The Excuse: A 4400 Mile, 12 State Adventure

You can do it. You will drag your bumpers on a few places however. The last of the trail is going to be the hardest. It's pretty rocky and there's no way around it.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnq9Hu3jsy6/?taken-by=drewz_the_doozy

video got cut off but i got in and out of it once i figured out i has to mash the skinny petal a little harder

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn6bDPODXwo/?taken-by=drewz_the_doozy

 

Here's you a whole video of Top of the World and Hells Revenge of me from last month.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrXJ0PtcSgU

 

nicely done, i remember all of those ledge on TOTW, god it was so bumpy lol

 

Now you got me excited! Looks like a blast!

 

https://media.giphy.com/media/S24vAZeES2INy/giphy.gif

 

The Excuse: A 4400 Mile, 12 State Adventure
Part 3: Sand Dune Fun

After a great night's sleep under the stars we got up, made some pancakes and packed the tent up. It's much easier to pack when it's not snowing. The drive off the plateau was uneventful. We drove a few miles, aired back up before hitting the blacktop and made our way to our first fuel stop in Colorado City Arizona. We briefly passed back into Arizona before heading north again.






The real fun started when we turned off of Coral Pink Sand Dunes Rd and onto Elephant Cove Rd. We aired back down and the wife got her first real test in loose sand.





The drive was gorgeous! Full of small whoops, banking corners and steep descents. We scrapped the bumper a few times, but nothing too unsettling.





As we continued the small shrubs beside us began to get taller and the sand dunes began to transition into rock outcroppings.







As the shrubs became trees we started finding ourselves in beautiful tree tunnels.







Just a few miles before we met back up with the blacktop we encountered our first creek crossing and the real fun for the day. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures because we were too busy figuring out how to get past this obstacle. The bank of the creek was around 9 feet tall. The only break in the bank was a narrow cut just wider than the truck, over 45 degrees up, and very rutted. There were a few UTVs that we had pulled over to let around earlier that were facing the same obstacle. A few had made it up, others had failed. The ones that had made it left deeper ruts and drag marks as they crossed the top of the climb.



The simple fact is we weren't going to make it up without some work. I grabbed the traction mats off the truck and started using them to shovel the sides of the bank into the deeper ruts. After that I was able to smooth out the steeper parts of the climb to make it a little more manageable. My wife started finding large river rocks to toss over to me. I used them to help fill in and pack down the ruts. Once the other UTV drivers and passengers saw the progress they started to help. In 30 minutes we had made the bank a lot more accessible. I left the mats over the recently filled in ruts to help add traction and keep from digging the ruts back out. I put the truck in 4Lo, locked the rear and climbed out with no problem! After some cheering the other UTVs all followed me up.



Come to find out the UTVs were rentals! It was a large family reunion that decided to have a little fun. It was great talking with everyone, and they even offered to let us camp with them. Sadly we didn't think we had the time so we kept pushing.



We crossed the stream a few more times, and even found some mountain goats!




We hit the main road soon after, traveled through Mt Carmel Utah before turning east in Glendale and setting our sights on our next campsite.







The roads were easy and we made good time. Just before sundown we made it to the Bull Valley Gorge Trailhead where we picked up our permit for camp. It's a free campsite about a mile past Bull Valley Gorge. The Bull Valley Gorge is a really cool slot canyon we'd like to go back and explore when it's not almost dark.



A couple of the sites were taken, but we were quite happy with the site we got. In fact, someone was even kind enough to have left a little firewood for us to cut up and use. We had a great fire! Even broke out the smores and some corn dogs to roast for dinner.



We didn't end up needing the heater that night, and instead we crawled in the sleeping bags and promptly fell asleep. We were both tired from the day's excitement.

The sunrise over the valley didn't disappoint! Another clear and beautiful day in Utah.






What we didn't know, is that we'd soon run into a closed road full of washouts and sticky mud. The Ranger said we'd PROBABLY be ok...

Part 1: RoadTrippin'
Part 2: Utah Bound
Part 3: Sand Dune Fun
Part 4: A Closed Road​

Stay Tuned for more

 

sub'd

 

Updated with video! It's still processing so it should switch from 380p to 1080p soon.

Also, this entire trip will be made into a multipart travel vlog soon, so be sure to subscribe to ScenicCityOverland on youtube.

 

The Excuse: A 4400 Mile, 12 State Adventure
Part 4: A Closed Road

Day 3 in Utah would be another eventful day. The morning was a little cloudy but the scenery was absolutely beautiful! It didn't take long for us to make our way down to the blacktop.



