Pennsylvania to Utah Roadtrip

Hey y'all! I just started a trip from Pittsburgh, PA to southern Utah. I'm traveling with my sister Stephanie and cousin Carolyn. We plan to do some offroad trails and camping in the San Rafael Swell, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef. Pictures and writeups will follow when internet becomes available.

For now, roadside attractions, including gigantic phony candle, huge rocking chair and world's largest wind chime! Yay America!



First night is in Collinsville, Illinois, tomorrow, to Kansas!

 

More roadside America. First up the Nuclear Waste Adventure Site. Back in the 40s-60s the military did something here with manufacturing nuclear material. Now its a waste site housing many many cubic yards of waste entombed in a huge concrete and earthen mound. You can climb to the top! Thanks Uncle Sam!



Also Cheese!



We stay tonight in Hays, Kansas. Tomorrow we hit Glenwood Springs, Co and some hot spring pools!

 

Also saw this at a rest stop! Super Expo Unimog! I was all like, psssh, whatev, it's pretty cool I guess...

 

A cool shot my sister got form the nuclear waste pile.

 

Sub'd for the goofy roadside attractions. Southern Utah ain't nothing like Pennsylvania. Have a great trip!

 

This one is funny. It's like a big middle finger from the government to all the stoners in Colorado. We read a while ago that people were constantly stealing the 420 milemarker on I-70 so they Made one for mile 419.99. Crafty!



We went up and over the mountain passes on I-70. The truck really struggled at times. Once I was in 2nd gear, pedal to the metal and just barely going 35 mph! Brutal for us 4 cylinder guys... at least this one anyway.

Internet is suckin the big on at this Rodeway Inn, Can't upload anymore pics. Will try again tomorrow from Moab! Wooo Moab!

 

Thanks man!

 

I'll be making a similar trek in two weeks on a move to Colorado. Might have to check out some of these land marks

 

Be sure to visit the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. Elephant Hill is a great trail. Good Luck.

 

More pics from yesterday. Up and down the mountain pass. Down was great, I had really good engine braking in 4th or 5th gear, no brakes used at all and maintained a steady 67 or so mph.

 

Today we drove through the Colorado National Monument. It's an impressive and expansive array of large canyons and formations.







We saw bighorn sheep!







This is the scenic byway UT128. You get off I-70 at exit 214 toward "Cisco" go about 10-12 miles and make a left. It follows the Colorado River much of the way and borders Arches National Park. It runs into US191. Then turn left to Moab! It's an amazing road that few people seem to know of. It's quicker to stay on 70 but this was way cool!





Moab, UT. The coolest thing in the lot, boyee! Seriously this place is cool! There's some serious vehicles driving around here!

 

Today we finally hit the dirt! We made a big round trip from Moab, north to Potash Road which leads to Shafer Trail. We traveled Shafer to Canyonlands NP and drove around the park a while. We hiked to Upheaval Dome, and stopped at a few overlooks. We then returned to Potash Road via Long Canyon Road! Lots of fun. I wish we had more time in Moab to offroad but we move on tomorrow to Torrey and the Capitol Reef area.


This view is from the beginning of Shafer Trail near the Potash evaporation ponds.


Somewhere along Shafer


A bend in the Colorado River visible from Shafer Trail pretty early on. Overall the scenery was spectacular!



Some of the radical switchbacks toward the end of the trail. You gain a lot of elevation in a hurry!


Near the top!



The was descending Long Canyon Road. It was a bit more challenging than we expected with a few decent sized ledges to drop off. For some of it I spotted for my sister in the driver seat. She drove the whole descent!

 

After we left Moab we stopped by Goblin Valley State Park. It had been raining all morning and the park was almost entirely mud. It was interesting, it looked like wet sand but was very slippery. We pulled off the road in an attempt to grab a photo or two and nearly got stuck! Goblin Valley would be great to explore on foot on a drier day.



Where we almost got stuck. It didn't look as nasty as it was!



Sum mud ona tars! My truck finally has cred, lol!



After this we drove on to Capitol Reef, drove through and stayed in Torrey, UT.

 

Yesterday we took a scenic drive in Capitol Reef before we headed off to Cedar Mesa campground to spend the night.



The road to the campsite, South Notom Rd was mostly well graded and dry. This was the only slightly washed out area. Other than this it was annoyingly wash boarded in sections. Going about 40-45mph helped lessen the vibes.



The campsite! 1 of 5 spots. For a while it looked like a storm was a brewin' but it ended up clearing up nicely. My companions slept in a tent but as an experiment I decided to sleep in the truck bed. I was curious how comfortable it would be. All in all it's doable but not super comfy, I need to be about 2" shorter to have some head/foot room. It was a very windy in the middle of the night, it woke me up a few times.



