5,000 Miles in 10 Days, Cross Country Trip to Utah

After months of researching, reading, and dreaming of Moab it was finally time to go. I had planned everything out in the weeks before, done a final inspection on the truck, changed my oil, and packed my things. About 6:30 AM I pulled out of the driveway to pick up my friend who would be joining me on this adventure. Most people would say you're crazy to take a truck with this many miles across the country and into the desert. I knew we would have no issues. It's a Toyota, Let's go Places!

IMG_20170310_062924626 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We got on the road, and headed north, passing through Nashville, St. Louis, and Kansas City. The plan was to camp at Wilson State Park in central Kansas, putting us about 13 hours from home, with about 10-11 to go to Moab. We made it with no issues, making great time even passing through several large cities. We only stopped for gas and to eat. There's not much to see in this part of the country... We made it to Kansas, and the sun was starting to go down. We pulled into Wilson State Park around 9:30 and it was cold and windy. We made hot dogs, and a small fire while we set up the tents. We went to bed early knowing it was going to be cold in the morning. The thing that had me more worried though was the chance of snow/freezing rain they were calling for early in the morning. We woke up and thankfully there was no precipitation falling, that would not have been a fun way to start 10 days of camping, but it was bitterly cold. I woke up and could hardly feel my feet, it was something like 28* with a 15 mph wind at least.

Our campsite, we were the only ones camping here this night believe it or not...

DSC05356a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I made myself get out of the tent and put shoes on and walk around. We packed up camp, took a few pictures and got in the truck with the heat blasting headed back towards the interstate. Getting out of Kansas was the only thing on our minds at this point.

DSC05366a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

On the way in we thought the ground around us looked black and scorched, but we couldn't tell for sure at night. In the morning we confirmed it. The ground all around had been burned from wildfires. You can see it on the tops of the hills in the picture below.

DSC05368a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

It was cold and miserably windy driving through Kansas, and we ended up driving into a short lived snow shower. It ended up getting worse than this, it began to stick to the roads and the temps were still dropping. We were ready to be done with Kansas...

2017-03-31_11-45-35 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

When we finally reached the Colorado border everything got better seemingly immediately. The sun came out, the temperature increased into the mid 50's and we finally found a place to eat.

We got back on the road, heading towards Denver. We took a quick detour through Denver, picking up a spare alternator because my garbage non-Denso one was starting to whine and I didn't want to be left stranded anywhere.

Then it was onto I-70 through the Rockies. The truck did really well, pulling up the hills just fine, keeping up with traffic even HEAVILY loaded down. We were probably pushing 6,000 lbs or more at this point.

Interstate 70 through western Colorado should be on everyone's bucket list of roads to drive. It's the prettiest interstate I've ever been on. Nothing compares.

DSC05454a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05459a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05502b by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05508a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We stopped at this scenic overlook, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

DSC05526a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05530a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05531b by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05534a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05535a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05561a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We made it as far as we could through the Rockies until we lost light, and then decided to stop and grab dinner because we wouldn't be making it to Moab until late because of all the stopping for pictures of the mountains. This is where things got interesting.

About a month or two before this trip I sent a PM to a member, @Blackdawg, asking him a few questions about Moab and Utah since I knew he had been several times, and gone fairly recently. We decided we wanted pizza and found a Dominos in Rifle, Colorado that we figured would be good to stop at. A $9 large 3 topping pizza sounded perfect. We were sitting there eating our pizza, and I'm looking out the window at the gas station across the street when I notice a green double cab first gen Tacoma with a bed rack and RTT filling up. I didn't think much of it, but the more I thought about it the more I realized I think I knew who drives that... As we left the parking lot the green Tacoma was leaving too. Now I could see that it had gold wheels, and I knew that it was @Blackdawg driving Igor. We both got on I-70 westbound and I realized he's probably going to Moab also. Where else would a built Toyota be going westbound on I-70? I caught up as fast as I could, pulled in front and flashed my lights at him. He flashed back, but apparently didn't think much of it as he was deep in a conversation, he just noticed a cool 4Runner in front of him.

He followed me for a bit, and then realized he recognized the truck and pulled up next to me, signaling to talk on the CB. I disconnected my CB several months ago because I had nowhere to mount the antenna with the new bumper so this wasn't possible. I just gave him a sad wave and he got in front of me. I followed for the next 50 miles or so down I-70. Suddenly I see his right turn signal come on and he gets on the brakes, waiting for me to signal that I will exit too. We both get off the interstate at Loma, Colorado and jump out of the trucks, awestruck at the dumb luck of crossing paths on the way to Moab. The chances must have been one in a million. I'm 1,500 miles from home at this point crossing paths with someone I spoke to on the internet months ago about going to Utah. Monte hadn't even planned on coming to Moab until a few days before as well. We had a short conversation on the exit ramp to Loma, Colorado. Monte said he and a friend are camping near Onion Creek tonight, and running Top of the World in the morning. He invited us to come along, and I gladly accepted. We topped off in Loma, Colorado, and I followed Monte down some winding back roads through Utah, sometimes wondering where we are going, what I'm thinking following this guy I talked to on the internet and met by chance into some remote place to camp with him and one of his friends...

ImpromptU-Ah-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Bombing down these winding canyon roads at night with the nearly full moon shining bright was amazing, I knew we would be in for a treat in the morning when we could see where we were at. We got to the Onion Creek trailhead, aired down, and Monte got his friend Ben (@m3bassman) on his Ham radio. Ben said he was about 10 miles in at a campsite on the right. Monte said, "Alright, we'll be there in a little bit. I picked someone up on the interstate that'll be joining us tonight." That was the end of the conversation. Leaving Ben wondering who in the world Monte had picked up and why he was bringing them camping...

