Something keeps drawing us back to Utah. Maybe it's the snow capped La Sal Mountains, the Red Rocks of Moab or the abundance of Jeep trails. Maybe it's a combination of it all. We always enjoy our time in Utah and we had signed up for our 11th year attending the Easter Jeep Safari (EJS) in Moab. So like years before we packed up the motorhome and the Jeep and headed to Moab for Easter.
Moab, Utah
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| View of the La Sal Mountains from our RV site in Moab, UT. |
Not all Moab trails are hardcore off-roading trails. Some are a combination of mild four-wheeling and stunning views of the abundant scenery. We participated in three EJS group trails this year that delivered just that: Lost World, Tommyknocker and Hotel Rock. On our days not on a group led trip we enjoyed some trails on our own where we could geocache and take our time to really enjoy the off-roading on the trail and the beautiful surroundings.
We arrived in Moab on a Sunday and jumped right into the Jeep on Monday for our first trail, Lost World. The trail is so named from the Lost World Butte in the area. The trail stretches along Rainbow Terrace and Lost World Butte plus Tenmile Canyon passing arches and beautiful landscapes. Debra choose to drive this trail since she enjoys driving the slickrock and sandy roads which it had plus some technical ledge crawling challenges.
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| Tombstone rock |
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| Rainbow Terrace in the background. |
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| Gun sight gap |
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Dubinky Well & windmill were built by the CCC in the 1930's
to provide water for the grazing livestock. |
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| Sheepherder's directional landmark. |
Our second trail was the Tommyknocker Trail. It is a scenic trail that winds through Uranium mining areas, canyons and ascends to 7,000 feet which gave us impeccable views of Abajo Mountains in the distance along with surrounding red rocks in the area.
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| We started out on sagebrush flat terrain. |
The scenery got better the further into the trail....
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| The La Sal Mountains |
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| Another great shot of the La Sal Mountains with the Cameo Cliffs in the foreground |
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| Yak Rock. If you choose to climb the ladder it leads to petroglyphs. |
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| Smaller rock formations dot the area with fabulous scenery and the Abajo Mtns in the background. |
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| Indian Paintbrush |
Our final EJS trail was the Hotel Rock Trail. It is located on the Little Baullie Mesa about 90 miles south of Moab near Blanding, UT. The trail itself is about 14 miles round trip and included steep rock climbs, very narrow sections and rocky surfaces. To give you an idea of the terrain some of the obstacles we encountered are named Twister, Ledge and Dinosaur Back. However, when we did not need to concentrate on the obstacles we enjoyed this very scenic trail. Hotel Rock Trail is named for the well preserved Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling ruins (circa 1000 AD) that are found nestled on the ledge of the Mesa. The ruins consist of what looks to be housing and small granaries. Once we toured the ruins and took a break for lunch it was back in the Jeep to re-trace all the obstacles we had conquered on the way in. The trail leader was proud of the whole group because we all made it out without any major mechanical issues and off the trail in 'record time' in 'his books'. We will not forget this trail any time soon. So worth the effort to see the ruins and a great rock crawling trail.
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| Up we go!
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You can't really see it but the tree on the left is hiding the cliff where you need to rub your tire against the rock on the right so the passenger side tire stays on the cliff edge. This was the skinniest trail section we encountered - and we had to
maneuver it twice. |
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| Small unnamed arch along the way to Hotel Rock. |
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| Hotel Rock |
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| Hotel Rock |
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| Hotel Rock |
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| Others maneuvering down rock ledges that we went up going in to Hotel Rock. |
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| There is beauty all around! |
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That wraps up our Easter in Moab. In our next blog we continue our fun adventure 50 miles north near San Rafael Swell where we meet up with our friends with the Colorado Western Slope 4-Wheelers (WS4W) to do another full week of off-roading.
Until next time - Get out there and have fun!
Jack & Deb
PS - The Easter bunny found us in Moab. Such a great surprise.
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