help!! I need your opinion. Planning a trip

Hello everybody!

I’m planning a trip to the next cities during the end of May:

Durango, CO

Flagstaff, Az

Moab

Salt Lake City

Any recommendations on trails that I should run?

Looking for easy/moderate trails since I don’t have rock sliders nor lockers. Mostly looking for scenic trails to take the wife.


Thank you in advance!

 

Anyone?

 

For flagstaff I would recommend camping at the “edge of the world”. You can camp right on the rim looking down into the red rocks of Sedona. It can get busy on the weekends. If you google edge of the world flagstaff you will find a bunch of information.
Other trails to look into are cinder hills ohv area, Lockett meadow area, there is also a cool lava tube just off the 180 just outside of flagstaff if you’re looking for something to do.

For Sedona I recommend schnebly hill road, which is a pretty easy trail that goes right into Sedona from the I-17 about 15 miles south of flagstaff. You can also camp on schnebly hill road between the I-17 and where the road starts to drop down into Sedona. There is no camping once the road starts to drop down into Sedona, but it is very scenic. Again if you google schnebly hill road you will find lots of information.
Other trails to look into are broken arrow, oak creek homestead, greasy spoon.

Be aware most of the start of Arizona had a very dry winter and are already in stage 2 fire restrictions. Which means no camp fires even in a campground. Please don’t burn are beautiful forest down.

 

I can't help you with salt lake or flagstaff but you can look up cruise Moab. It's a trail rating system for the trails there. As far as Durango you may be stuck to the highway. Even though this was one of the mildest winters in 50 years there is still snow on the passes and I think most off road trails are still closed. You could check with some of the jeep rental companies in Ouray they would know what's open.

 

Thanks for the info. I will look into camping at "the edge of the world" and your other recommendations. We drove through Flagstaff but we were short on time so we ended up just going straight to Sedona and we did do the Schnebly Hill road trail, which was pretty easy but still very nice. But we did feel like we missed out on exploring Flagstaff, so that's why we want to come back.

Don't worry we won't start a fire, I'll have the wife to keep me warm.

 

So I just google "cruise Moab"?
Yeah I looked into the Durango trails and most of them are going to be open until June, which was a bummer. I will look into the jeep rental companies to see if they know about any trails that might be open during the time we'll be there.

 

Once you get to Moab, pop into any of the souvenir shops on Main St and grab the Charles Wells book (FunTreks). It lists all popular trails in a pretty big radius around Moab, in order of difficulty. I probably wouldn't do anything more difficult than Top of the World, if you're concerned.

When will you be there in May? We plan to run TOTW on Saturday, the 26th, and you're welcome to join us (if you don't mind 'wheeling with Jeeps).

As far as the Silverton/Ouray area (north of Durango) most of the well known trails will likely still be closed. I did see yesterday that one side of Ophir Pass has been plowed. If other trails are open by then, you should be fine on any of them.

Check this page for status:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/...0000000000000&ttype=detail&cid=fsbdev3_002300

 

I've not done this one, but have always wanted to. Cinder Hills Trail/OHV Area outside Flagstaff:

https://funtreks.com/off-road-trails/cinder-hills-ohv-area/

 

Thank you for all the info!
That is one of the trails i want to do, TOTW. But i heard people saying that you need rock-sliders and lockers for this trail. If everything goes according to the plan, that is the weekend i plan to be at Moab. it would be great to join you guys if you don't mind me not having too much experience rock-crawling. i live on the desert so that was one of the main reasons i wanted to stop at Ouray, but like you said i think most of the trails are going to be closed.

 

You would be more than welcome to join us, and you do not need rocker guards and lockers for TOTW, especially if you're with a group. We ran it the first time in a '93 Wrangler YJ on 32s with open diffs and had no problems at all.

We get to Moab the evening of the 23rd; we have fairly hard trails slated for the 24th and 25th (Moab Rim and Rusty Nail) but we can meet up with you when you get to town. If you'll PM me I'll give you my cell number.

BTW, my wife and I are Albuquerque natives, just up the road from you.

 

Near Flagstaff, consider a day at Out of Africa Wildlife Park. The place isn't huge, but it's an amazing place. You're so close to the tigers that you can hear them breathing as they walk by. Some of the tigers actually like to play with guests through the fence ( chasing, hide and seek games, etc ). They also have Tiger Splash where the keepers get into an enclosure with a tiger and have a blast playing using the pool that's in the enclosure ( keep in mind, not all tigers are allowed to do this ). They also have something called Predator Feed on certain days where you can walk with the keepers as they heave the predators their raw meat over the fence. Once the crowd leaves and if you stay behind, you can hear the bones crunching as the tigers and lions chomp away. It's in Costa Verde, so it's not that far out of the way and it may not be what you had in mind, but it'll be a day you'll never forget. I go there every chance I get.

 

Check out Bearizona in Williams as well. Pretty neat drive-through park with some walking sections as well and some more native to northern arizona animals than out of africa. My buddy helps with the raptor rescue program there and they do some cool demo sessions where they do falconry over your head, stuff like great horned owls swooping a few inches over your hair, pretty cool.

I always tell people to drive around the north side of the san francisco peaks as well. Definitely drive up to lockett meadow, but when you come back down the road, head west and make a big loop around the peaks, you can see the grand canyon on a clear day. Look for road numbers 418 and 151.