Sept '08; The Kokopelli Trail- Rabbit Valley to Rose Garden Hill

[Greg]

I've wanted to make this trip in a 4x4 beginning to end for quite sometime. We have been out to Rabbit Valley often and have followed part of the Kokopelli trail in various 4x4's and I have explored much of the trail on my dual sport, but never made the entire trail.

I read about a trip that CanuckMariner from ExpeditionUtah.com had been planning. His trip started in Canada and he was headed to the heart of Mexico. On the way down, Jan wanted to explore the Koko trail as well as Top of the World. He had a few days scheduled for this trip and after deciding I could make his dates work around my schedule, I opted to join him on the Kokopelli Trail.

Our trip started on Friday, Sept 12th early in the morning. We headed out from my house in Fruita and took the 6 and 50 Highway thru Loma and then Mack, CO. We turned off the 6 and 50 and take a dirt road under I70 and into Rabbit Valley. This is the quickest access to dirt and the most direct route to the trail. Here's the route we took-

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=110606657215654804100.0004541d994eec52cade9


From there we turned South and quickly began dropping elevation as we worked our way into the Wash.

We followed the smooth, sandy road into Rabbit Valley, passing some amazing slickrock formations. It had rained the evening before, making the ground damp and keeping dust to a minimum.

The road was easy to drive and cruise at high speed, then turned rocky, rutted and required less speed and more attention to tire placement. We stopped again at this overlook, seeing the Colorado River down below.

At this point, the Koko began requiring use of 4WD. There were ledges to drop off and boulders to climb! The road is cut into the side of a mesa in a few sections, which looks pretty spooky but wasn't too technical. There were massive rocks that we had to skirt around, some coming within a couple inches of the precious sheetmetal.

Continued...

 

[Meat_]

When did you get a rooftop tent?

 

[Greg]

We followed the trail into the backside of Rabbit Valley, crossed a couple of washes that are raging when it rains, and eventually followed the trail into a side canyon. After working our way up the side canyon, the trail began a steep climb out of the valley and onto the top of the canyon. From this location we could look down into the valley that we had been traveling in and see the road.

Not long after the overlook, we followed the Kokopelli Trail as it wound its way thru the sagebrush and cedar trees and eventually to a short section of pavement. We headed South down the road to the Westwater boat ramp. Right as you go under the railroad tracks, the Koko turns West. There was a bit of water running in the Westwater Creek which was fun to cross, not too challenging, but something different.

After crossing a massive amount of 2 track in the middle of the desert, we came upon the Cisco Pumphouse Road and the boat launch ramp. According to our map the Kokopelli Two Track trail continued for another several miles, but the map showed that the trail turned to almost nothing for a small section, perhaps less than 1 mile total. I had heard this section was impassable for a 4x4, but we had to check for ourselves. The road was less traveled as we continued, which was a sign of things to come. Eventually the trail became washed out, but there was a bypass that others had been using. We followed the bypass about another 200 yards and it turned to singletrack. Not passable, even for a 4Wheeler.

 

[Greg]

We turned back and decided to find a dirt route up to Cisco. At one point we found a rarely used road that crossed the Cisco Wash, which would have been a quick shortcut to Hwy 128... it was about 15-16' deep with very steep, soft banks. In the bottom there was about 2' of running water. It was not a smart to attempt, so we decided to take the long way into Cisco, then catch Hwy 128. The 'long way' was amazing, we followed this straight 2 track road that headed due North. It felt like we were in the African savanna, nobody and nothing in sight... it made for great scenery with the La Sals in the background.

We jumped back on the pavement and headed towards Dewey Bridge. We turned off at Dewey Bridge and picked back up on the Kokopelli Trail. Jan decided it was going to get quite bumpy ahead so he took the opportunity too air down his tires for more traction and comfort.

