Arches, Moab and The Maze

Got caught in a traffic jam going up Top of the World, stuck behind a dozen H2 Hummers. One of which completely grenaded a leaf pack going up the *bypass* around some ledges, which stopped us dead for 15 minutes until they could get it secured and everyone else off the main trail.

Made it to the top for that spectacular view.







Dropped some ledges on the way down.







Ben showed us a beautiful trail out to the "hideaway camp", location undisclosed.

 

Hell's Revenge was fun, as it always is, in an "amusement park" kind of way. This was the Monday after EJS, so not too many jeepers out there. Watched a couple H1A Hummers go up Hell's Gate, which was fun to see. Those things are beasts.



We checked out the Escalator, but decided against it as it was already lunchtime and we had a lot more trail to go that day. It definitely wasn't that we were scared after seeing all the broken parts and chunks of gears and bearings laying in the hole halfway up...



And apparently that's the only real photo I took that day. We intended to run Elephant Hill either that afternoon or the next morning to get into Beef Basin, however the park service closes Elephant Hill after EJS to clean up all the trail trash (without mentioning this on any website, and they also don't answer phone). We found this out when we drove up to the entrance kiosk at Canyonlands and a hand-written sign was taped to the window. All's well that ends well though, as we found an awesome camp site way up Lock Hart Basin Rd.

 

Love the video. No hesitation, go right up it.

 

Wasn't quite the camera angle I thought it might be - seems like it's hard to get any sense of perspective of that obstacle. We'll see what Ben's video looks like.

 

Holy crap I got way off the line in the middle there.

 

Also lifted a tire a couple of times. Couldn't see that with your vid or my photos.

 

My video makes it look like I know what I'm doing

 

Was the spotter just a random dude or somebody with your group?

 

He had just spotted for the hummer and the jeep before that. So as he was leaving I asked him if he would spot for Dan.

 

Such a great spot! Definitely the silver lining from not being able to go over Elephant Hill.

 

Totally agree. One of the best.

 

@m3bassman @drr

It looks like I only took a couple of photographs for the next couple of days of the trip. Hopefully you guys have more than that.

 

I only have a few photos from the next day, nothing from Beef Basin since we didn't really get to any of the interesting stuff - but it was a fun drive in.

I also passed an important milestone in the vicinity of Newspaper Rock, if you recall:



Our camp site just south of Hite. Ben do you have those photos of the slot canyon there?

 

Going to the Maze.

We went in via Poison Spring road. Crossing the Dirty Devil...




Not too bad this time.



We had some observers who decided to abort their mission.

 

Dueling photographers.

 

To the Doll House.

 

Doll House #3. Incredible views and one of the gnarlier approaches to a campsite that I've seen in a while .