I got introduced to Moab quickly, running Onion Creek at night after having been in Utah for maybe an hour at this point. We ended up driving about 12 miles in, and still couldn't find Ben, so we turned around to back track and finally found him. We parked the trucks introduced ourselves, and sat around the campfire telling stories, still in awe of the sheer luck of us crossing paths like this. We set up camp, and went to bed after a very long day. 24 hours of driving in two days, we covered 1,600+ miles. We were finally in Moab, and things were going great.

Then we were greeted with this view when we unzipped the tents in the morning.

DSC05565a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05566a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Ben had picked an amazing campsite, surrounded by scenic features, we had camped at just above a mile above sea level.

DSC05569a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05575a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

After this morning my friend who had joined me on the trip was convinced, Utah was worth the two days drive.

DSC05576a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We got a later start this morning, after sleeping in from the long night. Once we were all ready we rolled out, leaving the same way we came in. Monte led, I was in the middle, and Ben followed since I didn't have a radio and they both did. Onion creek was an awesome trail, 27 creek crossings, winding roads cutting through a canyon with beautiful views the entire time. Monte is braver than myself so he'd end up way out front and then grab pictures of myself and Ben crossing the creeks. There's nothing better than splashing through creeks in the desert, this was one of my favorite trails we ran even through it's a super easy trail.

DSC05583a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

IMG_0026 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

DSC05591a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05594a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05598a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05603a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Creek crossings are so much fun!

ImpromptU-Ah-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-26.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

We stopped for a minute at the trail head, discussed the plans for Top of the World, and took more pictures.

ImpromptU-Ah-27.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-29.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

DSC05605a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Milo and Venice were ready for the next adventure!

DSC05609a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05607a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Then we made our way up HWY 128, following the Colorado River towards Top of the World. This was an amazing road, beautiful views everywhere we looked.

DSC05611a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05631a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We got to the access road to the trail, right near Dewey Bridge. It was the longest suspension bridge in Utah. It was restored back around 2000, but then burned down by some kids a few years later and never restored...

DSC05636a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05641a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Monte grabbed a few more pictures of Ben and I on the easy gravel access road.

ImpromptU-Ah-39.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-42.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

DSC05649a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05650a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We made it to the trail head, and put our trucks in 4 wheel drive. We engaged 4Lo and off we went. None of us had lockers so this was as good as it was going to get.

DSC05662a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05659a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The trail up was completely different than anything I'd ever seen, amazing views all the way. Lots of ledges and slow going. I followed Monte's lines for the most part. Unner went everywhere I pointed her. No questions asked.

Ben and Monte did a great job grabbing some action shots of Unner!

IMG_0064 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-44.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

IMG_0071 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-47.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

You can see Ben with his camera behind my truck in this picture. He got quite the workout running up the trail from behind to take pictures, especially at our elevation. That's dedication!

ImpromptU-Ah-49.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

IMG_0095 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

IMG_0096 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

IMG_0104 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

IMG_0107 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

IMG_0110 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

And at one point Ben was running from his own truck!

DSC05666a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Monte plowing ahead, leaving us slow pokes behind.

DSC05679a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05685a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Group picture!

DSC05688a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Then we came across this big ledge that had been torn up really bad from UTV's. Monte took the hard line, I took the easier line, which wasn't too bad, until I got to the part where the two lines come together. The truck got super tippy here, sitting on only the passenger front and driver rear. Monte jumped on the front bumper to ease the rocking of the truck, and I backed down a little and took a different line. This time I walked up with ease. Tire placement is key.

Our pre ledge planning committee.

DSC05691a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

IMG_4715 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

IMG_4740 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

DSC05694a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

IMG_4724 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

In the process of climbing up that ledge Monte gave his pretty new wheels their first rock rash, as well as ripping off his mudflap after just replacing them from ripping them off on his last trip...

IMG_4765 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

The easier line that I took.

ImpromptU-Ah-54.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-55.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

DSC05694a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

This was the area where I got really tippy.

IMG_4754 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

Meanwhile behind us Kirsten was showing us up in Ben's 5 speed Tacoma, banging the front bumper around, but adamant to drive the entire trail herself.

IMG_4755 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

After the big ledge, lots of smaller ledges continued on the way up. Bumping myself over a few of the ledges and giving my armor a workout I made it just fine, other than some serious chunking of my fairly worn BFG KMs.

DSC05712a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05714a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

IMG_4805 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-58.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-62.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

IMG_4777 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

IMG_4811 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

Ben grabbed one of my all time favorite pics of the truck here below.

IMG_4832 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

Got flex?

IMG_4834 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

We pulled off the trail to let 3 Jeeps pass going back down the trail, all of them looked to be on 37's or bigger and one had a strap on the back. Apparently the blue one broke its rear driveshaft. It was brand new, didn't even have tags, totally built, and had a V8 swap. Makes you feel pretty good when someone breaks their $100k+ brand new Jeep on the trail and your high mileage Toyota's just keep going.

IMG_4766 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

We made it to the top with everyone's driveshafts still attached, ate lunch, and took in the views looking the other way while some other people got their pictures at the top.

DSC05719a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Once they left we ventured up there, to be blown away with this view. If you look carefully you can see a trail running through the desert down below, it's easiest to see in the Panorama. That trail is Onion Creek, the trail we had just done in the morning to leave our campsite.

DSC05724a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05725a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05727a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05728a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05729a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Monte doing things I didn't dare to do...