Once on the main road, we stopped to air the tires back up. That ended up being a mistake because we were very close to being back on dirt. The locals came over to greet us. Sarah tried to offer some snap peas to them, but they had no interest.



As usual I neglected to get a picture of this next part. Just a few miles from where we aired up the road we were on, Cottonwood Canyon Road, became dirt again. At the same location it intersected with Kodachrome State Park Rd which remained paved. The problem is Cottonwood Canyon Road had a sign blocking half the road saying it was closed after Grosvenor Arch which was less than halfway down the road. As far was we could tell we didn't have a choice but continue or spend a day backtracking.

We turned towards Kodachrome State Park and the small guard station. When we talked with the ranger he looked out the window at our truck and said "It's just a little muddy, you guys should be fine". Great! That's all the permission we needed. We took off towards Grosvenor Arch and planned to follow Cottonwood Canyon Road until we reached our destination near Page AZ.

The road was a little muddy towards the arch, but nothing we couldn't handle in 2wd.






Grosvenor Arch was definitely worth the side trip! Soon we made our way back to Cottonwood Canyon Road and past the closed signs. Our next stop would be the Cottonwood Narrows. They were incredible! A mix of white and red rock that was unlike anything we had ever seen.




Soon after leaving the Cottonwood Narrows we met an oncoming white pickup truck. My first thought was it was a ranger truck, but it ended up being an older gentleman that wanted to let us know the road ahead got much worse. He said there were many washouts and mud pits 40+ feet long. He also looked at our truck, shrugged and said we'd probably be ok.





The rock formations were really awesome and I spent much of my time glued to the window. We did run across a LOT of mud. But the Sarah was learning to keep her speed up and we really didn't have much trouble at all.


Once we completed the road, we were back on Blacktop just north of Page Arizona. We quickly aired up, took a few pictures around the muddy truck and set off. We were both excited to get to Page.



The drive into Page was uneventful. We made our way to a gas station, then a quick stop at Sonic for some deep fried goodness. I spent a few minutes spraying the truck off not knowing how much of a wasted effort that would end up being. Finally we stopped at Walmart for some batteries, a new lighter since my got crushed in my camping box, and some firewood. After loading back up we setout to our most anticipated campsite of the trip; Alstrom Point.



The drive was a bit bumpy and very muddy. We kept looking over to our right looking for this fabled view. It didn't take long for us to find it!






With a nice fire going and an incredible view we spent the evening relaxing under the stars. We were even privileged enough to see a few bats flying around our campsite. Not even the random jeep doing a Chinese fire drill in our campsite was enough to ruin an awesome evening. As the last rays of light faded we crawled into bed for a great nights sleep.




Day 4 started off well enough, but it only took 6 miles for it to become the worst day of the trip...

Part 1: RoadTrippin'
Part 2: Utah Bound
Part 3: Sand Dune Fun
Part 4: A Closed Road

Stay Tuned for more

 

Looks like an amazing trip. Very jealous. Just sent a link to my wife so she could check it out. I made it down to Utah from the Seattle,WA area a couple years ago to ride the Paiute trail with a SxS, and also spent a day riding at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. Beautiful country, all of it. My wife and I now have an AT Habitat, and I can't wait to get them down there!

Thank you for sharing the pics!!

O, and I have to give a quick plug for the Habitat. GFC, AT Summit, and Vagabond Drifter are all great, but we love the extra room of the Habitat.

 

Thanks! We had a blast. And the wife is already talking about where to go next. That's a win in my book.

Washington State is beautiful country as well. I have family out there and use to visit a few times a year when I was younger!

I've always love the AT Habitat. The price is a little more, but the room is great! I really wanted one on my Jeep for years.

 

Always re-read through your post before posting... apparently the road was a little buddy instead of bumpy and I forgot to include the verbs of another sentence.

 

We want MORE!

 

You mean you want to the part about me stuck in clay for 2.5 hours? Or the part about having to reroute around nearly 2 feet of snow? I guess I can try and get another post up tonight.

 

Either or. I'm here for you're suffering.....


JK I actually enjoy the story and the photos

 

Damn, after reading this, I'm thinking I need to load the GF and her dog in the truck and have a Utah greatest hits tour pretty soon.

 

Lol, a little column A, a little column B...

You should! And you live a LOT closer than I do.

 

It's funny how, no matter where you live, you get a little immune(?) towards it. I love Utah, but just took a trip to the Asheville area and I thought that place was super rad. Meanwhile, everyone was telling me how lucky I was to live in UT. It's easy to take for granted, but then every time there is a chance I may move away, I start looking for jobs in UT to keep me here.