Devil's Head Fire Lookout, on the way up the trail. Quite a bit of haze from fires could be seen from the tower. We saw a black bear on the way up to the trailhead.

Hanging Lakes was actually quite a neat little hike.

A minor wait to get up to the Flat Tops...

And a really loaded down truck.

 

Dinosaur National Monument. The building is finished and it is open to the public again.

Our choice of campsite in Ashley Nat'l Forest.

But then we saw this and vacated:

It was a small fire on another peak but the wind was blowing our way and we couldn't tell where the smoke was coming from until we got back on the highway. We parked our butts further away and upwind.

 

On our way to the Maze district in Canyonlands Nat'l Park. We had reservations but apparently end of June isn't a busy time. Just the way we like it.

On the road to Panorama Point

Panorama Point

Again:

And the steep sharp-turn road down towards the Maze Overlook...

It wasn't hard and only required some backing to make the turns, just steep.
This guy was nearer the bottom:

 

Maze Overlook:

 

And a necessary part of traveling the maze. Pack it in, pack it out. The silver bucket on the rack held the end results (sorry). 3 people, 5 days, 2/3-3/4 full bucket. This thing is really sturdy and we ended up using it in all our dispersed camping. Pett system. In the Maze we used a couple of wag bags a day. It actually comes with a small thing of tp but I brought some septic safe paper juuuust in case.

When you're done with the bags they go in the trash, not an RV dump.

 

The most difficult drive in the Maze was around Teapot canyon for me. The 4Runner with Sonoran Steel 1.2 and a 1" body lift made everything in 4lo, no locker, no problem. I never managed to hit the sliders but I did tap the front skid once. Only because I was trying a taller line. Bumped the hitch mildly a few times coming off rocks. The Chevy Colorado out of sight in front of me left a lot of scraped rocks. Talking to them later, they had a 4" lift but still got a rocker panel dent and a lot of underside scrapes. I didn't get the chance to ask what kind of lift it was.

 

The dollhouse. Nice hike down to Green River and a granary from nearby

 

We hiked Pete's Mesa and down into the canyon that holds the Harvest Scene panel. We circled the Chocolate Drops so got good views of them, too. Really cool hike. Ok, really HOT hike but totally worth it. We packed a ton of fluids but could have used more. It was the sand in the canyon that made the hike a lot longer than it would normally take and more strenuous. Pete's Mesa was easy and the climb into the canyon- and out wasn't a problem either. We had GPS, the park's small map and the National Geographic map. The GPS and N.G. map were extremely useful on this hike.

 

On our way back from Standing Rock, where we camped.

Back in Teapot Canyon...

Standing in the bigger drop-off in Teapot for perspective.

More wheeley stuff! Yay!!

 

Heading from Teapot Canyon out to Hite






We brought
10 extra gallons of gas and a full tank starting from Green River and heading towards Hans Flat ranger station (really nice people!!)
19 gallons of water

And used
All of the gas. We had just over a quarter tank when we reached Hite and could fill up again (4.29 a gallon). It was a comfortable margin.
12 gallons of water and almost all the other drinks in the cooler. About a gallon per person per day. I still wouldn't bring less. Better too much than have an unexpected extra day and not enough to drink.
About 11 wag bags. Usually a couple each day for the 3 of us.

 

From Hite we headed to the Manti-La Sals. Let's just say we felt a cool-down was in order.

We also visited Arches National park.



My hubby wheeled in Arches. It was really hard to share my fun!

The washboard road to get to the wheeling was not fun, but the road itself had some pretty cool driving. And SAND. Not deep enough to be trouble, but there was a lot of it.

 

My hubby wanted to ride the Whole Enchilada in Moab so we camped at the trailhead, at the bottom of a scree slope.

While he was off playing on his bike I took the boyo to the local park (actual grass and shade!) and worked on a couple of small things on the truck while he played.

Yeah, that's duct tape. I forgot to see if it held but I really doubt it. I didn't have another sway bar bushing and was bored. I do carry extra link bushings so I replaced one of those that got completely trashed. Eh, it gave me something to fiddle with.

 

Grand Mesa views:



Colorado National Monument:

Camping near Silverton at 12,650'. Brown Bear cafe in the morning!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison: We were hiking there when a couple told us to keep the kid close (we always do) because they'd seen a mountain lion on the trail 15 minutes earlier.

 

And then....the camera's card stopped taking pictures.
We rode the Monarch Crest trail on the mountain bikes, went over Westin pass and camped there, ate at Golden Burro in Leadville and went over Mosquito Pass (more fun than Westin), Went to Florrisant Fossil Beds and camped on the backside of Pike's peak. The Crags trail was a nice short hike before we headed towards home.

The end.

 

Awesome report and pics! Drool..... That region is added to my travel "to-do" list. It's fun to see the growth in the rig and the difficulty of the wheeling increase given the hitch and bikes posing a seemingly added challenge (departure angle and width).

 

Great trip report, Hab! I envy anyone who can take off more than two consecutive weekdays and actually go enjoy the world. Thanks for sharing, and keep exploring!

 

Love that area, grew up there. Thanks for sharing!

 

Great pictures. That is a pretty part of the country, it's been awhile since I made a trip down south. This just made me want to road trip again.

You looked well prepared, good job.

 

WOWOWOWOW! AWESOME pics! The great read to go with it, every word, put it over the top... I seriously had a great time reading that all, Hab!

Looking great, Hab!>>> Oh, and I wanted to ask.... are you and the young'n in that pic wearing the same outfit? hehe... Seemed like it... Hat, shirt, pack, shoes, everything... very cool! haha... Did the Hubby like driving the dream-machine?

PS> ..... I'ma make a best guess that the hubby is not crazy about having his pic taken? hahaha...

Thanks for sharing, Hab!

 

Thanks everybody! 17 days of fun fun fun.

Ha, yeah I think we are wearing the same outfit. Orange volunteer shirts from an REI sponsored trail build. How positively dorky!

I had to look, the hubby is in a couple of pics. Driving Arches and looking over the Maze. He actually took most of the pictures.
I hardly ever turned the truck over to him 'cause I'm kinda a pig that way, but he did enjoy it. Lots, I think.