Jan's Expedition vehicle is a 1990 Land Cruiser HZJ73, or a 70 Series LandCruiser. It's a Right Hand Drive, Japanese spec Toyota with a factory diesel. The engine was originally normally aspirated, but Jan wanted a bit more power, so he added a turbo & the related plumbing from a newer turbo diesel Toyota engine.

At this point it was early-afternoon and we had planned to drive up the Top of the World trail as Jan had never been up there before. We made it to the trailhead, shifted the transfer cases into 4 Low and began crawling our way up the steep ascent. I hate to say it, but I did not get any pictures as we went. I was to preoccupied with watching the trail and doing my best not to damage our LandCruiser.

After a fun, challenging climb we made it to the viewpoint of Top of the World. We took turns taking the obligatorily 'edged of the cliff' shot, then tried to capture the breathtaking scenery on our cameras. Pictures do not do justice to this amazing place!

 

[Greg]

We unwound from the days adventures hanging out on the edge of the rim, watching the sun set while shooting the breeze. We decided to setup camp before it got too dark, we were both sleeping in or on our rigs, so we tried to find some level ground to park on. We ended up about 40' away from the edge of the cliff, with a nice fire pit between both vehicles. The elevation up there was about 7000' and we expected a chilly night. We spent a couple more hours by the fire until it was bedtime. At that point it was a bit cold, not uncomfortable, but not quite warm anymore. Jan climbed into the back of his rig and I climbed the ladder up to the roof top tent.

After getting some refreshing sleep, we quickly packed up camp, ready for another fun-filled day. We spent some quality time taking the sun spilling on the Fisher Towers down below us, which provided much better photo opps than the evening light.

We turned downhill and began our descent of Top of the World. This time I made sure to get photos. There were two or three times we stopped to check out possible lines and take pics. We picked up the Koko again and turned our Toyotas towards Rose Garden Hill. There were some challenging areas on the trail between Top of the World and Rose Garden, you had to pay attention or you could easily get into trouble. The landscape was mind-blowing, massive canyons and cliffs, with not a soul in sight.

 

[Greg]

Simply mind-blowing...

Finally we made it to Rose Garden Hill! I have heard about how difficult this hill is, had seen pictured and read descriptions. I was glad we were going down, but even then, this turned out to be a very difficult challenge. I may be wrong on my distance, but Rose Garden felt like a half-mile of gnarly, rocky, ledge-filled nastyness. Our FJ80 Landcruiser is not lifted, has opened diffs and worse of all, no rocker protection! My biggest concern was denting up the rockers, our FJ80 is pretty straight and I'd like to keep it that way. After watching 2 motorcyclists struggle to get their bikes up the hill, I knew this was going to be a challenge. I walked down the first bit of the hill, looking for my line and taking a mental picture of the big ledges and boulders. See the 2 guys and the motorcycle, about 1/3 of the way down the hill?

After almost 30 min, the motorcycles were out of out way and I was up. Within the top 50 yards and on the 2nd ledge, I had a major problem. I had carefully picked my line around some very sharp rocks with the front tire, but after lining up for the next big rock, the rear tire rolled right over the sharp rocks, tearing a massive hole in the sidewall of my drivers-rear 33" BFG All-Terrain. I had a spare, but it was a 31" Michelin... I wasn't sure if that tire would survive the rest of Rose Garden Hill. After a short planning session with Jan, we decided that I would be better off with his 32" BFG. So I stacked rocks in front of the 3 other wheels to keep the FJ80 from rolling down the hill and proceeded to change a tire at the top of Rose Garden Hill.

Back in business!

I would drive about 50' down the hill with Jan spotting me, then stop and he'd drive down, with me spotting him. That made for slow progress, but it was the best option.

 

[Greg]

Finally we reached level ground... we hung out for a bit and talked how intense the hill had been. We were both a bit worn out from the excitement of the day and talked about our options for the remaining half of the day. Jan needed his spare back in case he had a unrepairable flat and my spare Michelin just wasn't going to cut it out here. I thought we might be able to find a used 33" BFG in Moab and see if we could continue our adventure, so we headed down Onion Creek and into Moab to search for a tire.