DSC05731a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Ben and I got our obligatory pictures of our trucks at the edge. It's pretty nerve racking driving to the edge. All you see is a 3000 foot drop, and even in 4Lo and first gear you still need to give it some gas to make it move forward. Totally worth it though.

Ben went first.

DSC05735a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Venice was having a ball!

DSC05733a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Then it was my turn. This is all you see out of your windshield pulling up to the edge.

DSC05743a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Ben guiding me to the edge.

ImpromptU-Ah-77.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

DSC05745a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05747a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Look mom, I'm on Top of the World.

DSC05756a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I also got asked by a woman while we were at the top, "Are you those guys who drive around, sleep in your tents, and take pictures of things?" I didn't know how to respond, I mean she wasn't wrong...

It was starting to get late, and the trail had taken much longer than we expected because the trail was so torn up so we headed down. We didn't get as many pictures on the way down, but here are a few.

Ben putting that rear bumper to use.

DSC05761a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Monte began to complain of his rear brakes grabbing right after we left the top, so when we got to the bottom I pulled out some screwdrivers so he could adjust them, not thinking much of it. Then we saw that his rear axle seal had been completely destroyed. It was leaking bad and fast.

IMG_4926 by Benjamin Springli, on Flickr

Monte and I ended up driving into town to get gas and Monte's brother who also drives a 3rd gen 4Runner while Ben went to Gemini Bridges to look for a campsite.

We rounded a corner on HWY 128 and saw this view, we all had the same thought as Monte. Stop and take a picture of this view.

DSC05762a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05764a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

There were no campsites open at Gemini Bridges, so we had a group meeting and decided to try a campsite we saw earlier that day near Dewey Bridge.

Monte, Grant, and I headed out there while Ben went to top off in Moab. At this point Monte's bearings were sounding really bad.

We set up camp with the help of my rear facing rack lights, told stories and sat around the campfire once again, just enjoying where we were.

Morning picture of our campsite.

ImpromptU-Ah-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

That morning we were rudely awoken to what sounded like 10,000 turkeys storming our campsite. I thought I was dreaming, there surely aren't turkeys in the desert. None of us knew that there were turkeys in the area, but we certainly did after this morning.

We all stood around talking, playing with the dogs, and waiting for the sun to come out and warm us up. Ben and Monte aired up while I browsed the Charles Webb guide to Moab book for what we would be doing for the day. I let Monte borrow my 24mm socket so he could top his diff off, and we all said our good byes. Ben headed back to Idaho, and Monte to Grand Junction to figure out what he was going to do about his rear axle issues.

If anyone is wondering, this is what Monte's truck looked like once he got a chance to tear into it. I believe he was able to get it fixed quickly and didn't have to cancel his other plans for the week in Moab, thankfully.

ImpromptU-Ah-27.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ImpromptU-Ah-28.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

We got our stuff together, and headed back towards Moab, our trails for the day would be Gemini Bridges, and Long Canyon Road. Two easy trails as we had to drive to Salt Lake City in the evening to pick up our other friend, who was flying in from Wisconsin. We drove through the canyon on HWY 128 towards Moab when off in the distance I see what looks like a built 4Runner coming towards me towing a trailer. As it gets closer I see that it isn't just a regular 4Runner, but @EatonKyleH and his long travel 4Runner and off road trailer! I gave him a wave and we went our separate ways. We got to the parking lot at the intersection of HWY 198 and stopped here, we had signal and needed to call to confirm the status of our friend's flight.

While I was on the phone I see a few 4Runners that I recognize drive by on HWY 198. I recognized most of them, and wondered where they were going. After confirming his flight was still on we headed out towards the Gemini Bridges area. We made the left off the main highway into towards the trailhead, and much to my surprise the group of 4Runners was sitting there. I pulled up next to @Derpiful who was also there with @Fishwerks, @TCMach, @Twenman4. All of whom are members on T4R, not sure about here on TW.

DSC05781a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05784a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

It was awesome to see more built 4Runners all parked next to each other in one place than I'd ever seen in my life, being from Alabama. We all talked trucks and trails for a little while, their group mentioning that @EatonKyleH had busted his rear driveshaft, and @Dirtco had broken something in his differential so both of them had to end their Moab trips early. They were planning to run Gold Bar and Golden Spike, I would have liked to join, but we were on a time crunch and I couldn't break anything and drive to Salt Lake City in a few hours. We grabbed some pictures together and headed out, the group following behind me at first.

If you guys were wondering what the crazy guys from Alabama were stopped for in the middle of the trail, it was to look at these guys.

DSC05786a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I pulled off to take a picture of the mountains, and the rest of the group passed.

DSC05790a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05792a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

After we all split our separate ways we started on Gemini Bridges. We stopped by Gooney Bird Rock, and then drove a little further to this overlook area.

DSC05794a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05795a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05802a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

There's so much to see, everywhere you look here.

DSC05804a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

While out taking pictures and exploring at the overlook I could hear the other 4Runner guys heating up the tires on the slickrock. Kinda cool that I could hear it, but not see them.

DSC05807a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05809a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05812a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We then continued on, and made it to the Gemini Bridges. It's a short hike from a parking lot to the bridges which are pretty cool.

DSC05815a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Looking off the bridges, into the canyon.

DSC05827a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

After leaving the parking lot the road flattens out into a smooth wide road, almost like a prairie atop a plateau.

DSC05837a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05840a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05841a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We wrapped up Gemini Bridges and made the short hop over to Long Canyon Road. The first section of the road is basically a well maintained gravel road, but off to the side was a little sand to play in so we went over there and got a few pictures.

DSC05794a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The roof rack is great for getting a better vantage point for pictures.

