MMMDI 2023 (annual "Moab Made Me Do It" trip)

[COJeeper]

The annual Moab Made Me Do It, in 2023!

Recently arrived back home from the final camping trip of the year, boy was it cold and windy! The trip was planned to take on Hurrah Pass, Lockhart Basin, Arch Canyon, and Mulley Point. Plans don't always work out the way you expect though. In our confirmed group of 9, we had one cancellation for a work emergency the day before and weren't able to fill the final spot on such short notice, we still made the best of it and it was overall, a great time. We had a JKUR, two Tacoma's, two 4Runners, a Land Cruiser, a Lexus, and my JLUR. It was a nice mix of vehicles and a great group of friends. If you're spending your precious time looking at this, I hope at least one thing in here puts a smile on your face, if not, I'll do better next time, tell me what sucked.

After our caravan through Colorado and into Utah, we arrived around dusk at our first camp site in Utah, up Hurrah Pass towards Chicken Corners. If you've ever been out this way, you'll know there is a ton of open camping on the gravel. Unfortunately, I don't have a RTT, YET. After the Utah winds destroyed my tent even more, I've decided that I'll be going to look at RTT's today as Freespirit Recreation is having a pretty good 30% off sale right now! So anyway, we started our blustery night chasing my tent. After my buddy caught it, I threw three rocks in it to which he promptly stated, that's not going to keep it there, he was right. Eventually, I found a giant rock and tied off to that rock. It was a beautiful night in camp, even with the insane winds all night long keeping me up.

We woke up and packed up to a beautiful morning sky! Starting the day off, we had the most technical part of the trip, Lockhard Basin to Hamburger Rock. The most difficult part of this was all within the first mile of Lockhard Basin. I'm happy to report that the two Jeeps had zero issues getting through anything while all the other vehicles were required to be winched at the final major obstacle, the Two Boulders obstacle. Everyone took a couple shots at it but by the last 3 in our group, they made fewer attempts and were just ready with the winches. This was by far our longest day, I think 14 hours on trail and arrived at Hamburger Rock campground at night.

Of course the best color in the world is blue and we had two blue Jeeps. So, I aptly named us the BJ Boys, the other driver was not amused. For one part, we decided to have one Jeep lead and one Jeep tail. Of course I got on the radio and said, "We've got the BJ boys herding all the guys between us, making sure we show them how to do it properly and no one gets left behind without finishing!" You can guess what was the running joke through the trip..... I'm basically a child in a grown mans body and no that's not a political statement.

Within around .2 of a mile, we arrived at our first obstacle, of course the BJ Boys went first to show, it's not that scary guys, just do what we do.

One by one we all made it up safe and sound, thankfully we're able to hold the vehicles upright from rolling off the cliff....

After our first obstacle, we quickly arrived at the second and the BJ boys quickly made short work. Look at my Jeep, so strong, flexing! rawr! The flex definitely looked better from behind.






Our Final large obstacle of the day was the Two Boulders obstacle. Every vehicle but the BJ Boys (and the giant Land Cruiser you see) had to winch themselves. Jeep went up, someone winched to them, they were then the anchor point for the next vehicle. This took us about 3 hours, 30 minutes of waiting on four dirt bikers to stack rocks and get ahead of us. This burned a lot of daylight.

After that obstacle, still a lot of slow rough driving but great views!

Aaaaaaand below is my favorite picture of the trip. I'm missing our blue Taco who was just around the bend in front of us but it looks pretty cool to me. All these storms were just blowing around us this day, that was interesting to see and a bit nerve wracking as if you've ever been on a Utah trail in heavy rain, you know it's not fun, even if you have mud tires!

We finally came to the end of Lockhard Basin/Lockhard Canyon and the road smoothed out. Some small stuff but we were able to make up some time as we were VERY far behind schedule. It's an adventure though!

The sun's getting real low big guy.......

Now it was time for the night part of our trip! I was very excited to use my @Diode Dynamics Elite Max headlights on the trail. I had one concern that I'd be blinding the guy in front of me. That concern was quickly dismissed after I saw appropriate overlanding off roading lighting on ALL the other rigs.... WOW! I felt like I had my halogens back!

