clarkrw3 said:
...however, from what I understand there are alot of "pick-up" trips that go in the afternoon and evening. This is if you are not on an all day trip like golden spike or the one down in Canyonlands...
This is Michael: We've been on all the trails you mentioned except Rim and Kane Creek. If you're going with a group, all of them are all-day trips except for Rim. Spike (and I assume you mean the full Poison Spider - Golden Spike - Gold Bar Rim, not just Gold Bar Rim, then Spike down to the Golden Crack and back out...) isn't just all-day, it's a LONG day, and that is if no one breaks anything. Just to give you an idea, we left 9 a.m. at City Market, 7 trucks, 20 min lunch break, nobody broke, not much time spent for pictures or playing, and we hit blacktop north of Moab at 6:30 p.m. If anything happens that'll require repairs, plan on coming out at night. You can take some shortcuts on Hell's Revenge, and on Cliffhanger you can decide to cut it short once you've reached the rim. On Metal Masher, the play obstacles like Rock Chucker Hill and Widowmaker have turned into 40"-tire buggy territory despite what the book sez. Widowmaker is a 6-7 foot wall by now, so you might drive the bypass road right away if you want to cut it a bit shorter.
Not trying to discourage you from trying to drive as many trails as possible while in Moab, just trying to give you a reasonable assessment. Yeah, there's always someone who wants to go out on a night run etc. But Moab trails command a certain amount of respect, and I certainly wouldn't want to be out there at night and break something - perspectives of obstacles change in the dark, and spotting is a lot more difficult.
Added by Claudia: most of the trails were done with the Blazer, I did Poison Spider Mesa, Metal Masher, Gold Bar Rim (cut short for running out of time), Hell's Revenge and Fins-N-Things in the FJ40. I would be interested in signing up for Golden Spike, Steelbender (haven't done that yet), and undecided as for what else. I only know I am not doing Kane Creek, according to a buddy, it's umptythousand creek crossings and hours in the car wash later. IH8MUD.
). Decided we want to run Golden Spike (preference Thursday), Steel Bender and Moab Rim (if it turns out too much for me, I'll just wait until the group turns around ;p).
); we stayed there once before, nothing fancy, but rooms are large, close to quadruple espresso for Michael and good tea for me in the morning 
(Texaco station on the east side of 191, this is a good thing to keep in mind), and I got a rate of $72 with AAA discount.