After finding that most tire shops were closed on a Saturday in Moab and finding no 33" BFG's at the only shop that was opened, we grudgingly decided to call it a day and leave the remaining portion of the Kokopelli Trail for another time.

We aired up, topped off with fuel and said our goodbyes. Jan was headed to Goblin Valley for the night and wanted to get there with enough light to setup camp and I had a 90 min drive back home. In the end it was a great trip, very fun to see new places and cover so much ground without seeing many other people. I'm looking forward to doing the entire Koko from beginning to end one of these days. Hopefully I'll be better prepared next time. Thanks to Jan for his help and good company, I'm excited to go exploring with you again one of these days. Travel safe on the rest of your journey!

I had my GPS with me and tracked our route, but I can't find my USB cable, so no route data to share yet.

 

[Greg]

When did you get a rooftop tent?

A couple months ago, it's real nice. Comfy mattress, tent that sets up in 3 min or so, and it's roomy! The mattress is the size of a California King! And getting up off the ground, that is the best thing about the RTT!

 

[Meat_]

Yeah, I've eyed Kurt's RTT on many a night


Looks like a blast. I'm torn as to which I like better, rock crawling or expedition wheeling.

 

[Skylinerider]

very

 

[Greg]

Yeah, I've eyed Kurt's RTT on many a night

Looks like a blast. I'm torn as to which I like better, rock crawling or expedition wheeling.

I hear you, it's expensive to do both, especially with the current economy. Could you make that TJ into a dual-sport 4x4?

very

:fun:very:fun:

 

[Meat_]

I hear you, it's expensive to do both, especially with the current economy. Could you make that TJ into a dual-sport 4x4?

I could, but the Ramcharger is on 33s and will soon have an ARB'd 60 in the rear with some OBA

I'm thinking about maybe just throwing the TJ money into a pile and buying a buggy with the pile.....

 

[I Lean]

Sounds like you need not only a good full-size spare, but maybe two. That '80 seems like it's heavy enough to destroy tires on a regular basis, huh?

That looks like a fantastic area I need to get myself into.

 

[benjy]

Amazing pics! Thanks for sharing

I've only been out to that section of I-70 once, when I was driving the TJ home from Ohio. It's crazy how much beautiful scenery you miss when you're on the interstate...

 

[dustybronco]

That sounds like a great trip. Love the pictures.

 

[notajeep]

Good times right there!

 

[Paul R]

Great trip Greg!

 

[Rot Box]

Wow! Nice report and pictures

I really dig the 70 series

 

[Greg]

Sounds like you need not only a good full-size spare, but maybe two. That '80 seems like it's heavy enough to destroy tires on a regular basis, huh?

That looks like a fantastic area I need to get myself into.

Yeah, I have been looking hard for a used 33" spare. I found one, then had the blowout, so I'm back to the 31" spare. This LC is kind of a budget wheeler, so I don't want to spend a lot of $$ on a new set of tires. I think the weight doesn't help, it's around 6000#'s. The tires were fine on the rest of the trip, but where the sidewall gave out there were some very sharp rocks, on the edge of a ledge. I managed to put my rear tire right on them.

You should make that trip, the 4Runner would be great for that area.

Amazing pics! Thanks for sharing

I've only been out to that section of I-70 once, when I was driving the TJ home from Ohio. It's crazy how much beautiful scenery you miss when you're on the interstate...

Welcome! Yep, the interstate is the best way to miss all the amazing sights!

That sounds like a great trip. Love the pictures.

Good times right there!

Great trip Greg!

Wow! Nice report and pictures

I really dig the 70 series

Thanks guys, I'm looking forward to doing it again!

Yeah, that 70 series is way cool. I recently saw a 70 Series truck at Proffitt Cruisers... good lord, I was ready to sell my soul for that thing! It was beautiful!

 

[Meat_]

I have a 33 12.5 15 you can have greg, it has maybe 1/4" tread.....