A Jeep, a Girl and a Pizza Place (LA to Utah) -- Trip Journal

[SadRobot]

This past week I finally got to do my long anticipated road trip out to Utah. My main plan was to hike in 3 National Parks (Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands) and do some wheeling in Moab.

DAY 1: LA --> Cedar City

This day was mostly just driving. I was making really good time so I decided to stop at Kolob Canyons. Kolob is part of Zion National Park. I've done this scenic drive before but this time actually got to do a bit of hiking in the canyon.

The best part of Cedar City is Centro Pizza. If you are ever in the area check it out. I've been there 5 times now (which I think is a lot of times for a place that is 4 states away from where I live.)

D2: Cedar City to Capitol Reef

It's just under a 3 hour drive from Cedar City to Capitol Reef. I started the drive at 5AM to make sure I had the full day in the park. I hiked Hickman Bridge, then through the Grand Wash and up to Cassidy Arch. I took a wrong turn on the switchbacks of Cassidy and ended up on a ledge about 15 ft below the trail. Note to all: If the trail feels wrong it's probably wrong. I ended up having to climb up the cliff to reach the actual trail. It all ended well but was a good reminder that things can go bad very quickly when hiking alone.

Having recovered from my near death experience on the cliff, I checked out a couple of dirt roads in the park before heading to camp to setup.

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[SadRobot]

D3: Capitol Reef to Arches

This was the earliest wake up I had to do. I wanted to catch sunrise at Arches so needed to get there around 5AM which meant heading out from Capitol Reef around 3AM. The sunrise was kind of a bust. It was cloudy so basically just slowly got lighter. I decided to find a quiet spot to take a nap and was awoken about 15 minutes later by rain hitting my face. As the day went on it stopped raining and warmed up and I spent about 10 hours driving/hiking around.

 

[SadRobot]

D4: Moab!

This day was spent at Sand Flats Rec Area. I met up with @COJeeper and a friend of his and ran Fins & Things and Hell's Revenge. Of the two I think I enjoyed Hell's Revenge better. The fins in general made me super nervous. Even though you keep telling yourself you aren't going to tip over and roll down the side of the fin in the back of your mind you think "well, this song I'm listening to right now may be the song I die to".

Overall an awesome day. I did a bunch of things that a year ago I would have never thought I'd be doing.

 

[roaniecowpony]

I love the southwest. I've spent a lot of time in Utah deer hunting, mostly just north of Zion Park, over the years.

 

[SadRobot]

D5: Moab Part 2

This day we decided to run Gemini Bridges mid morning which gave me some time to try and figure out what was going on with my lockers. I ended up tracing all the wiring and discovering they worked fine and the shop that installed them put the wrong switch covers on the switches.

After Gemini Bridges @COJeeper and I headed towards Tower Arch. We never made it as we ended up on an obstacle with a 5 rating unexpectedly and that took more time than we thought so headed back towards Moab after we made it through.

 

[ArmyRN]

This is why Jeeps are fun-mobiles. Thanks!

 

[GATORB8]

Making me want to take the 4th trip out in 12 months. You got some beautiful shots.

 

[SadRobot]

D6: Canyonlands

This was another early day as I wanted to go to Mesa Arch at sunrise. After that I drove around the Island in The Sky district and then had a 2 hour drive to my campsite in the Needles district on the opposite side of the park. Before I headed to camp I decided to drive part of Shafer Canyon Road that leads down into the canyon.

I made it to my campsite and decided to go for a hike. The weather looked like this when I started:

and then the storm came in. I ran back to camp since I had left all my stuff sitting out. I jammed what I could into the Jeep and everything else I just put underneath.

I waited out the storm and eventually it cleared up and I was able to get a campfire going.

 

[SadRobot]

D7: Canyondlands to Flagstaff

Another long day. I packed up camp at 530A and headed out to drive the Moki Dugway, Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley. I finally made it into Flagstaff around 530PM. I contemplated heading down to Sedona the next day to run Schnebly Hill but decided I probably wouldn't as it would add another 3 hours to my drive back home.

 

[SadRobot]

D8: Flagstaff to LA

Today I woke up and decided I couldn't pass up Schnebly so I headed down to Sedona at 530A. I ran the trail in about 2 hours (8 miles RT as the road was closed at the Merry Go Round).

Then made the long drive back home finally pulling into my driveway at 6PM.

 

[SadRobot]

Total miles: 1905
Total BOH trails: 3
Total National Parks: 4
Total Exploded Clutches: 0

Plus I got to add 3 new stickers to my Jeep Cooler:

Overall I had an amazing trip. No damage to the Jeep which is great. Tomorrow it gets a good wash as it's covered in sand, dirt and mud.

 

[SadRobot]

Making me want to take the 4th trip out in 12 months. You got some beautiful shots.

Thanks! I'm hoping to maybe get back out there this year. I did this trip solo but I have a friend who wants to make the trip out and I promised I'd go back.

 

[Opus]

Nice! My wife and I will be heading that way in a few weeks. Shafer and Moki Dugway are on our list. Great pics.

 

[SadRobot]

Nice! My wife and I will be heading that way in a few weeks. Shafer and Moki Dugway are on our list. Great pics.

Moki Dugway was a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be and I wish the weather had been a little bit clearer. There was a haze over the valley so I wasn't able to get any amazing pictures.

I kind of regret not driving all of Shafer but I was worried about time and getting over to the Needles District to set up my camp.

Canyonlands is huge. I'd like to go back and check out The Maze district at some point and actually do some hiking there.

 

[Jiggs1960]

Incredible pictures and great posts. Thanks for sharing this.

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