A Really Long Post to Read if You Are Bored
I am now fairly sure that I cannot make this year’s Moab 2003 "Serious Explorations" run. I thought that I might add this “addendum” to the Charles Wells’ Moab guide to give my thoughts from the perspective of doing some of the trails in an Explorer. Hopefully it might give some of you who are going to Moab for the first time some guidance in deciding which trails you would like to do. I want to make clear that these are only my opinions and I am sure others who have visited Moab may have other opinions on certain trails and favorites.
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MOAB TRAIL IMPRESSIONS, from behind the wheel of a Ford Explorer
So far I have run 28 of Moab’s trails that are described in Charles Well’s book. However four of those trails were partial travels and not completed; mostly easy trails that were part of another more major trail (Sand Flats Road gains access to Porcupine Rim and Fins N’ Things, Hurrah Pass accesses Kane Creek Canyon, and Shafer Trail’s switchbacks and most of the Mineral Bottom trail are part of the White Rim Trail). I cannot in clear conscience call these roads “trails”. So I figure that I’ve done about 24 trails in the Moab area.
Firstly, here’s a couple of lists to make things clearer later on when I mention trail ratings and vehicle abilities:
EXPLORER VEHICLE CATEGORIES
Stock: self explanatory
SuperStock: 1.5"+ lift; 31" tires, traction-aiding device (limited slip) in rear.
Modified: 2.5"+ lift, 32" tires, traction-aiding devices front and rear OR rear locker.
Big Dawg: 4"+ lift, 33" tires, traction-aiding device front AND locked rear.
Extreme: 5.5"+ lift, 35” aggressively-treaded tires, both axles locked, winch. Bring it Awn
MOAB TRAIL RATINGS:
1 All weather road; 4WD not needed.
1.5 Graded road; 4WD may be needed in poor weather.
2 Unimproved or rarely graded road. 4WD or extra clearance needed at times, with no special driving skills required.
2.5 Road rarely maintained, 4WD, good clearance, low gears (4LO) often needed, with some extra care and a bit of driving experience useful.
3 Road in difficult terrain, rarely maintained, 4WD, good clearance and low gears essential, with some driving skill and daring required.
3.5 Road in difficult terrain, probably maintained only by occasional users. Excellent stock truck or utility vehicle required, with considerable driving skill and daring needed.
4 Trail either never bladed or badly eroded. Stock vehicles are in jeopardy (read: be prepared to accept body damage). Modifications for improved off-road performance and top driving skills needed.
4+ We can hardly improve on the original description written a few years ago by Jack Bickers: "with driving by World Class Yahoo Jeepers not much concerned with vehicle durability or personal safety." It is common to have as many as 10% of the vehicles experience major mechanical failures (gears, axles, driveshafts) on these trails.
Also, when a trail has made an enjoyable impression on me, I’ll offer it a “thumbs up” rating, adding a bounce in each category for the best
really fun trail worth planning for. I’ll also offer an ohmygosh eek smilie to warn of a couple of scary trails if you are the type who would just assume not die on the trail
So this is my trail list, sorted in order of Charles Well’s opinion of difficulty, rated easiest to hardest. I do disagree with some of the order and will mention which ones when I describe the trails I think should be rated easier or harder.
Sand Flats Road
Picture Frame Arch
Onion Creek
Hurrah Pass
Shafer Trail
Mineral Bottom
Bull Canyon
Tower Arch
White Rim – (includes Shafer Trail’s switchbacks and Mineral Bottom trail)
Gemini Bridges
Lathrop Canyon – (access via White Rim Trail)
Klondike Bluffs
Pritchett Arch
Lion’s Back
Top of the World
Kane Creek Canyon
Fins N’ Things
Porcupine Rim
Sevenmile Rim
Elephant Hill
Gold Bar Rim
Rose Garden Hill
Steel Bender
Metal Masher
Poison Spider Mesa
Hell’s Revenge
Moab Rim
Golden Spike – (also includes much of Poison Spider Mesa trail and all of Gold Bar Rim)
Suitable for “Stock” to “SuperStock” Explorers
Rated 1 – 1.5: these are no more than dirt roads for the most part and suitable for 2wd under most circumstances.
Sand Flats Road (partial – access to Porcupine Rim, Fins N’ Things): nothing of note except for the interesting campsites available in the rock formations and area along the road. This road is the means to get to the better trails connected to it.
