i left Durango thursday and made the short 3 hour drive to Moab to meet some old friends from high school to do some camping and wheeling. this was my second time in Moab but my first time wheeling. the last time i went was about 6 years ago to race mountain bikes. i hadent been there in in so long it was pretty much all new to me. this weekend easily makes the top 5 for one of the best times ive ever had. the wheather was perfect (65 ish and sunny most of the time) and the meeting of old friends was priceless. bla bla bla: pictures...
I got there a few hours before my friends did so i had some time to kill. i drove up river and checked out the canyon carved by the colorado river. i am currently taking a class focusing on sedementary rocks so i had to check out the famous Navajo Sandstone. i'm a geology major so this wasn't just a wheeling paradise for me.


this was bizzare. i think it was a hole caused by blasting, it was right next to the road.

After a good session with the rocks i met up with one of my friends and we headed up Kane Creek Road to camp. we found a pretty neat place. it was right near a small creek at the bottom of a large canyon.



the next morning we bought a map and decided to hit a trail before the third friend showed up. we decided on Cliffhanger because we knew where it was and the first obsticle "The Stairs" looked really fun.(its right off the main road) it turned out to be a little more then we bargened for on our first moab trail experience but it was a good challenge. the guy in the 3rd gen was pretty inexperienced and had a shattered right foot so he had to drive with his left foot the whole time. he did pretty good driving but had a hard time spotting me.
here he is coming down "the Stairs"


the next obsticle, a pretty big shelf.



another shelf. here's the Gimp checking out the situation.






this next picture is where we stopped. we came to a pretty nasty place and i decided to try it, although Tom had already made his mind up that he didnt want any part of it. it scared me half to death. i had to take the left line because the ledge was too big on the right. my locker slid me even farther left and i almost went off the left side, guranteed rollover. even worse, my seatbelt decided to lock up so i couldnt use it...great timing. my hat for reference. i made it, but it stressed me out. Tom couldnt/wouldnt talk to me so i had to wing it which made it even worse.

coming back down.

Woah ive never seen my rig flex like this.





Coming up this ledge is where the only damage came from. Driving a stick i rolled backwards off the ledge and slammed the side of my rear bumper. put a real small dent and some scratches in some 3/16" plate. oops, guess thats what it was for.


After that i needed a cold one so we hungout in town until our other friend showed up and headed back out Kane Creek Road to find another place to camp. since we were passing the Cliffhanger trailhead anyway Alex (Jeep) wanted to try the stairs. we also saw some neat jeeps.




here is where we camped. it was really nice. someone put in a lot of shovel time into this firepit and it was pretty clean so that was a bonus. as always we left it cleaner then we found it.

my sneaky tent spot.

 

the next day we got a pretty late start. we all wanted to hit Fins 'N' Things so we drove across town, payed our fees seems to be a lot of that around here, and started this pretty long trail.







We came to these really steep slopes that took us down off the fins. these were just great. my clinometer read well over 30 degrees. we went up and down these with ease, gotta love the traction.


i went up too fast to get a good picture. i wasnt real trusting of the rock on this first obsticle so i gassed it a bit after i got my front tires on it. this wasnt needed. you could just crawl up them.






another optional route.

more steeps. all of us drug our rear ends coming down these. the jeep and the 3rd gen 4runner drog their hitches and I drug my bumper. the added clearence was really nice. the new bumper really payed for itself on this trip. (i drug it a lot)



mmm metal on rock. watch the facial expressions, some are pretty funny.

look close at the passanger rear tire. its off the ground due to his hitch.

these next two pictures were taken within an hour of eachother, note the sky. it looked like it could pour any second but it never did.


a pretty big shelf, I (and my friends) didnt think i could get up.i walked right up kissing the slider.


some sammis, i love these little things.



cool hole in the rock. i think this is caused by wind erosion but not really sure.

The weak line up.

textbook example of planar tabular cross bedding. mmm sweet. i know im a geek.







huge cross bedding

more fins toward the end of the trail. there was an optional hill climb that we all did but i didnt get any pictures. my clinometer read approx 40 degrees. we couldnt see anything but sky out of the windshield. very cool





this is one of my favorite pictures.

this climb was the only one that took me two tries to get up. i tried to show the steepness but as usual, pictures never do it justice.







end. after that we stopped at potato salad hill to have a look. it was exactly like how it was described to me... a show.
this guy was leaking fuel everywhrere, on bald ( and i mean bald) tires and was hammered drunk. here he was just sitting there smoking the tires. he tried for quite a while but never made it.

then the Nitto buggy showed up and went up and down and up and down with ease. i have never really seen a buggy in action before so i thought it was really cool. i want one.



big reverse fault on the way out of town

overall this was a great experience. i think this was the calm before the storm (easter jeep safari) the only rigs we saw on the trail were the jeeps and the sammis, 4 rigs. it was real nice. there were a ton of mountain bikers but that didnt bother me. i also met Greg Herbold (sp) for those non mountain bikers out there he is one of the fathers of the sport. he was super nice and i felt honored to meet him. for those that haven't been i highly reccomend you get there at least once before you die. it is a very special place. im already planning another trip soon. enjoy!!!

 

Lots of good pics there.

Looks like you had a lot of the place to yourself... much better than crowds. That slickrock sure is sticky. Takes a while to get used to for sure.

What were the temps like? Would it have snowed or rained?

 

looks like everyone had a good time

 

ooohhh pretty

 

looks awesome, once i do an engine rebuild on mine, ill have to drive out from san diego to run that trail. i know, i know, im in vegas, but im moving back next month

 

Wow! Great shots, looked like fun. Haven't heard Herbold's name forever, I met him at a Norba nationals race. Tomac was still racing back then (he won the XC and DH!)

 

Thanks for sharing a great trip with us. It looks like your group took on some pretty formidable challenges. I enjoyed it all, including the geology lessons!

 

thanks for the comments. i can't wait to get back! hopefully some of you fellow toyota owners will come along.

 

I'm only a few hours from Moab, and I'd love to get some NM guys together for a drive up that direction! Maybe sometime this summer depending on how my schoolwork goes the rest of this semester (I may actually graduate, a short lived victory since I've already agreed to come back for the next step but a victory nonetheless).

Andy