DSC05846a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Then we descended into the canyon on the first switchback, which is really the only one. We stopped at the bottom of the switchback to find shelter from the sun and grab lunch.

DSC05872a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

This is where we would be headed after lunch.

DSC05874a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

After only being passed by two people on mountain bikes and finishing up lunch we continued on through Pucker Pass. This trail was rated easy in the book, but I think it might have been more torn up since they last came through. Pucker Pass gave a bit of a scare with being tippy and very steep.

These are just after passing through pucker pass.

DSC05875a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05880a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Next up was the iconic fallen rock that everyone gets a picture of their vehicle under, including myself...

DSC05882a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05883a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The rest of the trail is easy going. Saw a couple guys climbing a cliff, and some more spectacular views.

DSC05886a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05892a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

They look so small up there.

DSC05905a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

You can see the trail winding through the canyon in this picture. Moab is such an awesome place.

DSC05906a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I have no shortage of good pictures of my truck now...

DSC05923a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Found some more wildlife.

DSC05928a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC05933a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

And last but not least, Jug Handle Arch.

DSC05947a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We got off the trail and headed to Moab. The Aquatic Center is a great place to grab a shower after camping for several days, only $5, just bring your own towel and soap.

We repacked the truck so the back seat was usable, aired up, and off to Salt Lake City we went to retrieve our other friend.

The drive to Salt Lake City is actually pretty spectacular. First you leave the Moab area, then you're on the interstate clipping along at 80 MPH, then it's side highways the rest of the way. You start off going through WIDE open desert, nothing for miles, just open land and cliffs and mesas around you. Some of the straightest road I've ever seen.

DSC05957a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Then seemingly, out of nowhere you start climbing and going through mountain passes. You go from 80*+ in Moab, to 40* and snow on the ground in the mountains.

DSC05997a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Really spectacular, and Salt Lake City was beautiful too. It seems to go on forever, but not like Atlanta, it's all suburbs and such. No real downtown where traffic just turns into a total gridlock. And there's beautiful snow capped mountains to your left and right.

DSC06023a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06025a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

An amazing sunset.

DSC06027a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We got our friend, and grabbed dinner at In-n-Out. We'd never been to one, and I thought it was only a California thing, but apparently not. Ben had mentioned stopping at one on their way back to Idaho, so we figured we'd try it out. The vegetables on the burger were some of the freshest I'd ever had on a store bought burger.

IMG_20170313_212055617 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Then we pushed on through the night, getting back to Moab around 2 AM. We decided to stay at the same site as the night before because we knew where it was and it was easy to get to.

 

We woke in the morning to just one turkey gobbling, but what sounded like a stampede of cows headed for us. There were two people on horses herding cattle down the street, which turned out to be quite loud. I went to inspect, and grabbed the camera and got a few shots of the Colorado river.

DSC06041a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06045a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We made breakfast, and headed out. Our trails for the day would be Fins n Things, and Shafer Trail, the beginning of the White Rim Trail. After driving about a mile back towards Moab, we found the cows again... I was able to work my way through them, following one of the horses as we parted the sea of cows.

DSC06059a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06061a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We made it to Fins n Things, aired down and got on the trail. Maybe 100 yards into the trail I hear a loud banging/snapping noise... This isn't good. I drove a little further to get off the main path and got out to inspect. My rear sway bar mount had ripped out from the rear axle... Right before I left for Moab I had greased my rear sway bar bushings and torqued them back to spec, which apparently wasn't enough as the three other bolts were loose and the one that came out was missing. We searched for that bolt, but it was a lost cause trying to find a bolt in a big pile of sand... I tried to scavenge a bolt from the horn, but the cutting threads on that bolt didn't work. Thankfully the day before I left I had put the brackets that hold the stock rear bumper on just below the taillights back on to keep debris out of the body. I took one of these bolts and some washers from the roof rack and we were back on our way. I didn't get any pictures until after everything was back together. So here's so pics of the place I made the repair.

DSC06066a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06067a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06068a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

At this point we were packed to the brim. We had bought firewood in Salt Lake City thinking we would be able to have a fire on White Rim Trail, but they aren't allowed without having a firepan, which I did not have. So instead we just drove the firewood around for a couple days in my Trasharoo...

Fins n Things is a great trail. It really tests your approach and departure angle. You look at some of the fins, or maybe things, (I'm not sure which is which) and think "I'm supposed to drive down that?!", and yes, you are. Pictures don't show it, but it can be pretty intense coming down some of them for someone who isn't used to stuff like that. It's so steep.

DSC06081a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06083a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06086a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

This was the first really steep one I came down. I thought it was funny watching the people in the UTV's behind me worry about making it down...

DSC06095a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06099a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Now this one really tests your angles, The front bumper came really close here, and the rear bumper drug hard, as well as the Trasharoo, which now needs to be patched...

DSC06104a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06105a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06106a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06107a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06110a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Another fun little climb, and then descent.

DSC06118a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06121a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06122a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06127a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Unfortunately because of the trail fix I had to do we didn't have enough time to run the entire trail so we only ran the southern half and decided that was good so we could still do Shafer trail with daylight.

Leaving Sand Flats Recreation Area I decided I wanted to make the quick detour to Baby Lion's Back. It would only take a few minutes and sounded like fun. We drove up to the top, took our pictures and headed down, only to find a pretty technical section that I was not expecting at all. I drove through it and asked a guy on a UTV which way the trail went. He pointed the opposite direction I thought we should be going, but whatever, onwards. Then after a rocky hill climb we come across a sign talking about dinosaur foot prints. Now I'm starting to think we aren't where we think we are... After consulting the map I realized that we weren't on Baby Lions Back, but instead had just done the first quarter mile of Hell's Revenge... Oops.