Picture Frame Arch: this is an easy trail to a well-known arch in the area, but nothing special on its own as a 4x4 trail. The Wells book mentions that you can try to drive up to the arch, but I was on the way to another trail and did not check that possibility out. If you can really do that, this trail may be one that none of us have done before that could result in some cool new photo ops of your vehicle in the arch. It’s close to town and may be worth a quick run to check out if someone has a couple of extra hours one day.
Onion Creek: This trail is also a 2wd road that although it had some neat views was still kind of boring, but it is used to access Fisher Towers, Thompson Canyon, and Rose Garden Hill. It is about 20 miles out of town. I wouldn’t plan a drive just to go on this trail as a standalone destination without using it to go to the others.
Hurrah Pass: (partial – access to Kane Creek) An easy trail with interesting Indian Petroglyphs to look at. I left the trail at the entrance to Kane Creek Canyon and did not go all the way to the pass, so I cannot comment on the view from there.
Trail Rating 2 – 2.5: now we’re going to have to use 4wd
Shafer Trail: (partial – Shafer switchbacks on White Rim Trail) The switchbacks are not very intimidating to a person who has run Black Bear Pass in Colorado, but it is still scenic. See notes on the White Rim Trail, the views are great.
Mineral Bottom: (partial – part of White Rim Trail) Likewise; see notes on White Rim Trail.
Dead Link Removed White Rim: This is a two day run. You will put about 120 miles in the dirt before you hit asphalt again. As an easygoing adventure suitable for stock 4x4 Explorers it is well worth the trouble to schedule it if you have the time. The remote beauty of the White Rim far away from
anything else will impress upon you the type of memories that words fail to convey. I ran this trail with Peter Weber and Leebo during my “Herc Tour” and here is the link to my report where you can read our impressions of that run:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=38665
Lathrop Canyon: – (access via White Rim Trail) We went down this trail for our lunch break on our first day on the White Rim Trail. Coupled with the fact that you get some great early views of White Rim and must run the Shafer switchbacks to get to this trail, it would make an interesting stocker day run. The trail goes from the high White Rim walls and Shafer switchbacks all the way down to the Colorado River. Dangling your toes in the river while eating your sandwich after making a descent like that makes for a fairly memorable lunch break.
Dead Link Removed Gemini Bridges, Bull Canyon: This trail is a fairly easy stocker trail that most of us have run. It is close to town and convenient, and offers the chance for some great photo ops if you have the guts to drive out on the bridges. Gemini Bridges and Top of the World are probably the trails that the most of us have gone on when participating in a Moab run. One fond memory of my first visit to Moab was on this trail. At 4,000 ft elevation on the trail, as I was crawling up a steep 4x4 climb in lowrange, a mountainbiker passed me pedaling uphill. Man those guys are in way better shape than I ever was! Bull Canyon is the lower approach to the Gemini Bridges. Use it for a great photo op looking upward to the bridges, but as a 4x4 trail it is lame.
Dead Link Removed Klondike Bluffs, Tower Arch: These are trails #1 and #2 in Well’s book and I am listing them together. Located in Arches National Park, these make a great stocker run, especially if you have kids with you. There are innumerable formations and arches for the rockhound in you, and the Klondike Bluffs run offers the singularly unique experience of being able to drive alongside real dinosaur tracks right on the trail. That’s right; you 4x4 on rock formations and can look down out your window and see real dinosaur tracks right there beside you. These trails, while easy, can have a few rocky sections that will test a stock Explorer’s skidplates and begin to offer some wheeling challenge. NOTE: the Wells book is usually extremely accurate, but in this case it describes a connection to combine these two trails together that is real murky. While this is definitely the way you will want to drive these trails, the book’s description of the connecting trail between the two is ambiguous at best and wrong at worst; you can easily make a wrong turn trying to get from Klondike Bluffs to Tower Arch. It is best to have a trailboss that has run those two trails before, or else plan for extra time to make a wrong turn or two and sort it out.
Pritchett Arch: I did this trail just to do something different one time when I drove late into town and hadn’t made a reservation. I camped out on the trail. It had one ledge that I took a little too fast and banged the crap out of my underside, but otherwise it was not too tough. The trail offers so-so views of other trails, and the arch requires a 15 minute hike to go see it. If you are not specifically interested in looking at that arch, there’s not much reason to run this trail; there are others with better obstacles and more scenery.