After a groggy morning we drove on S Notom Rd to Burr Trail. It switchbacks up a mountain to meet up with highway UT-12. This road was also well graded and dry but wash boardy in spots.





Originally we planned on spending tonight at Cathedral Valley campground but the word at the visitor center in Capitol Reef is that the road is in very poor condition. Many people have already had to have been rescued when their vehicles got stuck in the mud, so we're staying in Torrey again.

 

Today we did South Draw Road in Capitol Reef. Boy it was great! Much tougher then we expected. It starts at the end of a scenic drive where most people turn around. You drive a dirt road to a trail head then cross a stream to begin the South Draw Rd.



My truck gets her feet wet for the first time! It's a small crossing but still exciting!



The road got pretty rough. Much of it goes along the bottom of a wash and is very rocky.



Going up! Some sections were rougher than this but we didn't get pics of everything.



The guy in a red hat was a reporter for a Salt Lake City newspaper. He was out to write a report on things to do in Capitol Reef, or maybe Utah in general. He took a few pics of my truck. Look for his article on October 3 on SLTrib.com. Unfortunately I forgot his name.... but maybe my truck will be in the paper! Woot! The other guy was from Pensacola, Florida and was driving a stock Tacoma TRD Offroad.



Going down! This was probably the hairiest part from this point on. The hill was pretty steep and a nice drop off the one side.







Here it started to get a bit smoother. Rocky but mostly flat. This was toward the end. Shortly after this part we crossed another very small creek then after a few more miles the road transitioned to graded gravel and a few more miles later met up with UT-12 near Boulder Mountain.



All in all it was a lot of fun. There were a few sections that had me nervous. We didn't get pics of the toughest spot but it was a few really deep ditches across the road in sort of an X shape. I put it in low and choose the line I thought best and we bounced through it no problem. Had to use low a few times on the uphills and steep downhills but mostly it was 4hi, first gear.

My truck is stock on the suspension with only an AAL in the rear. I heard a few disconcerting clunks and pings but no damage was sustained. No wobbles or vibrations were observed after the trail. Some of these obstacles may have approached the upper limits of a stock vehicle, and the road is constantly changing because of heavy rains and snows. I'm fairly new to 4 wheeling but now I have a much better idea of what my truck is capable of and I now know where it could use improvements.

 

Today we drove some awesome dirt roads through the San Rafael Swell. The roads were wide graded gravel and smooth. We hit over 60mph at times and got a little sideways here and there. Great fun!

We visited the Cleveland Lloyd dinosaur quarry. It was very cool. They found many allosaurus skeletons here. There was one quarry bed set up as an exhibit while others are still working sites. As a bonus there were 2 very cute ranger girls working the visitor center! Utah is so great!

After our visit the rangers recommended Buckhorn pass on our return so we mapped it out and off we went down yet more super fun dirt roads. These roads were amazing, like world class rally stages! I only wish the truck had more power for drifting.

The pass was radical! A dirty road snaked through an interesting canyon of geological wonder. Near the end of the pass was an old suspension bridge over the San Rafael river from the 30s once used for cattle. It was really cool.

We drove on as the road became much rougher. The pace slowed to only 30mph or so around sharp turns and rocky, rut filled road crossing many washes.

Eventually we met up with Goblin Valley road from a few days before and then on to UT-24 and south to Hanksville and the Whispering Sands Motel.

Sorry no pics today, my laptop can't seem to connect to the Wi-Fi here, but the tablet can. Just can't get the pics from the camera to the tablet...

 

Wait... figured it out!

The dirt roads in the swell were great!



The dino quarry





A view from a campground near the bridge



The bridge!

 

Great pics, I love Southern Utah, I've been there twice (Both this year) for 11 days total and I've only seen about 20% of what I wanted to see. I am sure there is more that I have missed and don't know about. Looks like you had a great trip.

 

Utah is a great state! So much to do and the people are so friendly and laid back. I could come here every year for vacation.

Today we didn't do much of note. We left Hanksville, UT and drove to Ourey, CO via the million dollar highway. Those mountain roads are tough on the old 4 banger but we made it without incident. Ourey is a neat town, nestled up on the mountains.

We did stop briefly at Natural Bridges National Monument, did the 9 mile loop around the view points. Later we hit the visitor center for Mesa Verde but didn't go into the park because of time constraints.

 

Sweet I love what you did with the truck looks awesome. Those wheels are slick and soo rare props, only thing is I probably get the topper painted to match the truck if possible.

Utah is awesome..... I was in Moab a few months ago biking but would love to take the Truck out there. Keep posting and safe travels!!