Elephant Hill... Solo?

Awesome write up as always!

 

I didn’t even think about snow. It frequently gets washed out and become impassable is what I meant. Here is a pic from google. Thankfully when I did it, it only took some extra throttle to get up it.

 

Yeah, I understand it can get bad. As of a month ago, it wasn't. We got a stock 3rd gen through there with little fanfare.

​

 

I'll be out there in a month and I can't wait!

 

Last two weeks of June for me!

 

We did Bobbys Hole a few weeks ago. It was an interesting hill. No real ledges, but the loose rocks and tons of sand made it a bit challenging. Lots of tires digging holes.....

Elephant Hill was pretty crazy. Glad I left the trailer at the entrance. Even past Elephant Hill there are some decent hills/obstacles along Devils Lane, etc.

The squeeze wasn't as tight as I was expecting. Plenty of room for a 2nd gen and 80 series LC.

 

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

Basically TOTW, Lockhart, and Elephant Hill.

 

How was Lockhart basin? I’d like to hit that next time I’m out there. No way I’d go solo though!

 

Lockhart is quite a bit easier than Elephant Hill.

Lockhart - Elephant Hill - Beef Basin is an awesome loop.

 

The canyon section of Lockhart might start becoming pretty challenging headed in that direction, I remember it being way more difficult when we headed down it last year compared to going up 4 years ago.

 

Found this one from '15 for comparison to above top pic.

 

And while I am at it, just reread through this awesomeness again.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/pre-rt15-lockhart-basin-loop-rt15.376486/

 

Wow, looks like you had a blast!

 

Yep, helluva a route, done it in both directions now and can’t really say one is better than the other. You do miss parts of Elephant either way though, so in that regards north to south is better imo so you get to do the squeeze.

 

I know this is an old question but I'll chime in too. I did Canyonlands solo a couple months ago, coming from Beef Basin and exiting over Elephant Hill. That direction of travel makes Bobby's hole easy because it's downhill, but climbing the back side of Elephant Hill is pretty insane -- by far the biggest challenge of the route.

I'd say the most important things for driving solo in this area are five good tires, solid off-roading experience, and a backup plan for if you get stuck or disabled. We drove around the Needles district without seeing another person or vehicle for almost two days!

Having the rear locker and skid plates helped too though.

Anyway, as of September 2019, Bobby's hole was easy going downhill, and looked passable uphill too.

 

Oh I don't know about that. I thought Lockhart had some of the toughest stuff we did. It was the only time of the whole trip where we had to break out the winches. Elephant Hill was more harrowing than anything.

As mentioned above multiple times, I think Moab in general is getting harder due to all the traffic. TOTW has gotten noticeably tougher in just 2 years.

 

Here is my friends (much longer) video of the same trip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk-I_sbGOUw

Lockhart winching is at 2:50. The Land Cruiser was the only thing that made it up that without using a winch.

 

Yep, that is the same spot I posted above.

 

You can do elephant hill w/o winch. I thought it was the toughest trail I’ve been on, about 1 year experience off roading. 3” lift on 285’s worked well, no hits on armor Can use work on picking lines