Trail Rating 3: Superstocker, or Stocker w/help
Lion’s Back This is more of an obstacle than a trail and it is hard to categorize its difficulty. Technically it is not that challenging, but its unique characteristic of being fatally unforgiving of any mistake or mechanical breakdown could earn it a 4+ rating. There’s been plenty talked and written about Lion’s Back so I won’t add to it; you’ll either have the guts (or stupidity, depending on your opinion) to try it or not. It is for adrenaline junkies only, that’s for sure. I did it once, got the tshirt, and am not going to ever do it again.
Dead Link Removed 
Top of the World: This trail is a lot of fun, offers a unique photo op that is hard to resist, and is also about the limit of what a stock Explorer can do. During our yearly events, more Explorers have probably done this trail than any other one. More Explorers have had their photo made on its ledge than at any other single place in Moab, and this run has always been scheduled sometime during the weekend every year. If this is your first year to Moab, it is almost a given that you do this run. The disadvantage though is that it is 30 miles out of town and pretty much takes a day out of your schedule. If you have a stock/superstock Explorer, what many of us have done is go to the Top of the World and then when returning to town with time to spare, go up to Gemini Bridges to finish the day and put another run under our belts. The last mile or so to the Top of the World is a loop to the ledge: stockers will need to take the counterclockwise loop up to the top, but superstockers will want to take the more challenging clockwise loop up the ledges. If you have a modified Explorer or better, stay tuned, I have figured out a way to have plenty of fun going to Top of the World and making it a challenging worthwhile day (see Rose Garden Hill below).
Suitable for Modified Explorers; SuperStock Explorers may be capable w/occasional help
Rated 3.5
Kane Creek Canyon: I don’t feel very confident that I can give an honest trail report on this trail. I ran it in July 2003 on the way out to the “Rubicon Stealth Run” in California. Lesson Number One: do not
ever go to Moab in July. It was 118 degrees in the canyon and the creek was dry as a bone. However, I could tell that this would be a heckuva fun run at any other time. Interestingly, I noticed a dozen or so single people scattered along the end of the trail sunbathing and reading and relaxing apart from each other in the riverbed, like this is some sort of place for hermits in the summer. There were no other vehicles in the area and I have no idea how far they hiked to get there.
Several of our group ran Kane Creek during the 2001 run and they reported a great time was had by all. The thing that makes the trail special is the dozens of water crossings that are part of the trail. If you enjoy river crossings, this is the trail you want to do. The Wells book is somewhat misleading at the 0.4 mile point on the trail, saying “The road should soon head south”. It does NOT, it heads in a southeasterly direction as confirmed by the map on page 139. Continue to follow the main trail and do not try to find a south passage like I did, or you’ll be sorry.
I will offer a different rating opinion of Kane Creek Canyon. Top of the World is rated as a 3 and Kane Creek is supposedly a 3.5. I can tell you that when I was there that it had a couple of particularly challenging sections that were definitely 4 trail material and were much tougher than anything that Top of the World has. I can’t help but believe that under normal circumstances and a wet trail, it would be just as tough if not moreso. I rate this trail a solid 4 in 2003. If some modified Explorers decide to run this in October, I would suggest that at least one BigDawg be with the group in case some strapping and help is needed - in one place in particular. I am not disagreeing with it’s usual 3.5 rating since I ran it during such an extraordinary time, I’m just letting you know what I encountered when I was there. Forewarned is forearmed.
Dead Link Removed Fins N’ Things: What a FUN run! If you like rollercoasters then you will love Fins N’ Things. It’s like taking your Explorer up and down rollercoaster hills on the slickrock of Moab. Hang on and enjoy! Sometimes the angles are so steep that you cannot see anything but sky out your windshield and you have to rely on spotters to assure you that you are on the right path. The hills are abrupt and steep enough that good approach and departure angles are needed to run the trail, otherwise it is fairly easy since the traction is so extreme that the steep climbs do not require lockers.
Porcupine Rim: a good run with one of the great views overlooking the area, but problematical for 4x4s, especially on busy days. This is a love-it-or-hate-it trail. The trail itself is wonderful and in a short time takes you up to an awesome view from atop a bluff overlooking some of Moab’s most famous rock formations. The downside is that it is also one of the mountain/extreme bikers favorite trails. The trail is barely wide enough to hold our vehicles. During a busy weekend filled with bikers, 4x4s have to deal with all the traffic and it takes FOREVER to drive the trail with all of the bikers everywhere riding all around you. During a weekday this would be one of the first runs I’d like to do again, but I’ll never go on it during a busy weekend again. Also, it is ROUGH, a trail with lots of rocks that jar you. Not huge rocks that force you to rockcrawl, but medium – sized ones that jar your teethfillings out while you’re cruising over them. I rattled both of my front shocks out of their mounts vibrating down the rim and had to re-weld them into their custom mounts once I got back to Moab (courtesy of Dave Meisner using Rick Horwitz’s onboard welder).
