ChrisNLA
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Just got back from our 10 day trip out west. Two days to get there, six in Moab, and two back.
I have some pictures on my work phone and some video I need to put together. I will put that up later.
I met Dan (@WILDHOBO ) in town and he hung out with us the first few days. Dan is an 11/10 fella. If you get a chance to wheel with him somewhere - take it.
We took my more or less stock Gladiator. It did fine. She's a weenie dog and drug everywhere, all the time. To be expected.
Quick ratings:
Moab Rustic Inn - we stayed here for the entire week. Great hotel. Some of the cheaper rates in town and within walking distance of the entire 'downtown' area. Would choose again. Good coffee in the morning, sandwiches, juice, and fruit to grab and go, and comfy beds. No complaints to speak of here.
We hit a few different dining establishments. Elsies, Zax, Sultan Mediterranean, Moab Diner, Woody's Tavern, Deweys and El Tapatio. Moab Diner continues to be my overall favorite after three visits now. Elsies is a cute AF coffee shop that had a damn good burger. Woody's is the Merriam Webster definition of a local dive bar. Raunchy and fun. Zax had the best pizza crust I've had lately on a pizza, and the Sultan was a great overall as well - a different spin on the Mediterranean food that we were used to. I believe they have an Indian influence on their menu. It was good! Deweys had a great pastrami melt and I felt the menu was reasonably priced for Moab, and the food/service was great. El Tapatio ranked lower to the bottom. I felt it was high priced for what would be 'average' Mexican food here at home - with even beer prices running a good bit higher than some other local Moab establishments. That being said - go check it out if you are in the area. Just because it wasn't our favorite doesn't mean it won't be yours - they do have quite high Google ratings.
We also hit Spanish Valley Winery. Nice little stop to try some local wines. The indoor area is extremely cramped, but they have lots of outdoor seating which would be totally fine in 97% of Utah weather. I bought some wine to take back to the fiance.
Honorable Mention: The 7-Eleven next to the Wendy's is no frills, but the lady working the counter in the mornings had an absolutely wonderful personality. Very friendly, made you happy to stop for a bag of ice and a splash of gas.
Day 1 - Fins & Things, Hells Revenge
Day started off pretty and switched to on and off rain showers. My 'stock' Gladiator handled all of the usual trail portions fine. Lots of belly dragging and the occasional careful spotting up some ledges. I did not do Hells Gate in my truck, but Dan graciously insisted I drive his up. It did great. Dan made an attempt at the Escalator but dropped a tire in the hole (it happens) and the truck ingested quite a bit of oil. Nothing serious, just required a little trail TLC while we added what spare oil we had and checked on some things.
Day 2 - Chickens Corner
I took an easy day while Dan tended to his truck and camp (weather was rough!). Explored Catacomb Rock (worth the drive!) and drove all the way down to the 'Chicken Corner' where a couple groups of people were having lunch. Stopped for a photo op at Hurrah Pass of course.
Chicken Corner has a few sections where you could have fun with a stock truck, picking more difficult ledges, etc. Of course, the trail is entirely passable by a stock 4x4 fullsize truck if you choose to keep it easy.
Day 3 - Seven Mile (portions), and Tusher Tunnel.
We did not run the entirely of Seven Mile, but we entered on the trail before deviating off to get to Uranium Arch quicker as we had a late start and didn't want to be late out. Visited the Monitor & Merimac, and did the slick rock portion of the trail down toward Wipeout Hill and then exited out via the long wash - which in a light rain was quite fun. Visited Tusher Tunnel as well - worth the side quest. It's a short scramble up a rock trail - then you walk through a 300' long triangular tunnel that opens up to a small canyon.
Seven Mile, while rated moderate like Chickens Corner (on Trails Offroad), is far more difficult for a stock Gladiator - so not sure what criteria they are using. The entirety of Seven Mile in a stock Gladiator will result in lot of dragging and carefully picking lines in some areas - mostly at all of the step climbs.
Day 4 - Waterfall Peeping - La Sal Loop Road
With Dan heading back to Colorado and the worst day of rain so far - we decided to keep it easier. We drove down the highway toward Potash to see what the weather was providing. In this case, numerous waterfalls. We came back and had lunch in town - then proceeded north toward Onion Creek to simply see how the conditions looked. Not good. So we took a different route back to Moab via Castle Valley and La Sal Loop. We ended the day visiting Moab's only winery (Spanish Valley Winery).
Water fall, truck AND Jug Handle Arch.
Onion Creek was raging and washing out the road before we ever got to the first crossing. We did not proceed further.
Castle Valley
La Sal Loop. We disappeared into the clouds for a lot of the drive. Notice the snow/ice on the mountain side.
Day 5 - The weather cleared. Finally, after four days of rain - we had blue skies. We visited Canyonlands Island in the Sky. We hit all the typical view points and then took the Shafer switchbacks down to Potash Road and back to Moab. If you have never visited a place like this, the pictures cannot convey the scale of what you are looking at. You simply have to go and see yourself.
Day 6 - Arches. On the last day, we visited Arches NP. Beautiful park. There is alot you can see from the road but honestly to fully appreciate it, you need to be able to hike into places. My mother is not quite spry anymore and we stuck close to pavement. I'll be going back to really dig in at a later date.
After lunch we did Gemini Bridges Road to Gemini Bridges (no photos worth sharing - hard to photograph from above) and headed back to town to pack up and go home the following day.
The line getting into Arches at lunch. We arrived at 7AM before the sun was fully up to beat some of the crowd.
