Cruise Moab 2013

[Glenn-BJ74]

Shot Canyon

cool place - very remote - very quiet

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Very cool!!! Cant wait to get there some time.

 

[Greg_B]

Glenn. Stop it!

gb

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Don't look - its almost over....

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Fresh ground coffee to start another amazing day.

On the way to Shot Canyon is Jasper Canyon. Jasper Canyon was never grazed by livestock so the NPS have preserved it for scientific study - no general access

My last shot of Chimney Rock .

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Friday was our last day.
That Friday morning before we left the Land of the Standing Rocks we went down to the Dollhouse area and hiked the short Granary Trail to see Spanish Bottom and the Colorado River.

Greg and I hiked down to Spanish Bottom last year had a swim in the Colorado River.

The Ganary Trail goes by Surprize Canyon, which I suspect was a former channel of the Colorado River.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

The Ganary Trail leads to little rock silos, which are found all over the US Southwest, where the Anasazi Indians used to store grain ( i.e corn). Some tight slots along this trail.

On way out of the Land of the Standing Rocks, between the Wall and Teapot Campsite is about 1 1/2 hours of rock crawling - easy stuff.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Our last official campsite in the Park was Sunset Pass. We got there about 3:00 PM and found an unremarkable site so decided to keep going and look for the Dirty Devil River. After traversing some weird looking terrain we eventually reached the Dirty Devil River.

There we found a sandy riverbank to camp beside. Quickly parking the trucks we both jumped into the silty brown water to wash off the week's accumulated dust off our sun-baked faces. Eric headed off in his rig to take picture during 'magic time' when the desert light is offering its best reddish hues.

The next day was Saturday. After pack up we continued out Poison Spring Canyon to reach paved Hwy 95. Along the way we saw one or two slot canyons north of the road, worthy of a hike next time we are there. Once reaching Hwy 95, we aired up and cleaned our air cleaners. I accompanied Eric to Hanksville where we said our goodbyes...

Eric headed home, but along the way stopped by Cruiser Outfitters to see Kurt for a new set of springs to replace the ones he bagged out on the trip. I headed south to the Four Corners Inn in Blanding for a hot shower and to meet the Copper State Cruisers for dinner and another week of wheeling, including getting to Day 1 of Cruise Moab on that Wednesday in Moab.

So ends Week 1.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

I'm loving the pictures/ commentary and hope you have a chance to show us week 2. Kevin Mantoani , his (and now my) friend Doug and I attended CM2013 and had a great time. I really enjoyed the event but can't shake the feeling there was a lot more to see and do in the area. I believe I will have to plan on more time next year.

 

[Antarctican]

Yes these are awesome! I'll wait until Glenn is done before posting my ego shots

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Week 2

After leaving Eric on Saturday I headed to Blanding to meet the Copper State Cruiser gang --they are based in Phoenix. We met at the Four Corners Inn, as we have in the past.

I got there about 2:00 PM and hit the ACE hardware store to buy an outageously priced soldering iron to fix my busted CB. I borrowed a 100’ extension cord from the motel staff and draped it out my second story hotel room and finally got enough heat to solder the dam thing - good enough for field reparir - but the POS antannae needs to be completly replaced. Stuff like this always works fine at home, but on a trip - a definite maybe!!

The next day it was Hotel Rock – rock crawling obstacles abound. We headed west on Hwy 95, which I had come from the day previous and we turned north onto the Comb Wash road which leads eventuall to Hotel Rock.

There is an easier way to Hotel Rock but we never do that. Here I am following Jim and Lorna (they used to live in Alberta but now Aridzona).

Some of the up and down obstacles - to get there.

PS. Some of the following pictures are from the CSC site.

 

[Enigma]

Every large truck stop we encountered en route to California a couple years ago had a massive selection of CB anntena's (and lots of other things) for quite cheap. I picked up a 5' Wilson for something like $20.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

I borrowed a mag mount for two days - it did not work much better. I have a fiberglass top - no ground plane - more complicated.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

A few shots of the steep obstacles on the way to Hotel Rock ...

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Hotel rock for lunch.
The third picture is a look back at Comb Ridge, the bottom of which we turned off to get where we are now.
Comb Ridge is a very prominant north south ridge about 80 miles long you see in the distance. The area from where this picture was taken is south of Canyonlands in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The Manti-La Sals were visible looking east from the Maze.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Toward the end of the day we stopped by Natural Bridges National Monument, east of Blanding off Hwy 95. There we looked around and took pictures and yakked a bit.
The second picture is Jim and Kevin - two stalwart members of the Copper State Cruisers.
The third picture are of some of the Columbians that flew up for the week. The fellow in the blue was wheeling his brand new rental FJ from Phoenix !!

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Picture of the Cooper 37's that work extremely well on the FZJ80.

We headed back to Blanding, but detoured south to Bluff, UT for dinner at the Twin Rocks Dinner.

 

[Fantom]

Looks like an awesome trip, added to my bucket list for one of these years. Thanks Glenn.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Needles - -Backdoor

The Needles District is the southern of the three regions of Canyonlands -- the other two are Islands in the Sky and the Maze.

From Blanding we came in from the south through the Manti-La Sal forest, north through Beef Basin and out Elepahant Hill to the paved Hwy 211, coming out past the NPS gate.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

The Needles are part of the same formation that is in the southern Maze -- simliar to the Dollhouse formations.