even narrower cement culvert.
With some time to spare we decided to make the trip down to check out the Copper Globe Mine, a turn of the centure mining area in a seemingly hibernated state... The mine was awesome, relics, cabins, woodpiles, and some deep shafts & tunnels. With daylight running short, and our gas tanks approaching empty... we hit the trail back to I70 in hopes of reaching Green River for some fuel (and sodas) and then on to Moab.
After reaching the highway we were flagged down on the EB side of I70 by a couple of foreign kids that had run out of gas on the WB side of 70. We maneuvered onto the WB side of the freeway and gave them enough gas to get their little Saturn SUV over to Salina.
The rest of the trip was uneventeful, we made it to Moab unscathed with enough time to setup camp prior to heading out to dinner. The four of us it up Bucks Grill at the North end of town with Mr. Steve Jackson for a great meal. After dinner we sat around the campfire, swapping storied and giving Tyson life advice
Saturday
Saturday came early, we made our way over to the Moab Valley in where the U4WDA breakfast was ready to go. Sgt handled the Association business, and we then headed South of town to meet for the trail runs. I had chosen Strike Ravine as it was on my "hitlist" of trails to do in Moab. A killer turnout, and a great trail. The Tacoma did a great job on a cool trail We finished up the trail and headed over to Area BFE for some hotdogs and chili
Back to camp for a much needed shower, and then over the La Hacienda for some dinner... Always good food and great company As our nightly ritual continued, Greg got a fire roaring for us and we say around chatting for hours. ~10:30 I got a call from a good freind Richard who had been in town for the Association run. Richard had driven his bone stock 01' WJ down to town and caught a ride for the mornings trail rides. Following the trail rides Richard decided to go do some exploring... He ended up doing Kane Creek in his open diffed WJ
Well, Richard got stuck near the waterfall (not sure the official name) on Kane Creek and hiked out to 191 where he was able to hitch hike into town. He called me and we were off to help get his rig out. We picked him up at his hotel, and made our way down Kane Creek to the stranded Jeep... hooked the winch cable, stacked a couple rocks and pulled him up and out. A great night adventure and a chance to use some of the new toys on my Tacoma. We made it back to the highway and bombed back to camp... bedtime!
Sunday
Richard showed up to our camp ~7:30am to take us out to breakfast, what better the the Pancake Haus to get the day rolling. We headed back to camp, loaded things up and said goodbye to Greg and Catheryn...
Richard has decided to join us for the last leg of our trip, I was happy to have a second rig around especially considering the adventure the night before. We made quick time to Green River, tried to check out the river museum (closed on Sunday's for the season), and continued on our way to Wellington. We arrived at Wellington, stretched out legs and swapped drivers, and Tyson started the trip up Nine-Mile Canyon... Over the next couple hours we made our way up Nine-Mile as we stopped to check out Petroglyphs, old cabins, etc... finally arriving in Myton some hours later. This is the end of the dirt as we would travel on 40 to Duchesne, Heber City (had lunch with Richard at the Wagon Wheel) and down Provo Canyon and on to Sandy...
775 miles in 3 days... 200+ of them in the dirt...
Left SLC around 6:30, made a stop for food & fuel and hit the road for Wellington where we planned to meet the Gardners at 9-9:30. We arrived in Wellington right around 9:15, grabbed some snacks and headed South to Huntington. We spent a few minutes in Huntington trying to find the actual road into Buckhorn, after a small loop we were on our way. We made quick time bombing down the Buckhorn Wash Road and decided to make camp somewhere near Buchhorn Wash. We settled on one of the first trails we came upon, turned out to be Furniture Draw, a killer spot to camp. We had no clue we were in an amazing gorge until the morning light
Greg kept us warm with a fire, we enjoyed the weather (warmer than SLC) and crashed ~ 1am. Friday
We warmed up by the fire after a cold night, had breakfast and broke camp... we had alot of ground to cover so we wanted to get going. First stop was the Buckhorn Wash Pictograph panel, followed by some exploration at a small cave where we noted the desert big horn
From there we were off to the Swinging Bridge, we stopped for a minute to marvel the bridges construction and surrounding landscape, and got back on the ground. The trip down to I70 was rather quick, we made great time and had plenty left to explore some more. We decided to cross I70 at Exit 129 (NOW called 131!) and head over to Dutchman Arch and the Head of Sinbad Pictographs. Amazingly it seemed like ever road we followed took us to another picto panel, ranging from dozens of paintings... to just a few.