I have some pictures on my work phone and some video I need to put together. I will put that up later.
I met Dan (@WILDHOBO ) in town and he hung out with us the first few days. Dan is an 11/10 fella. If you get a chance to wheel with him somewhere - take it.
We took my more or less stock Gladiator. It did fine. She's a weenie dog and drug everywhere, all the time. To be expected.
Quick ratings:
Moab Rustic Inn - we stayed here for the entire week. Great hotel. Some of the cheaper rates in town and within walking distance of the entire 'downtown' area. Would choose again. Good coffee in the morning, sandwiches, juice, and fruit to grab and go, and comfy beds. No complaints to speak of here.
We hit a few different dining establishments. Elsies, Zax, Sultan Mediterranean, Moab Diner, Woody's Tavern, Deweys and El Tapatio. Moab Diner continues to be my overall favorite after three visits now. Elsies is a cute AF coffee shop that had a damn good burger. Woody's is the Merriam Webster definition of a local dive bar. Raunchy and fun. Zax had the best pizza crust I've had lately on a pizza, and the Sultan was a great overall as well - a different spin on the Mediterranean food that we were used to. I believe they have an Indian influence on their menu. It was good! Deweys had a great pastrami melt and I felt the menu was reasonably priced for Moab, and the food/service was great. El Tapatio ranked lower to the bottom. I felt it was high priced for what would be 'average' Mexican food here at home - with even beer prices running a good bit higher than some other local Moab establishments. That being said - go check it out if you are in the area. Just because it wasn't our favorite doesn't mean it won't be yours - they do have quite high Google ratings.
We also hit Spanish Valley Winery. Nice little stop to try some local wines. The indoor area is extremely cramped, but they have lots of outdoor seating which would be totally fine in 97% of Utah weather. I bought some wine to take back to the fiance.
Honorable Mention: The 7-Eleven next to the Wendy's is no frills, but the lady working the counter in the mornings had an absolutely wonderful personality. Very friendly, made you happy to stop for a bag of ice and a splash of gas.
Day 1 - Fins & Things, Hells Revenge
Day started off pretty and switched to on and off rain showers. My 'stock' Gladiator handled all of the usual trail portions fine. Lots of belly dragging and the occasional careful spotting up some ledges. I did not do Hells Gate in my truck, but Dan graciously insisted I drive his up. It did great. Dan made an attempt at the Escalator but dropped a tire in the hole (it happens) and the truck ingested quite a bit of oil. Nothing serious, just required a little trail TLC while we added what spare oil we had and checked on some things.
Day 2 - Chickens Corner
I took an easy day while Dan tended to his truck and camp (weather was rough!). Explored Catacomb Rock (worth the drive!) and drove all the way down to the 'Chicken Corner' where a couple groups of people were having lunch. Stopped for a photo op at Hurrah Pass of course.
Chicken Corner has a few sections where you could have fun with a stock truck, picking more difficult ledges, etc. Of course, the trail is entirely passable by a stock 4x4 fullsize truck if you choose to keep it easy.
Day 3 - Seven Mile (portions), and Tusher Tunnel.
We did not run the entirely of Seven Mile, but we entered on the trail before deviating off to get to Uranium Arch quicker as we had a late start and didn't want to be late out. Visited the Monitor & Merimac, and did the slick rock portion of the trail down toward Wipeout Hill and then exited out via the long wash - which in a light rain was quite fun. Visited Tusher Tunnel as well - worth the side quest. It's a short scramble up a rock trail - then you walk through a 300' long triangular tunnel that opens up to a small canyon.
Seven Mile, while rated moderate like Chickens Corner (on Trails Offroad), is far more difficult for a stock Gladiator - so not sure what criteria they are using. The entirety of Seven Mile in a stock Gladiator will result in lot of dragging and carefully picking lines in some areas - mostly at all of the step climbs.
Day 4 - Waterfall Peeping - La Sal Loop Road
With Dan heading back to Colorado and the worst day of rain so far - we decided to keep it easier. We drove down the highway toward Potash to see what the weather was providing. In this case, numerous waterfalls. We came back and had lunch in town - then proceeded north toward Onion Creek to simply see how the conditions looked. Not good. So we took a different route back to Moab via Castle Valley and La Sal Loop. We ended the day visiting Moab's only winery (Spanish Valley Winery).
Water fall, truck AND Jug Handle Arch.
Onion Creek was raging and washing out the road before we ever got to the first crossing. We did not proceed further.
Castle Valley
La Sal Loop. We disappeared into the clouds for a lot of the drive. Notice the snow/ice on the mountain side.
Day 5 - The weather cleared. Finally, after four days of rain - we had blue skies. We visited Canyonlands Island in the Sky. We hit all the typical view points and then took the Shafer switchbacks down to Potash Road and back to Moab. If you have never visited a place like this, the pictures cannot convey the scale of what you are looking at. You simply have to go and see yourself.
Day 6 - Arches. On the last day, we visited Arches NP. Beautiful park. There is alot you can see from the road but honestly to fully appreciate it, you need to be able to hike into places. My mother is not quite spry anymore and we stuck close to pavement. I'll be going back to really dig in at a later date.
After lunch we did Gemini Bridges Road to Gemini Bridges (no photos worth sharing - hard to photograph from above) and headed back to town to pack up and go home the following day.
The line getting into Arches at lunch. We arrived at 7AM before the sun was fully up to beat some of the crowd.
Sponsored
