Hotel Rock, Comb Ridge Trails

Week before last, my wife, our three dogs, and I took the Tacoma and all our gear to go camping in the Comb Wash/Arch Canyon area SW of Blanding, UT. It's easily one of my most favorite places, period. We camped about a mile into Arch Canyon, and ran the trail to Hotel Rock, as well as the Comb Ridge trail, the next day.

We ran Hotel Rock in our two-door JK on 37s back in '16, and while it was fun, it didn't present any challenge. In a 127" WB truck on 33s, it was a real challenge! Especially some of the tight s-turns you have to make on top of and in between hogbacks.



A little IFS "flex":

 

Pictures never do justice to the severity of the obstacles; some of the climbs and descents on the trail were steep! At least they felt like it in the truck, despite the WB. This steep climb stymied me, even with the front locker engaged, until I found exactly the right line. Both front and rear were trying to climb minute ledges simultaneously, and she just wouldn't get traction. I was actually getting a little concerned when I finally hit it just right:



A steep little drop:



Hotel Rock, the trail's namesake. Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) ruins:



This is the first IFS vehicle I've 'wheeled, and I expected it to feel much less stable than it did. I'm really impressed with it. This is the only time it felt sketchy, and this was driver error:

 

We made the quick run up the Comb Ridge trail (AKA Posey's Trail) before returning to camp:



You can see the trail across Comb Wash, from the Hotel Rock trail:



This isn't a hard trail at all. It's an unmaintained dirt road that quickly gets you to the top of Comb Ridge, but the scenery is spectacular:



Passing through the dugway at the top, before taking FS roads back to UT 95, and heading back to camp:



The following two days we ran a few trails outside Moab. Once my wife has those pics uploaded, I'll post some more. It was a fantastic trip!

 

Beautiful landscape. I dig the paint on the hood!

 

Thank you! The graphics are vinyl--my wife and I have talked about having them painted, at some point. The truck is her daily, so it's ultimately up to her.

 

Where did you get the graphics? Price?

 

The off road pics are cool and all, but those hood graphics are gonna be the main topic in this thread lol. It looks really good!

 

Thank you!

 

They're from CW Wraps. You can find them on IG.

 

The day after running Hotel Rock, we drove up to Moab to meet friends from the SLC area and run a couple scenic trails (and to have dinner and beers INSIDE Moab Brewery). Bartlett Overlook is rated on the low end of hard in the Well's book, harder than Top of the World and Seven Mile Rim. I had hoped for a little challenge, but was disappointed. This is the "hardest" spot on the trail:



That said, you just can't complain about the scenery:



On Monday we returned to the Moab area to run La Sal Pass. I love the short stretch of talus shelf on this trail:



We were stopped short of the top by snow blocking the trail. My wife didn't get pics of the snow on the trail, but there was a lot, considering how warm it was. On our way back to Comb Ridge we made the short drive out to Needles Overlook. It's just incredible scenery:



We left UT the next day and headed to Albuquerque, which is where we're from. Spent a couple days there, one of them driving up through Los Alamos and the Jemez Mountains, before we started back to TX. It was a fantastic trip, one that definitely left us wanting more.

 

Again, as a Jeep and SFA guy, I just can't stress how impressed I am with this truck. We've had it just over two years (it's a late '17) and it's made multiple trips with two adults, three dogs, and a lot of gear, to CO, Big Bend, and now UT. Red Cone and Hotel Rock are the hardest trails it's run, and it has handled both extremely well (especially for being low, long, and only on 33s). On this trip the skid plates and Shrockworks rocker guards were definitely put to good use. We suffered only minimal body damage (that tail pipe is coming off, and we have a Shrockworks bumper waiting for us!)