I missed some really awesome shots at night with all the lights on the rock walls. I'm too slow and I've learned that an iPhone camera is a pile of garbage, I'll be investing in a better camera.

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[COJeeper]

Day 2 we woke up to another beautiful sky. Please disregard the little car, we were at the Hamburger Rock campground and it's right off a simple gravel road! I swear we did get deep into the wilderness!!

I found these delicious looking mushrooms by camp, I tried to cook one up in my breakfast omelet but, it was a little crunchy.

It was this morning that we did a quick vehicle check for damage, well, everyone but the BJ boys did. We determined it was unwise to continue to Elephant Rock which has a couple pretty big obstacles. One Taco was found to have a rear drive shaft that appeared it was about to blow up at the carrier bearing. We made the group decision to make the approximate 90 minute back up to Moab to find a shop. We found a shop who said they had some time to fix the problem. Unfortunately, the driver later learned the shop installed the carrier bearing and drive shaft incorrectly and had it re-done when he got back home to CO. We've aptly named the shop Worst Automotive (from West Automotive). We don't recommend their work, but, it's a free country.

During the afternoon in Moab while waiting for repairs, we began to plan where we go from here.
We didn't want to drive 2 hours to Elephant Hill since some had to leave the following morning anyway. I was sad about this, Elephant Hill is probably my favorite trail. The decision was made to camp nearby this night in the Dalton Wells area. There in an interesting story of how it came to be, what it was used for during WWII.

We found a great group spot off the beaten path, setup shop, then a couple of us hit the trail nearby to see the Eye of the Whale, which was terrible. I will never go back. After driving the short distance in reverse on Eye of the Whale, I decided I am going to make my own trail rating scale, specifically for Jeeps! The Eye of the Whale was TERRIBLE. It was so rough and I ended up hitting my head on the door frame thingy ma-bobber, that didn't feel good. I swore at it, it didn't care, it held its ground so I didn't try to fight the door.

Mike's Jeep Trail rating system:
Eye of the Whale 923439287429837324ru7235265t7 out of 10 for difficulty
Elephant Hill 3 out of 10 difficulty

After seeing the dumb eye, I don't recommend, it's dumb, or maybe I was just crabby because I had a headache, I went back into town again and got 4 overpriced bundles of firewood at $13.50 per two bundles. Oh well. We had a nice fire and relaxed with a fun charcuterie board. The wind was calm, the temps were reasonable and we all got a great nights sleep.

 

[COJeeper]

We woke up the following morning to another beautiful sky and began to make our way to Dewey Bridge and connect with Triangle Road as we make our way back East towards Colorado. Dewey Bridge once was the way to get from Grand Junction to Moab, a single lane bridge, but it burned down 14 years ago.

The Triangle Road was a perfect day after two long stressful days on dirt and pavement. There were two water crossings for us and no major obstacles with a mostly smooth trail. We headed down with no planned place to camp, just find something on BLM and setup shop.

We made it to our primary water crossing. Of course there were some concerns of depth so someone had to put on their flip flops and check out the hot tub temperature water, yup, I volunteered. I might as well be useful in someway on this trip!

I found a safe/shallow line and everyone got through. Of course, I wanted to take the deeper line in my big boy Jeep, almost a tragedy, slow down there speed racer! I don't think water inside the air intake would be a good thing. All the water burned off, the engine bay was smoking, it turned out fine though. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little concerned after reaching the other side and seeing all the smoke pouring out from under the hood.

 

[COJeeper]

We survived the water crossing and made it to our final afternoon/evening/morning after. On the way there, one buddy busted out the drone and got the BJ Boys who wanted to do another water crossing, I think this is commercial quality video, AWESOME!!!!!!

