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Another visit to Moab

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Murphydog

Murphydog

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Onion creek trail is fun and easy...27 times you cross the creek. Beautiful scenery....continue on to Thompson canyon and polar Mesa.
Onion Creek is on my list for sure, I think my son would love the creek crossings
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Murphydog

Murphydog

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Next up is Gemini Bridges and Long Canyon - this was really a sigh seeing day as these trails are not hard at all. We did air down to smooth out the ride.
  • The actual Gemini Bridges are very cool. Make sure to walk across them, though it will freak you out when you look back at the trail and realize how massive the overhang is you were just walking across
  • Long Canyon takes you through Big Horn sheep area. We were pleasantly surprised when one crossed the road ahead of us. We got a few blurry pictures before it ran off across the canyon. It easily bounded from rock to boulder and crossed to the other side in a blink of an eye
  • Long Canyon also provides a nice photo opportunity of driving your jeep under a large boulder. I will post that one as well.
 
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For our last day we decided to give 7 Mile Rim a go, my impression is that it should be no harder that Fins.
  • There are a lot of side roads on this one, I am pretty good at following maps and directions and I got off track a couple of times
  • At 2.1 miles there is a pretty good drop, and we took the bypass, and went the wrong way. If you see the signs for Uranium Arch here you went the wrong way. After some fooling around we got back on track. NOTE the wrong way isn't that big of a deal, but if you want to see the view from the rim you need to get back on the trail
  • You now cross some open rock faces here and the white painted dashes are few and far between. The rock isn't too steep there isn't the blackish tire tracks to guide you
  • If you stay on track there are several view points where you can see the La Sal mountains and deep into Arches NP
  • The loop down to Uranium Arch is fun. You can walk right up and under the arch. Driving back up is easy, and staying on the trail going forward was easier, likely helped that I had OnX working on my iPhone with the correct off line map downloaded
  • Finally you hit a sandy fast section and you scoot over to the Merrimac and Monitor Buttes
  • After that is burnt toast and "I Lean" which looks way worse than it actually is.
  • Next is the intersection with Wipe Out Hill. Our intention was to stop here, and watch anybody who is running it, however as I mentioned above we ran into the Red Rock club and Nena Barlow. They kindly offered us the opportunity to join them, and spot for us. At that point, how could we refuse?
  • With a spotter, the drive down was fun and drama free. We watched the rest of the club come down. There was an older Ram truck, and I think her foot must have slipped off the brake near the end and she suddenly shot forward in a shower of sparks and dust before stopping near the bottom. Wish I had filmed that one.
  • We also watched a Bronco come down. He almost lifted a rear wheel at the first transition, but otherwise did pretty well. No doubt the Jeeps handled the off camber nature of the hill, but he didn't scrape any where. For those who say the Bronco is a "grocer getter" I want to know where you are shopping!
  • At this point we switched to the Wipe Out Hill loop and headed back to town.
 
