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Planning the annual trip to Moab around the Cruise Moab event has gotten to be a challenge. The challenge is in finding new trails in the Moab area after spending many Moab trips exploring the area, which makes us have to travel wider afield. While we haven’t registered for Cruise Moab in a few years, we have a number of friends that are easiest to meet at the event. We like to be there for Cruise Moab Vendor Night and the Friday Dinner to meet up them and see new gear for our Toyotas. An added complication was we needed permits for the Elephant Hill trail in Canyonland’s Needles District (80 miles south of Moab), as they are only available online the day before. So, we needed backup plans for first two days in case we could not get permits for all of us. The website for permits is quite clunky and not smart phone friendly, as permits need to be printed out. On my PC it took 3 different web browsers to finally get the permits and print them out. And Vince was able to get his printed at the motel in Steamboat, CO, enroute from Wyoming.
We (Ben, Don and I) texted Tucker (enroute from California) our arrival time in Green River, UT, in case his timing was close, and he was there at the gas station when we arrived. That left Vince to meet up with us at the Spanish Trail Arena in Moab. The original plan was to camp at the Spanish Trail Arena, but Tucker suggested we had enough daylight to head down the 80 miles to (Needles District) and camp just outside the park, so we could get an early start on the
trail.
Wednesday we got an early start at the Elephant Hill Trail, only 3 vehicles allowed to a group, so we split in two. Ben, Tucker and Cliff in first group. The first group was about to head down the other side when Vince and Don started up. Vince got on the radio that his Cruiser was making bad noises; he tried a few things but didn’t resolve the issue. Vince and Don decided to head back to Moab in case they needed a part for Vince’s vehicle and camp that night at the Spanish Trail Arena. Vince’s Cruiser did not make the bad noise in highway mode. We all decided that Ben, Tucker and Cliff would continue on the
trail. This trail is very tough and narrow and has one switchback where there is no room to turn, so you have to back down that segment. Tucker left some paint in the DuPont Narrows, someone had to leave a mark. At the Joint Trail’s trailhead, Ben and Cliff had lunch while Tucker hiked through the Joint’s deep, narrow gap. As the three of us moved toward the park’s south boundary, we could see all the rock formations’ “needles” behind us that give this part of the park its name. Bobby’s Hole 4 wheel trail is the challenging start of the climb to Beef Basin Mesa. After the climb, the first area we came to in Beef Basin was Ruin Park where we stopped at several 1,000-year old ruins. We set up camp before reaching the Beef Basin Loop Road, which we planned to hit first thing in the morning. Next morning on the Beef Basin Loop we found more ruins – some with sophisticated water storage systems. As we were leaving Beef Basin into Bears Ears National Monument, Don heard us on the Ham radio and checked in with us. They had resolved Vince’s issue and were on the Moab trail Fins N Things testing it out. We were over 50 miles apart at the time – good range of radio signal. We continued through Bears Ears coming out by Natural Bridges National Monument. Then UT-95 to US-191 and back to Moab for dinner at Fiesta Mexicana. We met up with Don and Vince at the Spanish Trail Arena camp area and set up camp. We walked across to the Cruise Moab Vendor Night where we met with several old friends and saw a number of neat modified Cruisers. Also received some coupons from Cruiser Outfitters (a Land Cruiser auto parts store), so we would be stopping there on the way home. Camping that night at the Arena was very windy and dusty.
On Friday we decided to try the RimRocker trail which goes from Moab to Montrose, CO. Since this was a late decision, we didn’t have full waypoints in the GPS, so we missed a turnoff about 15 miles in; fortunately, Don (our usual “tail gunner”, who keeps an eye on our group) caught sight of a small sign at the turnoff, so we all came back to group up. We hadn’t gone but a couple of miles from the turn, when Don radioed that steam was
pouring out from under his 1995 Land Cruiser hood and he had pulled off. We all returned to him, pulled off next to him, and determined he had a major cooling system leak. The leak wasn’t obvious, so we pulled off a lower protection panel to have a better view and then poured water into the radiator, which revealed a huge crack in the plastic bottom of the radiator. Without coolant you can’t drive the vehicle. The options were to tow the vehicle back to Moab or replace the radiator in “the field”. If we were to use a tow rope to tow it back, that might cause more issues, and we didn’t know if there was another issue which had caused the radiator to break. So, we decided to call Trail Mater Offroad Recovery (link) to deliver a radiator if he could find one, and if not, to tow Don’s vehicle back to Moab. Trail Mater has a large following on YouTube with videos of his more challenging recoveries. Rory from Trail Mater called back that he had found a new radiator available in Moab and would head out to the GPS coordinates we had sent him. And if it turned out it was more than a radiator issue, he could safely tow Don back. We started removing the radiator and just about got it out when Trail Mater arrived (Rory, along with Lilli his daughter). Rory installed the radiator, which needed some tweaking, as
it was not an exact fit (since it’s designed to accommodate several years of vehicle modifications). Lilli is a bit of a rockhound and had been searching the area, until Rory said he didn’t want to find rocks in the truck again. The coolant Rory had brought with him was added and he determined there were no other issues, so we packed up all our tools and (5½ hours after stopping) our group headed back to Moab. Ben had been having trouble with his second battery so he stopped at Napa Auto Parts to install a new one. After these repairs nobody wanted to cook for dinner so we decided to try Moab’s Food Truck Park, as our favorite places were very busy. Cliff found a good gyro and the others had Mexican. Then back to the Spanish Trail Arena camp area for the night, which was again very windy and dusty.