We then crossed back under the freeway (in another culvert) and headed south to find Swaseys cabin and the Lone Warrior pictograph. We spent a few minutes checking out the cabin, and the short hike to the icebox
.From Swaseys cabin we continued to head West towards Eagle Canyon where it started to get fun. A recent snowfal left the trail a bit slippery, the fist could of ruts were getting us worried about a potentially long day. The trail continues down to the bottom of the canyon on narrow trails, surrounded by some of the most amazing landscapes you could imagine! Under the bride and back to the other side of Eagle Canyon where we decided to stay on the trail in the hopes it would take us back to I70 as we had assumed it would. Sure enough we wandered back up to I70 where we once again crossed underneath via an even narrower cement culvert.
With some time to spare we decided to make the trip down to check out the Copper Globe Mine, a turn of the centure mining area in a seemingly hibernated state... The mine was awesome, relics, cabins, woodpiles, and some deep shafts & tunnels. With daylight running short, and our gas tanks approaching empty... we hit the trail back to I70 in hopes of reaching Green River for some fuel (and sodas) and then on to Moab.
After reaching the highway we were flagged down on the EB side of I70 by a couple of foreign kids that had run out of gas on the WB side of 70. We maneuvered onto the WB side of the freeway and gave them enough gas to get their little Saturn SUV over to Salina.
The rest of the trip was uneventeful, we made it to Moab unscathed with enough time to setup camp prior to heading out to dinner. The four of us it up Bucks Grill at the North end of town with Mr. Steve Jackson for a great meal. After dinner we sat around the campfire, swapping storied and giving Tyson life advice
Saturday
Saturday came early, we made our way over to the Moab Valley in where the U4WDA breakfast was ready to go. Sgt handled the Association business, and we then headed South of town to meet for the trail runs. I had chosen Strike Ravine as it was on my "hitlist" of trails to do in Moab. A killer turnout, and a great trail. The Tacoma did a great job on a cool trail
We finished up the trail and headed over to Area BFE for some hotdogs and chili Back to camp for a much needed shower, and then over the La Hacienda for some dinner... Always good food and great company
As our nightly ritual continued, Greg got a fire roaring for us and we say around chatting for hours. ~10:30 I got a call from a good freind Richard who had been in town for the Association run. Richard had driven his bone stock 01' WJ down to town and caught a ride for the mornings trail rides. Following the trail rides Richard decided to go do some exploring... He ended up doing Kane Creek in his open diffed WJ Well, Richard got stuck near the waterfall (not sure the official name) on Kane Creek and hiked out to 191 where he was able to hitch hike into town. He called me and we were off to help get his rig out. We picked him up at his hotel, and made our way down Kane Creek to the stranded Jeep... hooked the winch cable, stacked a couple rocks and pulled him up and out. A great night adventure and a chance to use some of the new toys on my Tacoma. We made it back to the highway and bombed back to camp... bedtime!
Sunday
Richard showed up to our camp ~7:30am to take us out to breakfast, what better the the Pancake Haus to get the day rolling. We headed back to camp, loaded things up and said goodbye to Greg and Catheryn...
Richard has decided to join us for the last leg of our trip, I was happy to have a second rig around especially considering the adventure the night before. We made quick time to Green River, tried to check out the river museum (closed on Sunday's for the season
), and continued on our way to Wellington. We arrived at Wellington, stretched out legs and swapped drivers, and Tyson started the trip up Nine-Mile Canyon... Over the next couple hours we made our way up Nine-Mile as we stopped to check out Petroglyphs, old cabins, etc... finally arriving in Myton some hours later. This is the end of the dirt as we would travel on 40 to Duchesne, Heber City (had lunch with Richard at the Wagon Wheel) and down Provo Canyon and on to Sandy...775 miles in 3 days... 200+ of them in the dirt...
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Oh yeah... Big thanks to everyone that made this a killer event.
Jeff & the Moab Freinds 4 Wheeling, RR4W and all the U4WDA members and BOD members that made the trip. THANKS!
Jeff & the Moab Freinds 4 Wheeling, RR4W and all the U4WDA members and BOD members that made the trip. THANKS!
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
So jealous! I need to lift the XJ now.
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Hickey said:
Quite honestly, all of the exploring we did (with the exception of Strike Ravine) could easily be done in a stocker XJ. Most of this stuff was just bombing down dirt roads (though Eagle Canyon had a bit of wheeling). come next time!
Marshall
Was That a U-Joint?
- Location
- Farmington, UT
Nice Pictures!! Looks like an awesome trip!
waynehartwig
www.jeeperman.com
- Location
- Mead, WA
From what I saw, the rental did very well....Put it this way, you didn't have near the problems others did, and you completed the trail while others turned around on that second hill.scoutabout said:
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
cruiseroutfit said:
Very
I love the pics down in Eagle Canyon!
TimB
Homesick
- Location
- Weatherford, Tx
Nice report. I gotta get up to nine mile some day.