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Murphydog

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Ok, Last post - things other than Jeep Trails
  • I was pretty happy with the Jeep on the open highway. Easily cruised along at 80-85 MPH in places where the speed limit was higher. MPGs suffered at that speed of course
  • Soft top was OK on the open highway. Passing semi-trucks did cause the top to slap around a bit, but no big deal. Having the soft top flipped back allowed for excellent photography from the Jeep. Wife stood up on the back seat to get great pictures
  • MPGs suffered on the highway, at speed we got 17 ish on the open highway, 4.5 ish on Elephant Hill road, and 19+ cruising through Arches NP
  • Arches is NP is stunning, but my mistake was making the hike to delicate arch around noon time. it is a bit of a climb and under the sun it cooked both my son and my wife. Pretty much burned my son out on any further hiking
  • Needles district in Canyonlands NP is worth the visit, again the scenery was great
  • Seats - seats were fine for Jeep trails, though I got a bit stiff on the drive to and from. Our longest day was ~ 9 hours on the road. We made a lot of pit stops for bathroom breaks and stretching our legs and backs
  • The section on 191 between Moab and I70 was not a good match for my Jeep, it constantly pulled left. This was the case both too and from Moab. This section was also under construction so that may have been the issue. That was the only stretch where it pulled, other wise it tracked straight and true
  • The Utah DOT construction on highway 6 cost me my windshield. I have never had anything hit my windshield so hard in my life. It was a downhill section on 6, single lane each direction and the road bed going the other way had been ground down. Pretty sure the rock came from a semi going in the opposite direction. Hit was on the passenger side maybe an inch or two from the top. I am thankful it didn't hit above the windshield or one of my headlights as the damage would have been much worse.
  • I am impressed that I have a vehicle can drive down the highway at 85, pull off at a trail like Elephant Hill, air down a bit, disconnect the sway bar and go to town.
  • Sadly left lane campers are everywhere, urban and rural I ran into these folks.
  • Moab is a fun little town. Next time we will for sure pick a place with a pool. I think that would have made the trip for my son.
  • I downloaded several OnX maps to my tablet. However at Elephant Hill road where there was no coverage the app acted like I had never signed in before. Without a data connection I couldn't use the app or the map I downloaded. Not a problem here as there are not may side roads to worry about or get confused by, but seriously disappointed with OnX. Had I been camping out there I would have never been able to use it until I was back to civilization
I will post some pictures later today.
 
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Make sure you get tickets for Arches. They're required now.

If you don't have tickets there's always a "Jeep entrance" near Willow Springs dinosaur tracks. The dinosaur tracks are nothing like those at Comanche National Grasslands, but they're decent.
We did the Jeep entrance and was surprised how much of a Jeep road this is. Call me a Jeep snob, but I am never sad to see a section road that causes cars/CUVs to need to turn around.
 

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Thanks for all the great write-ups and glad you had a great trip.
Yes regarding OnX, I am still trying to figure out how it's useful if there is no cell service. Which is, of course, when I want it most.
And then this:
"I am impressed that I have a vehicle can drive down the highway at 85, pull off at a trail like Elephant Hill, air down a bit, disconnect the sway bar and go to town."
100% why the JLUR is so amazing. Lovely on the highway, a beast offroad, and the transition is a piece of cake.
 
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Thanks for all the great write-ups and glad you had a great trip.
Yes regarding OnX, I am still trying to figure out how it's useful if there is no cell service. Which is, of course, when I want it most.
And then this:
"I am impressed that I have a vehicle can drive down the highway at 85, pull off at a trail like Elephant Hill, air down a bit, disconnect the sway bar and go to town."
100% why the JLUR is so amazing. Lovely on the highway, a beast offroad, and the transition is a piece of cake.
I will say this, on 7 mile rim with no sevice OnX worked on both my phone and tablet. Didn't reset itself and require me to log in again - I don't understand why it hiccupped the first time I tried to use it.
 

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OnX off line was hit or miss from me. It'd either work, or I'd drive right off the current cell map, with no way to get the downloaded map to work.

Resorted to the Jeep built in Nav a couple times.
 

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Fins and Things
 
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LOL, I got hung up there for about 10 minutes trying to figure it out before I got free.
Did you have any issues with the rock up near the confluence overlook?
 

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OnX off line was hit or miss from me. It'd either work, or I'd drive right off the current cell map, with no way to get the downloaded map to weeks.

Resorted to the Jeep built in Nav a couple times.
I’ve given up on using OnX. I’ve not been able to get it to work offline. What has been best for me is Gaia using the gpx files from either Jeep the USA or TrailsOffroad. Gaia has an important function so with the gpx file from Jeep the USA you download the file then import with Gaia. TraillsOffroad has a function that will send the selected trail gpx file directly to your Gaia account. Gaia will also sync to you computer, tablet and phone. Typically I plan our trails using my iPad or computer and use either my iPad or phone with CarPlay. Using CarPlay the Gaia map appeared on the Jeep screen. Lately I’ve been mounting my iPad mini and using it. It worked very well a couple of weeks ago when we were in Ouray and Moab. I will say Gaia takes some experience to get to learn how to import and select your trail. One good thing is typically you can import all the trails in a single area at one time.
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