DSC06136a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06140a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We turned the ship around and headed out the way we came in. There was one really difficult ledge I didn't think I was going to get up without a locker, but she proved her ability again and got me up just fine. Some people in a UTV got out and were going to watch me struggle, but nope, I was out of their way in no time. This became the joke for the rest of the trip "We did Hell's Revenge, the entire thing!" I'm sure we could have done it, but time was not on our side on this trip. Now after burning even more time we headed to the Canyonlands National Park Office.

We talked to a ranger there, Bruce, who was great. He gave us all the information we needed, said the entire road should be in really good shape, and that we might be pushing it time wise to make it from Shafer Campground to Labyrinth A before the sun goes down. He also informed us that we will have signal on the eastern side of the trail, essentially if you can see the La Sals you will have signal. This proved to be the most factual statement I'd ever heard. Everywhere we could see the La Sals we had 4G, if we took a step to the right and were behind a rock we no longer had signal...

We made the trek up the windy road towards the entrance, and stopped to take a few pics, and then got our picture with the sign.

DSC06066a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06154a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

And off we went, down Shafer Trail. This was an amazing trail. You ride along the rim of the canyon for the first few miles, and then you drop into the steep tight switchbacks that take you down into the canyon. This was just the beginning of white rim and we were all slack jawed, look at these views.

DSC06157a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06160a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06164a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06166a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

In the canyon below you can see White Rim Trail, where we would be later.

DSC06179a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06185a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06188a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The switchbacks are so cool, I couldn't imagine being the first people to make a path down a canyon wall essentially.

DSC06191a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06194a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06195a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06196a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Everyone knows full size trucks don't turn well, but you don't realize how bad it is and how good the 3rd gen 4Runner turns until you watch an F150 go down the trail a mile ahead of you, making three point turns at every single switch back the 4Runner clears with ease.

DSC06200a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We stopped at one point and found a leg from a deer or something laying near the road, with its rib cage laying 10 yards further up the mountain. I don't know what happened but all I could think of was those eagles that knock goats off cliff edges so they fall and they can feast on them...

The rib cage is directly in the middle of this picture.

DSC06217a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06218a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06219a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

On the way down we crossed paths with a mountain biker coming up the trail. I asked if he needed water or anything and he said he was good. We chatted for a bit, apparently he ran the entire white rim trail counter clockwise through the night by the light of the nearly full moon. What a guy, must have seen some pretty neat stuff.

We were done with the switchbacks, only a few more miles to the campsite.

DSC06234a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06235a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06261a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We made it down Shafer, and made a left onto Potash Road, our campsite was 1 mile down the road, Shafer Campgrounds. Unner was loaded down on this trip, over 6,000 lbs I'm sure with the three of us. The new OME 861's did great though, they held a positive rake the entire time, exactly what I wanted. Some pictures from our campground.

DSC06290b by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06309a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06312a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06261a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06314a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06319a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Made another lizard friend.

DSC06325a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We made soup for dinner, sitting around in the darkness watching the stars come out. The moon rose later today so it was the first night we really got to see stars, and what a show it was. I've never seen so many stars in my life, you could even see some of the milky way. I decided to try my hand at night photography with the new tripod my girlfriend had just gotten me. It was just pictures of stars, until the moon started peaking over the horizon throwing just a bit of light on the canyon walls. This resulted in some pretty stunning pictures I think. Now I know where WIndows gets their generic background images every computer comes with.

DSC06342a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06370a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06372a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06381a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06383a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06391a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

In the morning we got started about 10 AM, knowing we had about 70 miles of dirt to cover in one day.

DSC06407a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We drove the short little spur to the Colorado River Overlook. Neat area, you can pull right up to the edge just like Top of the World.

DSC06410a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06425a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06426a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06438a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The next stop was Muscleman Arch. Another cool place, we crossed paths with one of the pay to ride "adventure" vehicles. It was a neat FJ80, but it's way more satisfying to do something like this in a vehicle you built.

DSC06443a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Looking at the backside of Muscleman Arch.

DSC06452a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06454a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06457a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

After the first 3 hours we had covered something like 15 miles, so I knew we had to pick up the pace to make it in by dark.

Here's some pictures along the way in between major stops. We found a small group of 3 Bighorn Sheep. This poor guy was injured, but he didn't seem to mind our company and was happy to munch on whatever bush this was...

DSC06474a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06477a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06480a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06481a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06495a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06498a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06499a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06508a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I think this was Airport Tower in the pictures below.

DSC06510a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06523a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06521a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06527a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06533a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06557a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06575a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Some portions of this road you could get up to a pretty good speed, which helped to make up for all the stopping and picture taking we were doing...

DSC06577a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06584a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

There was so much to see here. Everywhere you looked was something new or downright amazing.

DSC06599a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We came upon another 4Runner at one point. Mostly stock 4th gen 4Runner, but they had a rear ladder and a trasharoo attached to it. Not sure if they're a member here, but nice 4Runner! Thanks for letting us pass too!

DSC06607a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06609a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06621a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We finally made it to Murphy Hogback. It's not a challenging obstacle or anything, but it is a very steep and long hill climb. Pretty much all you can see out of the windshield is the sky. It's hard to capture how steep it is, but here's some pics.

DSC06636a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06643a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06645a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Cresting the top.

DSC06647a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06651a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

What a view.

DSC06652a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06656a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06665a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Now we had to come back down, this wasn't nearly as steep or as long as coming up though.

DSC06679a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Continuing on through the desert.

DSC06683a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06694a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06709a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We continued on, taking pictures and still increasing speed a bit to make it in time. Once we found the river we knew we were getting close to our campsite. We just needed to keep a decent pace to make it by sundown.