Saturday we had breakfast at the Moab Diner on the way out of town. We stopped in Green River and then Hanksville. In the heart of Red Rock country near Hanksville is a monochrome landscape with an almost black sandstone spire, called Dark Spire (which has another less family-friendly name that will be left unsaid). After a few miles of dirt road, we reached the trailhead and set off on a couple mile hike to Dark Spire and back. 
The spire and its smaller companion spire didn’t look like anything we had run across in Utah. From there, we made our way over to Notum Rd, where we headed south to the Burr Trail, along the way we stopped at a creek with some cottonwoods for shade to have lunch. At the Burr Trail we headed up the switchbacks. Just past them we turned off on Upper Muley Twist Canyon Trail to the Strike Valley Overlook. This – perhaps the most amazing view in the region – is the scene looking south from the Strike Valley Overlook along a great, warping arc of strata exposed in the Waterpocket Fold: roughly a 2 kilometer thick section of sedimentary rocks representing about 130 million years of earth history in the region. Then it was back to the Burr Trail and over to the Wolverine Loop where we made camp for the night.
After breakfast we took the Burr Trail through Long Canyon stopping at the Singing Slot Canyon, then it was on to UT-12, one of Utah’s scenic highways. We turned off UT-12 to Cottonwood Canyon Rd, which is a scenic shortcut between UT-12 and US-89. It starts just south of Bryce National Park and then passes Kodachrome State Park. This dirt road cuts through amazing ever-changing scenery. We stopped at Grosvenor Arch for lunch and then continued through Cottonwood Canyon Narrows, and then along the Cockscomb.
The road then follows the Paria River for a bit before ending at US-89 near Big Water. At US-89 we turned to go to Page, AZ.
From Page we head to Marble Canyon Bridge where condors can sometimes be seen. By 1987, there were only 22 California condors remaining in the world, which were all captured and a captive breeding program started. By 1992 there were enough condors to release some in California and then in Arizona in 1996. The captive breeding continues and they have released over 350 condors to date. So, it is rare to see a condor. 
Fortunately, there were three condors when we arrived. Of the 3 we saw, Condor P8 is an 11 year old female hatched at the Oregon Zoo, Condor V3 is an 8 year old male also hatched at the Oregon Zoo, and Condor 3 is a 2 year old male hatched at the World Center for Birds of Prey, Boise, ID. Condor 3 is still a juvenile and therefore is dull black with a grayish head. From the bridge it was off to White Pocket where we planned to camp, however it was crowded and we had all been there before, so we decide to continue on to Coral Pink Sand Dunes. On the way, we stopped for dinner at Escobar’s in Kanab.
One of the websites Cliff follows is AdventureTaco link where he has documented his many offroad adventures. On a recent trip AdventureTaco went to an awesome overlook of the Grand Canyon. It took some detective work to track it down and I could not find a name for it, so I am calling it AT Point. We arrived late afternoon and there were two other
vehicles there already, and one had taken the best spot. We set up camp higher up and further back from the edge of the canyon. The wind had died down and it was a quiet night. After breakfast we made our way back to pavement. Tucker split off to go to St George, while the rest of us headed north. Later Ben, Don and Cliff cut over to I-15 and Vince continued on to I-70.
Video by Cliff of Elephant Hill Trail
Video by Ben of DuPont Narrows
Trip Photo Album – 18 photos by Tucker, 10 photos by Ben and 3 photos by Vince
Click on a photo to zoom in