White Rim Trail Trip Report..

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My soninlaw Gresh bought a new 4runner Trail, on my recommendation, (I must add that he is a JKU convert), to begin his families off-road overlanding adventures and me being me, was bound and determined to break him in right, with a trip to Moab and the White Rim Trail, then down to the Needles over Elephant Hill for a few nights of camping at Horsehoof Campsite. Her is his new rig, and my old beater on the trail after going down the Shafer trail switchbacks.
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The weather was perfect the entire 4 days. He proved to me immediately that he was a very good driver, and that his rig was more than capable to traverse even the roughest sections of the WRT. The first real test was dropping down into Lathrop Canyon and back. Tight switchbacks were handled with ease by myself and Gresh. Here is a view of Airport Tower from the bottom of Lathrop Canyon.View attachment 1445959 Here is our first campsite at the towerView attachment 1445959
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Once again, Perfect weather, highs in the mid 60's lows in the low 40's.
Next up was Murphys' Hogback but on the way there the views are tremendous. Here we are right below Washerwoman Arch. Later that day we were surprised by a herd of Bighorn Sheep. This was my wife and I's 6th trip to the Moab area and our first bighorn sighting, and quite a sighting it was. The herd was 8 or 10 in size but this is my best shot of the fleeting animals.
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Murphy's Hogback here we come.
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is it me? because everything is in RAW-J-PEG I have to take a screen shot of the image, when editing or trying to re-order the post, I'm getting a mish mash, and a lot of duplicate photos... I'll figure it out, but I am somewhat surprised that mud does not accept larger files.. lots of vids.. I'll try one next..
 
in the meantime here are a couple of iconic images of our rigs. just a great shot of Gresh's really cool 4runner, then us perched upon the Shafer Trail switchbacks
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The climb up Murphy's Hogback can be quite the pucker experience for some. In our case Gresh, Myself and my Grandson GK chose to drive and ride up. The gals, and grandson Rory chose to hike up the back. I laid back a bit behind the 4runner as the crawl gear control is much lower than my L-1.. Guess what my next upgrade will be? The campsite was nothing less than spectacular. Both my grandsons and my daughter loved the sight and want to go back.
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On the way to Potato Bottom Camp we get our first sightings of the Green River. From atop Murphy's we knew it was down below us but not visible, what was visible from Murphy's was the Maze district, which I someday want to go into. The scenery, once again, continued to blow this Ohio farmboy away.
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Once we reached bottom land we knew the Potato Bottom Campsite was near. Here are a few images of and from our campsite. The last image is one I was lucky enough to witness back in 2007, our first WRT experience.
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Awesome photos, awesome trip, very jealous!
 
Man O Man. Fabulous! I could watch your vids all day.
 
The next morning we got up a bit late, as I think we were reluctant to leave. There was already talk among us that we should have reserved Murphy's Hogback for two nights instead of just one. We did have a feast of a breakfast and afterwards packed up and bugged out. as mentioned before, Gresh turned out to be quite a good driver so relinquished my "trip leadership" to him and let him experience it all, first hand, instead of following me. From Potato Bottom you immediately go up, up and over the next mesa, then back down along the Green River. The switchbacks up and out are suitable for medium campers pulling watercraft, but still can be harrowing for the light hearted.


White Rim Trail, Along the Green River
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