DSC06721a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06726a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06728a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

This reminds me of the pictures they put in new car brochures.

DSC06737a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06755a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Now we were almost there, one last major milestone on the trail. Hardscrabble hill. I thought Murhpy Hogback was steep, but this was steeper and looser terrain also. TRAC was kicking in and out as we scurried our way up the hill winding through more tight switch backs looking over the several hundred foot drop just outside the driver side window.

DSC06768a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06775a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06765a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06780a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06785a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We made it up and over, and then started our descent back into the canyon. Now we could see our campsite, but we knew it was still miles away.

DSC06789a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06793a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Getting very close now, the timing was perfect. We would get to camp with just enough light left to set up camp.

DSC06797a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06798a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Labyrinth A campsite is the first one that you come across, B is the better campsite if you can get it, but A was the only option we had for reservations. B is on the water, while A is a couple hundred yards from the water. Still a superb campsite, great views, level ground, and this site wasn't nearly as rocky so we were able to actually stake down our tents this night.

DSC06474a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06800a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06804a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06807a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

From the road, closer to campsite B.

DSC06817a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06826a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

As the sun went down the tripod came back out, night photography is growing on me.

DSC06836a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06845a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06847a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06849a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Then suddenly, two UFO's streaked across the sky!

DSC06850a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

OK, maybe they were just airplanes, but I can understand how a place like this could make you a believer. Especially if you've spent a few too many days out in the sun without enough water...

We woke up in the morning, ready to finish the final few miles and move onto the next thing. At this point I was probably carrying 50 pounds of dust on and in the 4Runner...

DSC06876a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Some final views as we finished white rim, and ascended the mineral bottom switchbacks.

DSC06877a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06893a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

 

After making our way to pavement we drove into town and got gas, passing by Arches National Park. The lines were the shortest we had seen all week so we decided we'd go in, check out the park, and then run Tower Arch Trail to Tower Arch.

DSC06895a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06897a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06903a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The ground can have so many different colors here in such a small area. It's beautiful.

DSC06905a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06911a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06917a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Us being from sea level and unaccustomed to hiking in general we weren't up for the "wonderful 3 mile hike to Tower Arch" the ranger told us about at the welcome center. He recommended we do that instead of taking the "intense high clearance 4x4 road" after being told not to take a 4Runner down the trail (Not for legal or environmental reasons but because he didn't think we could make it) I took that as a challenge...

DSC06919a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06923a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The beginning of the trail wasn't bad and exactly as described in the Guide to Moab book. a short steep rocky climb, and then we crested the hill. Now we were greeted with a long rocky descent that required a little spotting from my friends, but we made it no issue once again. And I had a blast driving this trail. Just technical enough to be fun, not technical enough that you need to worry about being solo as we were. We only passed one vehicle on this trail, a Rubicon who was leaving the arch parking area as we pulled in.

DSC06930a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I didn't like this line as it would have been way too tippy for my liking, so I redirected to a line I was more comfortable with.

DSC06939a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06945a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06948a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The trusty steed.

DSC06952a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06984a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC06992a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

After the rocky section, the road turned into very soft sand. Definitely a unique experience, much different than driving in anything else.

DSC07021a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We made it to the parking area, and walked out to the arch. The trail was not very well marked with multiple paths some probably real trails, some probably people truing to find a shortcut and confusing the people who come after them...

DSC07023a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07027a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07038a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We got back to the car, hot and sweaty, happy to have the awesome AC in the 3rd Gen. We drove back out the way we came in until we got to Eye of the Whale trail, which we took on the way out. This was another fun, but easy trail. It's very sandy, which gives an interesting feeling underneath the tires. We stopped for lunch along this trail, and then continued along to Eye of the Whale Arch.

DSC07052a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07053a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We parked and walked to the Arch. The acoustics inside this arch are ridiculous. I could hear my friends loud and clear from the bottom, even if they were whispering inside the arch.

DSC07080a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07055a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07056a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07060a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07063a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07064a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07068a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Back on the trail we go.

DSC07088a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We took this trail out to Willow Springs Road trail, which I was expecting to be a super easy trail, but there were some decent sized ledges and rocks to crawl over. Eventually the road turned into nothing more than a gravel road as we got closer to the BLM camping area. I only got one picture along the trail.

DSC07090a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The interesting part about this trail is I'm pretty sure you can take this road into Arches, and bypass the main entrance and the fees... There are signs saying you are entering Arches National Park and such, but none of them say anything about paying a fee.

It was getting late again, so we went back to Moab, showered at the Aquatic center and decided we'd explore the city a little bit this night. We stopped at a few shops, bought some souvenirs, and then walked about half a mile to Moab Brewery since the weather was superb. Moab is a great place if you like looking at other built Toyota's. I rarely ever see any sort of a Toyota with a lift or anything down south, but they were everywhere in Moab! The food at Moab Brewery was outstanding, but the beer tasted watered down. I'm pretty sure it was due to some Utah law or something, all the beers were 3.2% coming from a draft but in cans they were normal percentages. Nothing they can do about it, but it is a shame the state limits their freedoms.

We still didn't know where we were staying that night, and eventually decided we'd try and find the site off of onion creek again, as it was a great secluded site. We ran the trail in the dark again, for the second time in a week and got a fire going immediately. I saved some of the dash cam videos of Onion Creek on the way out. This is such a fun trail!

Onion Creek Video, still working on this...

A few more Onion Creek Pics, from the second time through.

