What a BLAST we had today! This was our first expedition type trip ever, and didn't really know what to expect. Fairly confident in our trip plan we headed out an hour later than we planned at 9:00 from Midvale. With my wife, 3yr old twins, and a 7 month baby, along with a friend and his 3 yr old girl we were packed and ready for any type of weather, and had enough treats to feed an army!
I felt that logistically it was a safer trip to start at the Wendover side of the tail. This proved to be a life saver.
Our first stop was the lovely toilets in the Knolls Recreation area.. Little girls have gotta go when they gotta go..
Back on the road we zipped to Exit 4, the Bonneville speedway exit, and filled up for the trip ahead. As soon as our tires touched dirt the kids were out of their seat belts and ready for adventure! Here Abby is yelling "Whahooo" as she checks out the scenery and enjoys the wind blowing her hair.
I was very impressed with the smooth desert road that we were on. It was very easy to do 40mph or more for a good portion of the trails.
We only encountered a couple wet spots, and the first being by far the worst.
Here you see a land rover stuck. Never use a Land Rover to do a Jeeps job
In fairness it was rather thick mud, and his right side is sunk much more than the left. Just past this hole was a long stretch of road that was completely flooded but had some vegetation cleverly disguising it, waiting for an unsuspecting victim. Had we been coming from the other end this would have found us by night and been a serious problem for recovery as we both most likely would have ended up stuck.
With a little help from the jeep and a couple tow straps we were ready to continue, around the flooded area of course.
[video=youtube_share;CVf4s8gQWyk]http://youtu.be/CVf4s8gQWyk[/video]
We continued on past Eugene's cabin, and pondered on what his life might have been like out there 140 years ago.
We had hoped to see the sun tunnels, but didn't realize we had passed them until we hit Lucin, and being about 2 hours behind schedule we decided to see them another time.
Lucin looked exactly the same as the photos from the previous trip reports show. A small lake, and couple dug outs, and a telephone booth- with poop in it ;(.. We found the HUGE cottonwood trees to be a great spot for lunch.
After a good lunch, a few rounds through the pistol, and a bathroom break we packed up and headed to the Rail road grade.
The girls took the chance for a little "chillaxin" as they call it, and Jaxson took his urn at the Wheel.
View attachment 70507View attachment 70508View attachment 70509
It wasn't but a few miles in, and the Rover needed a tire change..
Ally had the lugs off in a jiffy, and got us going again. (she really is removing the lug nuts)
The next 20 miles or so we rather smooth, and had some great views. The old bridges were fun to see, and made me appreciate the amount of work went into each one. I am amazed and what could be done back in the day!
After Terrace it was time for a little nap.
We made it to Kelton at about 7:00. We had been on the road for 10 hours at this point, and had expected to be home already. I am not sure what took us so long, and will have to look at the GPS files to see.
We knew we still had a LOOOONG ways ahead of us, but were happy and prepared enough to make it. We opted to stay on the grade and finish the trail to the end.
We were met by a gorgeous sun set in our rear views.
Shortly after Kelton the trail became very bumpy, had many potholes, and was keeping us at about 10mph. There was a little trail just below the grade, and it looked much smoother. It was. But about 1 minute later it turned into a mud fest, and given our previous experience with the Rovers bald tires we decided bumpy is better than muddy. So back to the grade we went.
It was now dark, getting Very cold, very fast. It was about 8:30, and we had around 20 miles to go until golden spike. We decided to cut our losses. We hit the maintained dirt road that runs parallel to the grade and were back up to 50mph. We are very sad not to have finished the actual trail, or to have seen the GS historical center, but have committed to give it another try in the near future.
We could not have had a better day. The children were all angles. The weather was perfect. We didn't have any serious vehicle issues. and we saw some great places!
We hit the MacD's in Brigham and buzzed I-15 home.
All together we were in the Jeep for about 14 hours, and what a great 14 hours it was!
I felt that logistically it was a safer trip to start at the Wendover side of the tail. This proved to be a life saver.
Our first stop was the lovely toilets in the Knolls Recreation area.. Little girls have gotta go when they gotta go..
Back on the road we zipped to Exit 4, the Bonneville speedway exit, and filled up for the trip ahead. As soon as our tires touched dirt the kids were out of their seat belts and ready for adventure! Here Abby is yelling "Whahooo" as she checks out the scenery and enjoys the wind blowing her hair.
I was very impressed with the smooth desert road that we were on. It was very easy to do 40mph or more for a good portion of the trails.
We only encountered a couple wet spots, and the first being by far the worst.
Here you see a land rover stuck. Never use a Land Rover to do a Jeeps job
In fairness it was rather thick mud, and his right side is sunk much more than the left. Just past this hole was a long stretch of road that was completely flooded but had some vegetation cleverly disguising it, waiting for an unsuspecting victim. Had we been coming from the other end this would have found us by night and been a serious problem for recovery as we both most likely would have ended up stuck.
With a little help from the jeep and a couple tow straps we were ready to continue, around the flooded area of course.
[video=youtube_share;CVf4s8gQWyk]http://youtu.be/CVf4s8gQWyk[/video]
We continued on past Eugene's cabin, and pondered on what his life might have been like out there 140 years ago.
We had hoped to see the sun tunnels, but didn't realize we had passed them until we hit Lucin, and being about 2 hours behind schedule we decided to see them another time.
Lucin looked exactly the same as the photos from the previous trip reports show. A small lake, and couple dug outs, and a telephone booth- with poop in it ;(.. We found the HUGE cottonwood trees to be a great spot for lunch.
After a good lunch, a few rounds through the pistol, and a bathroom break we packed up and headed to the Rail road grade.
The girls took the chance for a little "chillaxin" as they call it, and Jaxson took his urn at the Wheel.
View attachment 70507View attachment 70508View attachment 70509
It wasn't but a few miles in, and the Rover needed a tire change..
Ally had the lugs off in a jiffy, and got us going again. (she really is removing the lug nuts)
The next 20 miles or so we rather smooth, and had some great views. The old bridges were fun to see, and made me appreciate the amount of work went into each one. I am amazed and what could be done back in the day!
After Terrace it was time for a little nap.
We made it to Kelton at about 7:00. We had been on the road for 10 hours at this point, and had expected to be home already. I am not sure what took us so long, and will have to look at the GPS files to see.
We knew we still had a LOOOONG ways ahead of us, but were happy and prepared enough to make it. We opted to stay on the grade and finish the trail to the end.
We were met by a gorgeous sun set in our rear views.
Shortly after Kelton the trail became very bumpy, had many potholes, and was keeping us at about 10mph. There was a little trail just below the grade, and it looked much smoother. It was. But about 1 minute later it turned into a mud fest, and given our previous experience with the Rovers bald tires we decided bumpy is better than muddy. So back to the grade we went.
It was now dark, getting Very cold, very fast. It was about 8:30, and we had around 20 miles to go until golden spike. We decided to cut our losses. We hit the maintained dirt road that runs parallel to the grade and were back up to 50mph. We are very sad not to have finished the actual trail, or to have seen the GS historical center, but have committed to give it another try in the near future.
We could not have had a better day. The children were all angles. The weather was perfect. We didn't have any serious vehicle issues. and we saw some great places!
We hit the MacD's in Brigham and buzzed I-15 home.
All together we were in the Jeep for about 14 hours, and what a great 14 hours it was!
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