SIZZLE's Moab Report (1 Viewer)

[SIZZLE]

Thanks to everyone who helped me plan this trip! It was a lot of fun. Moab is an awesome place! Weather didn't quite cooperate, but we still got to do a little bit of everything. It was me and my family and Landcrshr and we stayed with my Cali neighbors who have a really nice house in Moab. I'm hoping Landcrushr will chime in with some pics and words too.

We decided to go Hwy 50 out there and jammed the first day (Saturday). Left Novato, CA at 6am, made a stop in Auburn for breakfast. Then gas in Fallon and on to Ely with a couple stops in between. We wanted to camp the first night, but temps were down to the 20s, so we moteled it. Next day we made a detour to Great Basin National Park and Lehman Caves. I highly suggest the caves if you have the time.

At the visitors' center:

The caves are unlike anything I've ever seen before:

 

[SIZZLE]

First day in Moab (Monday) we did Arches National Park. Cool place, I wanted to spend more time there. There are better pics on the web, but here are mine:

Windows:

Balance Rock:

We took the old dirt road out of the park, which used to be the only road into the park.

We saw dinosaur tracks on the way! But my kids were asleep, so we just won't mention that...

 

[SIZZLE]

Tuesday we had planned to do the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park and camp at Murphy Hogback. But the weather report called for 65 mph gusts overnight. Yikes! It killed me, but we decided to cancel the overnighter. I guess we'll just have to go back some day, right? Instead we decided to do Schafer switchbacks to the White Rim, then down Lathrop Canyon to the Green River.

At the bottom of Schafer:

First stop at a scenic overlook (of which there are MANY). The folks we stayed with have the jeep. You can't swing a dead cat in Moab without hitting a Wrangler.

Back on the trail. I love Landcrshr's rig.

 

[SIZZLE]

Next stop, Musselman Arch. And yes I did take my one year old on it.

Landcrshr ain't no chicken. Even though you can see all the rocks that have fallen away from the arch RIGHT below him.

Back in the trucks.

 

[SIZZLE]

Then we descended into Lathrop Canyon. This was a fun trail and maybe my favorite part of the day. Going down through all the layers to the bottom gives you a great perspective on what makes the canyon and the white rim. There is a hard layer of rock (white) sitting on top of essentially compressed mud (brown). As the mud washes away, the rock layer falls and tumbles to the bottom. Along the remaining edge, you see a white rim sitting on top of the mud.

From the top:

At the bottom we had lunch. It was super windy, but we lined up the trucks and had a pretty nice place to sit and eat. I guess the weather reports were right.

Coming back up. You can see the harder rock/white rim (no, I don't know what kind of rock it's called) sitting on top of the mud and some of it coming down. From driving the canyon we got the impression that everything is collapsing, just in suuuuper slow motion.

 

[SIZZLE]

On the way out, we took Potash Road. We had a really fun day, but we were bummed that we couldn't do the whole White Rim Trail. Still, happy that we got to do Lathrop, which we probably wouldn't have done if we had decided to do the whole Rim. We'll be back.

 

[SIZZLE]

Wednesday, my wife went with our hosts to mountain bike. Here's what she saw:

I took the kids, and Landcrshr and I did Fins n Things. Now keep in mind that my kids are 3 and 13 months and had spent a LOT of time in the truck over the last few days. We started the trail and they started screaming. They weren't scared or anything, just getting on each other's nerves. My truck is mildly built and the trail could be done in a stock truck (with scraping), but it requires concentration, especially when you need to drive it 1000 miles home. And I'm jumping out to scan the obstacles and spot when needed, which didn't help sooth them. So my nerves weren't so great either. That's a long way of saying here's the only two pics I got:

We did the south side of the trail and then bailed. My kids had calmed down and were having a good time, but I didn't know how long that would last and weather was rolling in. It started snowing on us for a little bit. I wanted to keep going, but it was slow going and I didn't want to get caught on the back side in snow with the kids loosing it. Another tough decision, but that part about discretion and valor and stuff...we went back and hit up the hot tub instead.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Nice, Sizzle. I love the description of the screaming kids in the steeps of Hell's Revenge. I can just see it!

 

[SIZZLE]

Thursday. We decided to do Mineral Bottom to see the other side of the White Rim. If we couldn't do all of it, we'd at least flank it. My wife road her bike and we drove.

Screwing around on side roads while we waited for her to catch up.

This is a cool area and would be fun to camp. The view to the bottom:

We turned around at the bottom and drove out to Dead Horse State Park. Another highlight of the trip, the views are spectacular and it was neat to look down and see the part of the White Rim that we drove a couple days before. Gave perspective.

It was cold, but the family was having fun:

Then we watched as this wall of water headed straight for us.

We wrapped it up! It was pitch black and almost on top of us when we were loading up. We hauled arse north to get ahead of it and then took a right onto Long Canyon and took that road back to Moab.

 

[SIZZLE]

Long Canyon was a fun little road. It sprinkled a little, but nothing really. Again my wife biked and was way faster than Landcrshr and me.

At the bottom were ancient petroglyphs:

 

[SIZZLE]

The weather came in that night and snowed and rained. We woke up with the hills dusted and it rained all day Friday. Last day in Moab, lets hike in the rain!

 

[SIZZLE]

Load it up! 980 miles back to home. We decided to take Hwy 80 back for something different. Easier drive, but less interesting than the 50. Well, less interesting except for the monkey riding a Harley in SLC:

Finally, on the 8th day we got to camp! We camped on a reservoir a bit over half way.

The boy got to play in the dirt!

Next day we made breakfast, packed it up and headed home.


Moab is an amazing place. I can't wait to go back! Thanks for everyone's help planning the trip. I hope you enjoyed the report.

 

[onsse]

thanks for sharing a great trip report!

 

[pilotuku]

Nice write up... Glad you guys made in safe and sound!

 

[landcrshr]

Wow, I don't think I have much to add to that!

Except there was my little side trip to Spencer hot spring:

Plus the hike to Delicate Arch:

Oh, and due to the bad weather, I don't have any camping pics. So here's a pic of the place we were forced to stay at instead:

Thanks again SIZZLE for a great trip!

 

[SIZZLE]

^ you got any pics or vids you want to share from White Rim or Hells Revenge?

 

[landcrshr]

You mean Fins & Things? Here's a vid-cap for you:

And this one of the Shafer trail as it drops down to the White Rim:

And one more from Dead Horse point:

 

[SIZZLE]

You're right! It was Fins. I edited my earlier post.

Thanks for pics! It was awesome to have you on this trip.