DSC07091a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07092a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07093a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We had to leave around 2:30 to get our friend back to Salt Lake City for his return flight home. Our trip was almost over, but I didn't want to leave Moab without running at least one more trail. I decided either Courthouse Rock or Fallen Peace Officer Trail would be appropriate time wise. We decided on Courthouse Rock as it was supposed to be easier. We could not find the trail to save our lives though. after wasting a lot of time trying to figure it out and eventually ending up at the trailhead for Sevenmile Rim we decided this wasn't going to work so we regrouped and decided Tusher Tunnel would be perfect. A short trail ride with some fun things at the end.

I didn't get any pictures on the trail going to the tunnel, but several of the tunnel. The tunnel was awesome, it had an amazing cool breeze blowing though it which felt great. The breeze was probably 25* cooler than the air all around.

DSC07099a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07103a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07107a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07111a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

From the exit of the tunnel.

DSC07113a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Another little spot we went to explore.

DSC07120a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We explored around the area, taking our time. I stood right here I had 4GLTE which was useful to check the weather and decide the path we would be taking to return to Alabama. Our time in Moab was almost to a close.

2017-03-31_02-11-14 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07134a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07139a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We headed north once again, saying goodbye to Moab, but our adventure was not over yet. We still had a 2,000+ mile trip home. And 2.5 days to do it.

Stopped for gas, right outside of Provo.

DSC07140a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

After dropping our friend from Wisconsin off at the airport we headed east on I-80, Wyoming bound. Just before crossing into Wyoming we pulled off for this stunning view.

DSC07156a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07150a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

And into Wyoming we went. Another new state for me. The sun went down and we drove in darkness for a little while until we stopped in Evanston, Wyoming and ate at some restaurant called Costa Vida. I figured this is the western equivalent to Moe's Southwestern Grill. I was using freecampsites.net to look for places and found something called White Mountain Road, right outside of Green River, Wyoming. We got in the truck and headed that direction. We saw almost nothing but truck traffic on this short leg as our new friend Monte had told us about I-80 through southern Wyoming.

The directions took us down this gravel road, that quickly got sloppy the higher in elevation you got from the snow melt turning the ground to mud. There were about 3 trucks/SUVs on the side of the road and I wasn't sure if these were people who had gotten stuck, or if they were sleeping in their cars for the night. We made it to our turn off, and found one campsite, but I wanted to find one a little farther down the road so we kept going. We got to a snow patch where we could see someone had tried to go through, but they only made it about 10 feet before they stopped and backed out. The snow was only 6-8 inches deep here so I decided we would try and plow through to find a more secluded site. I was wrong, we did not plow through. We made it about 15 feet in and just stopped. At this point my friend says "I swear if we get stuck now...", but I rocked it once and out we went, backwards the way we came in...

IMG_20170317_223136807 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We decided the first spot we passed would do and set up camp. We were super fortunate that it was a non windy night in Wyoming, camping at 7,100 feet above sea level at the top of a mountain with snow all around us was not nearly as cold as one would imagine. It must have been unseasonably warm that day.

Once the tents were up I started up with the night pictures again. We had an awesome view looking down on the town of Green River and the interstate which looked so minute from our vantage point. We were far enough away that we couldn't hear the interstate noise, but got some cool pictures of the lights.

DSC07164a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07176a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07184a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07186a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

More UFOs.

DSC07189a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I woke up early enough this morning to catch the sunrise, and I sure am glad that I did. It was spectacular.

DSC07191a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07203a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07204a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07210a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07212a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07223a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I set the GPS for Mount Rushmore, deciding that we might as well see something cool being so far from home. Wymoing was beautiful on the interstates, but once we got off the interstates and onto US/State highways things only got better. We would drive for miles on miles without seeing another person. Only beautiful mountains, plains, and lots of Pronghorn. I've never seen these before and thought they were deer at first, but deer don't just travel in large groups like Pronghorn do throughout the middle of the day. After a little Googling we found out what these little creatures were.

Terrible picture, I know. I had to zoom way in to be able to see them.

DSC07250a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07226a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07230a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07231a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We stopped at independence rock to use the bathroom and get a few pictures.

DSC07237a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07237a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I was really wanting to see a Buffalo, and got excited when I saw this guy, but he turned out just be a shaggy cow...

DSC07245a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Here you can see just how wide open it is here. The 4Runner did great through here, even with all the armor and bigger tires. I had no problem maintaining speed and in places ended up driving way faster than I thought I was on certain downhill slopes because the roads were so straight and nice. These were from Thunder Basin National Grassland.

DSC07248a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07249a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Interesting sign near Thunder Basin Coal Mine, the largest surface coal mine in the world according to their sign.

DSC07243a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We made it to South Dakota.

DSC07251a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

And our destination, Mount Rushmore. The roads leading to mount rushmore are very windy and fun. It's $10 to park, but entrance to the monument is free. Check another item off the bucket list.

DSC07259a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07260a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07265a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

And a nice view from the parking garage.

DSC07269a by Unner Unner, on Flickr


As we were leaving there was a group of these guys snacking on some grass. I'm not sure what they are, but they weren't scared of people and were wearing some sort of collar.

