Got back last week from 4300 miles on the road - Everett->SLC->Zion->Grand Canyon->Monument Valley->Moab->Jackson Hole/Yellowstone->Everett with a lot of side trips. Not too much off of the road, but I still really enjoyed having the LX in front of my steering wheel. Definitely glad I had done nav-delete earlier, and that I was mentally prepared for paying for about 430 gallons of gasoline.
While in Zion we drove up the Kolob (Heights?) road and to the reservoir at the end. A little fun driving the dirt track around the reservoir including a big mud pit, and got turned around at a washout I wasn't prepared to attempt. A beautiful drive though - just as spectacular as Zion itself.
Driving around the floor of Monument Valley - really took an effort to hit all of the sand, rocks, dips.. should have known from the groans of 3/4 of the passengers (my 4yo son only yelled "Again! Again") that off roading in Moab was going to be vetoed!
A little side trip from Monument Valley up the Moki Dugway (fun for me, nerve wracking for passengers!) and to Natural Bridges.
The one 'trail' we attempted to run - Willow Flats Road from inside Arches out to the highway. Made it as far as the gate before turning around. Nobody but me was having fun, and 'fun' could be exchanged for any number of other more extreme adjectives. Despite the reliability of my truck and the 100s in general, I kept thinking 'if I break this, in 100 degree heat, miles from anyone, my wife will murder me and live off of my life insurance'. Only knocked the hitch on the ground twice, no new scratches, and nothing inside rattled loose. I did hit a medium sized rock going about 20mph with the right front tire - definitely an 'oh s***' moment for all of us - which reminded me to slow down and pay close attention. Never found the dinosaur footprints at the gate - bummer moment. My wife's closing comment as we rejoined the main road inside Arches "Now, do you have that out of your system?"
Side note - I loved watching a really set up 80 from an outfit in Moab pull into the little picnic area at the start of WF road, disgorge a family + driver, and set up a really good looking picnic. We headed down the road before they wrapped up, and I kept saying 'man, that outfit and that truck, they are going to do this road with that family and have a great time' but I never saw them, and when we got back to the picnic area they had gone - we had a great laugh thinking about some family paying a ton of money for a tour of Arches in a totally set up off road Cruiser and never getting off the asphalt. (I mean, I paid a ton of money for a Cruiser and barely got off the asphalt but... that's different!)
The muck at the end of 4300 miles - it took a while to restore a gleam and polish.
A great road trip despite the heavy fuel consumption and cost. My only notice, and I appreciate any thoughts on this, was how hard it was to maintain speed going up over the steep passes. Our tent trailer is probably under 2k loaded down, and we've got another 750-1000lbs in the truck in people and gear, but I was really struggling to keep it over 25mph going up some of the roads. We went over a pass (Douglas Pass?) in Colorado on 139 that was around 8k feet and just poked up and over it, same climbing out of Flaming Gorge, and Jackson (? - West of Jackson Hole on 22) Pass were the same story. I'm not in any hurry, and I let the 4 speed kind've feel its way ( a lot of 2nd gear) but does this sound pretty normal? I didn't get a feel like anything was wrong, I could accelerate if I forced it to downshift, but I was surprised at how ineffective 3rd gear felt and I didn't even think about 4th.