Sevenmile Rim: We got lost on it but what the heck we still made it back. Trailfinding is an absolute b!tch on that trail but we got what we wanted and hit all of the major points. The offcamber section will pucker you bigtime but Johnstone did make it with his spare tire up top without rolling so don’t be worried and go for it. Wipe Out Hill is on this trail and is one of the most adrenaline-pumping obstacles in the area. IMO it is also one of those obstacles that looks almost impossible but favors long wheelbase vehicles (like ours
) and so it is a GREAT obstacle to join a Jeeper group and show them up on - when your almost-stock Explorer outperforms their built Jeeps, LOL.
Dead Link Removed Steel Bender: I think this trail is easier than Charles Wells ranks it so I am putting it here. Steelbender is the trail that really hooked me to realizing that I can do some very fun fourwheeling in my Explorer. I can probably blame the time I ran this trail on all of the rest of the money and effort I have put into Herc from then on, LOL. I have run this trail both ways; south-north and north-south. It is a solid 3.5 but a superstock Explorer should be able to negotiate the whole trail with one exception; a difficult ledge in the northern section of the trail. Ray Lobato and I did it as superstockers our first year in Moab, and the fun thing is that we only needed real assistance at that one ledge, but the rest of the trail offered enough alternate challenges to keep the better-modified Explorers more than happy. It is one of those trails that you can make harder if you want to, but lesser vehicles can still survive on it. Steelbender is close to town and a great choice for a modified run. I nearly gave it the bounce smilie as the best mid-level run; it may deserve it more than Elephant Hill depending on what mood I am in at the moment
Dead Link Removed Elephant Hill: First, the bad news. This trail is down by the famous ancient Newspaper Rock Indian petroglyphs in the Canyonlands Nat’l Park Needles District, a 75 mile drive southwest out of Moab. By the time you leave town and go there, do the run, and come back, it will be a very long day. Now the good news. It is worth every d@m# minute to get there and do the run. Charles Wells wrote “This one-way loop is one of the most enjoyable trails I’ve ever driven” and I strongly second that opinion. If you have a well-built superstock Explorer it will test the upper limits of how well you can drive your 4x4 and provide you with the ultimate challenge for you and your 4x4 Explorer. If your rig is better equipped you’ll simply giggle and have a blast. We finally scheduled a run on it last year and I am fairly confident that everyone who went on it had a lot of fun. It’s unfortunate that it is so far out of Moab. If it wasn’t, I can guarantee you that a lot more of us would be running this trail a lot more often.
Gold Bar Rim: Gold Bar Rim has a dropping ledge at the entrance that acts like the Gatekeeper obstacle on the Rubicon: it is steep and prevents non-modified vehicles from entering unless they want to plant their grill into the landscape. I had to quit the first year I went to Moab, but that one ledge was one of those obstacles that gave me incentive to modify just a little bit more
so I could do it next time. See you there when you can get there.
Suitable for BigDawg Explorers; Modified Explorers may be capable w/occasional help
Rated 4:
Rose Garden Hill: I suggest that this is the ultimate alternative to running the Top of the World trail if you have a more prepared vehicle. A great day run could be scheduled by taking Onion Creek to enter the Thompson Canyon trail to go to Rose Garden Hill on the way up to the Top of the World - I’m thinking of doing it again even though I’ve already been to Top of the World several times. IMO a Thompson Canyon/Rose Garden Hill/Top of the World would be a really cool day spent on the trail with a group of fellow Explorers.
This trail is rated 4. In Charles Wells’ book he rates it as easier than the 3.5 rated Steelbender.
Wrong. Pay attention to the rating, not the book. You will
NOT complete this trail without 33” tires and a rear locker. I’ll repeat that so someone doesn’t step in and say “hey what about me, I can do it, I’m well prepared but I have a limited slip instead of a loc…” STOP.
NO. You need a locker. Rose Garden Hill is .3 miles long,
very steep, consists of loose shale rock the whole way up with a couple of knee-high+ rock ledges, and never once lets up with any level section at any point until you get to the very top. Once you hit the gas, you are committed, and if you bog down in the shale or on a ledge somewhere, some BigDawg in front of you that barely made it up in the first place will have to figure out how to back down a quarter mile in reverse and now pull out not only himself back up again, but with your 2 ½ ton butt strapped to his behind.