DSC07276a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC07277a by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We got on interstate 90, and headed east. We had a lot of ground to cover in the next 36 hours. About 1400 miles... We drove about an hour or two east until we encountered a 25+mph headwind blowing straight west... This made driving absolutely miserable. Trying to drive 80 MPH into a 25MPH wind is impossible. We were being blown all over the road, and it was so loud in the truck. I had to slow down to about 70 and even then it was still bad, and we were getting 13.3 MPG... There was a truck clipping along at about 75 MPH so we got behind him for a little ways to give our ears a break and try and up the gas mileage a bit. We were at about 14.4 when I had to stop and fill up. What a difference it made! Unfortunately the next 140 miles to Sioux Falls was still miserably windy and loud. We got there, ate at Denny's around midnight, but still had over 1,000 miles to drive home. We decided to push on to Sioux City, South Dakota and just get a motel for the night because we would not have been able to set up tents or sleep comfortably in this wind. We got 12.2 MPG driving into the wind at 80 MPH on this leg... We got to bed about 2 AM, and woke up at 7:30 the next morning, only 953 miles to go... We hoped the wind had died down, but no. We were stuck in this head wind driving through the flattest more boring states in the country. Got a picture of the St. Louis Arch coming through, but that's about it.

DSC07282 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Finally around Kentucky the wind died down to less than 10 mph. We finished the rest of the trip, enjoying the lack of wind. After 16 hours of driving we were home. The odometer reading 217,827 miles as I pulled into the driveway.

IMG_20170320_000129741 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We had done it, Alabama to Moab and back in 10 days. 12 trails, 12 states, 4,820 miles on the odometer (5,047 after correcting for larger tires), about 350 miles of dirt, 321 gallons of fuel at $2.32 per gallon, and 15.7 MPG for the entire trip.

I finally got to really wheel the truck, met some new friends, put some faces to usernames with some members here, and to do some exploring in new territory. It was an amazing trip, I hope you enjoyed reading this. I can't wait to make it back out there. I'm already planning more trips to new places!

 

Great story, thanks for sharing. I'm lucky enough to have grown up in Utah. In my younger days my friends and i spent dozens of weekends in Moab with our Jeeps. Its the worlds best 4 wheeling. Theres not another place on earth that is like it. glad you had the experience of a lifetime.

 

Very cool story, Ill will have to come back for a look later and read the whole post. Will one day head down to the U.S.A and see some of it, looks amazing. Thanks for sharing.

 

That's awesome. If I lived in Utah you could find me out there every weekend too.

It certainly is, so much to see, and we've got just about every type of terrain in this country, in one place or another.

Thanks! Glad we crossed paths and got to hang out a little bit!

 

Thanks for sharing. Was just there 2 weeks ago, best off-roading ever!

 

What an amazing write up! So cool to read and so much great info!

 

Thanks for sharing. Did a similar trip a year ago all through the the South-West with a week around Moab. Was a 9000 mile round trip in a '96 Taco with no breakdown the entire trip. Planing for another trip next October/November.... nothing but fun and friendly people anywhere we went!

 

I've lived in Utah my whole life and have done much of what you did. It brought back good memories doing a big trip with my then new 1997 4Runner, my son, 2 brothers, and late father. Thank you for putting together this amazing thread. It brought back special, and let's say, spiritual memories.

 

Great story!

I did a similar trip a couple of years ago. We spent 2 nights on White Rim - your pictures brought back many memories.

I'm heading to Montana in June for 2 weeks, if you're ready for another trip...

 

man look at these pictures! Moab is for sure on my bucket list!

 

One more option to consider in a trip to Moab if you're coming from the west, stay overnight in the Escalante Petrified Forest, take the Burr Trail and keep your eyes open for ruins up on the cliffs. You can stop and hike up the cliffs to get inside some old adobe homes under rock overhangs. Make your way to Bullfrog Marina and put your truck on the ferry across Lake Powell to Halls Crossing. This will save you a days travel around the reservoir. Call before hand to see if the ferry is running. Then head down to the Valley of the Gods, 4-Corners, and spend some time in Mesa Verde. Then head up into the Moab area and enjoy it there as this wonderful story tells so well. This will add about 3-4 days to your trip.

Thanks again to Unner for the story and pictures.

 

Great story telling and amazing photography. Really enjoyed your adventure. Thank you for sharing.

 

Thanks! Hopefully this info will help someone out in the future!

Yup, the offroad community is great. When I broke my sway bar mount everyone who passed asked if we needed help. No one had the bolt or washers that I needed, but at least they asked.

Glad I could bring back some great memories!

Thanks! If I could join you I would, I'd love to explore Montana, Washington, Colorado, and all the other states in that area. Unfortunatley I won't have enough time for something like that until Christmas/New Years timeframe but it's too cold then to camp many places...

Thanks! Make it happen, Moab never leaves your bucket list either!

Thanks Mike! I heard some great things about you from Ben and Monte. Maybe one day we can all wheel together.

 

Super cool , would love to do that one day

 

Awesome right up and pics!! I have been reading it on and off at work for the past couple of hours.

 

Well this certainly didn't help with the "Moab Fever" I've been coming down with... I'm thinking this might be my 35th birthday present to myself. A two week trip to Moab. Only a year and half to go... which gives me plenty of time to plan. Great story and pictures man. Thanks for sharing.

 

Great write up! Utah is a beautiful place to see and explore. I lived in Salt lake when I was young and got to explore most if not all of Utah and many of the surrounding states. Last year I was up in moab for 2 days with a 1 month old truck and scared myself with no protection! Hit up Schaefer trail along with a few other very easy ones and loved the sites. I'll be going back either this year or next to really get into some trails with more protection and better built truck to handle more of what Utah has to offer!

 

I did the Burr Train a couple of decades ago ago in my '93 Toyota PU. Then did it again this past Fall for the first time since then. Unfortunately the ferry wasn't running and no one seemed to know if or when it would be operational again so we ended up going the long way. I suggest checking the UDOT's ferry website for those who are interested in this route.

Even if the ferry's not running, it's worth the drive. A lot more of it's paved now than it was 20 years ago, but the scenery is amazing.

Thanks, @Unner for the great write up and pics of places I look forward to exploring.