Maybe - just maybe - you could make it up with a limited slip. But, while a slightly-less equipped wheeler that needs an occasional helping hand usually doesn’t cost much to the group during a run, this is different. If you cannot successfully conquer Rose Garden on your own, it will take a LONG time to get you up that hill. Multiply that by several vehicles and it will turn this trail into an all-day marathon on this one single hill. I strongly suggest that Rose Garden Hill be a scheduled run for Moab first-timers because it is such an awesome way to go to the Top of the World but that you also heed my warning and make sure that the lesser vehicles take the normal route that we always have, and only the more-capable ones take the Rose Garden Hill route.
Other 4 rated trails have tougher obstacles, but many of those have bypasses, and the obstacles that don’t have them are short – a winch line or strap will pull you up if stuck and enable the run to continue. I am rating this trail as the hardest of the 4s because there is no bypass to the hill and failing it will cost so much time to the rest of the group to continue onward, and it is so far from town. If you bring the wrong vehicle on this trail and it breaks on that hill, plan ahead and pack tents, because you’ll be spending the night there.
Metal Masher: A good run for modifieds. There’s extreme stuff like Widowmaker and Rock Chucker that only BigDawgs can do, but there are bypasses for both obstacles, and it is fun watching the show and knowing that your vehicle is good enough to travel there to watch. :smoke: A great modified run, and close to town and near other trails such as the Golden Spike trio of trails and Gemini Bridges, etc.
Poison Spider Mesa: A classic Moab trail with famous obstacles such as the Wedgie. IMO a great place to show Jeepers how well Explorers perform. My impression was one of being unimpressed – okay, so what’s the big deal? It was easy! Bring it Awn!
Hell’s Revenge: Another classic famous Moab trail. Do not go on this trail without experience or a guide. You will get lost during the second half of the trail, even with directions. Hell’s Revenge is unique. The main trail is fairly easy, but I have never seen so many alternate courses to go Explorering. It is a 4, with several optional obstacles that are 4+. You can take this trail easy, or get hurt bad on it. This is the trail that has many world-famous obstacles like Escalator, Hells Gate, Mickey’s Hot Tub, etc on it.
Rating 4+:
Dead Link Removed Golden Spike: – (also includes much of Poison Spider Mesa trail and all of Gold Bar Rim) This trail is supreme fun and one of my favorite runs. There is way too much to begin to describe. It includes world-famous obstacles like the Golden Crack and Double Whammy. It is a consistent 4 – 4+ trail with way too many obstacles to remember individually. It is a full day of the best of hardcore wheeling – leave early and expect to get back in town late.
Dead Link Removed Moab Rim: Ack, the trail that took me to my knees. This trail is undeniably the most awesome that I have wheeled in Moab. It scared the stuffings out of me. As Wells writes: ”This trail wastes little time getting down to business. The first mile scares the wits out of most people.” If you have a weak stomach and an IFS don’t even think of trying this trail. If you have modified your Explorer to have some flex, you should be able to run this trail with less worry than me, but if you have a limited flex IFS like mine when I did this run, be ready to be terrified. And once you get to the top, you have to come back down the same way you came up, and going down is even more scary than going up. I felt like crawling out of my Explorer and kissing the ground when I got off that trail.
I ran with a very capably built Jeep TJ that launched into a threewheeling pose 40 degrees offcamber (we know it was 40 degrees; he had an inclinometer that registered the angle). He froze in his seat and remained absolutely motionless until I was able to hike down to him to stand on his bumper and weigh him back down. He did it ten yards from the edge of the cliff leading straight down to the Colorado River bottom far below. 40 degrees offcamber is way more than enough to flip an Explorer, and the only reason I didn’t do it is because he was in front. I observed his wrong line and learned from him. If I were first, I could have been him.
Try planting your Explorer on the side of a cliff 600 feet above the river below, while your tires are clawing over a thigh-high offcamber ledge that is trying to slide your backend off the cliff while negotiating the famous Z-turn. And that’s just the entrance. Welcome to Moab Rim. :roll: I have seen several SAS modified Explorers perform now and believe that this trail would be the perfect one to show off their advantage; any SAS Explorer would probably flex and climb their way up the rim with much less of an adrenaline requirement than lesser Explorers will experience. If you have a SAS this trail should be one of those near the top of your list to run, I think you may be able to simply claw right up it with very little problem, and tell me I am a wuss
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Those of you who have been to Moab before feel free to add to or disagree with my comments. I wish I could join you again this year, but my chances are looking pretty bleak at this point.