We setup shop on what would be the coldest night which also included some welcomed beautiful rain! <insert faceitousism> Luckily, I brought my 10x10 canopy with a sidewall, someone else had a long tarp, we setup the two fire pits and made the best of the night! In the morning, it was COLD. The Jeep showed 13 degrees when I started it. I used my backpacking camp stove to help a buddy melt the ice away from some of the latches on his rig, we packed up and headed home! We headed home one day early but it was supposed to be even colder the following night, so we made the group decision to call it. All in all, it was a really great trip with great friends! I leave you with the final images and superb drone video, hope you enjoy!

Our optional crossing, we wanted to do it anyway because I wanted to drive up the big hill on the other side. The BJ Boys crossed and then I drove up the hill and we came back.










And my favorite of the videos, I think this should be in a Jeep commercial..... @JeepCares - What do you think, commercial quality?

 

[HydroBlue22]

The only thing about that trip that sucked is that I wasn't on it! Seriously, that looked awesome!!
Nice job with the pictures and your descriptions.

 

[roaniecowpony]

I hadn't heard of the Dalton Wells WW2 internment camp. Being a half Japanese, post war, USAF service brat, I make it a point to visit these sites when the opportunity arises. Terrible thing that happened to them. My wife's family in Hawaii had their farm taken and never returned. I'll make time on my next visit to Moab to visit this site.

 

[SadRobot]

Looks like an awesome time! I'm still bummed I couldn't make it out this year but here's hoping I'll make it to the 2024 trip.

 

[BobW]

The only thing about that trip that sucked is that I wasn't on it! Seriously, that looked awesome!!
Nice job with the pictures and your descriptions.

First time I passed through Moab I drove across the Colorado on the 1 lane wooden Dewey. In my '74 Vega...

 

[roaniecowpony]

First time I passed through Moab I drove across the Colorado on the 1 lane wooden Dewey. In my '74 Vega...

Vega in that part of the country? You like living on the edge.

 

[BobW]

Always carried extra motor oil...

 

[3TV]

Great write up, and great photos. Thanks for taking the time to post it. The Lockhart Basin Trail is perhaps the most scenic trail in the Moab area, and it is often overlooked by most people because it is a long trail, and a good portion of the trail is very remote. The pictures you took are fantastic. Good job.

I did that trail solo in a stock JKR Extreme Recon that I had installed Mopar Highline fenders on and had 35" tires. So, 35" tires on a stock JKR. When I got to that Two Rocks obstacle there was a line of 4 built up Toyotas trying to climb it. The lead Toyota was the most built up, and after 4 failed attempts I walked up to the front of the line to see if I could maybe help spot him or help some other way. He backed down to try again and got out to look at it again. After talking for a minute he said "why don't we just pull off to the side and let you get ahead of us". I agreed, and went back to my Jeep and came around them. Then I proceeded to just drive right up the obstacle on the first try. It was priceless, LOL.

I didn't know that obstacle was called Two Rocks at the time, and I called it Riff Raff Rock, because it kept the riff raff out. The whole trail before that obstacle had been crowded with countless UTV, dirt bikes, and full sized 4x4s like the Toyotas. It took me forever to get past everyone and to that obstacle. But once past that obstacle I didn't see another person all day, until I got to Canyonlands National Park at the end of the trail after dark that evening.

 

[COJeeper]

I hadn't heard of the Dalton Wells WW2 internment camp. Being a half Japanese, post war, USAF service brat, I make it a point to visit these sites when the opportunity arises. Terrible thing that happened to them. My wife's family in Hawaii had their farm taken and never returned. I'll make time on my next visit to Moab to visit this site.

There isn’t much to see at the site, it is all torn down but it’s interesting to learn about these things in history that happened. In order to not let history repeat itself, you have to know about the historical events.

I dated a girl whose step dad absolutely hated anyone with a Japanese descent. He also had a Deloreon so I was really torn on whether I should like him or not, “he let me drive the slowest car in history but he’s also super racist…”

 

[COJeeper]

Looks like an awesome time! I'm still bummed I couldn't make it out this year but here's hoping I'll make it to the 2024 trip.

Next MMMDI I’m trying to push for the Maze again! The Maze will be late next September I think. Maybe we just make multiple trips. I think I’m getting a roof top tent for overlanding.

 

[Mx5red]

Would even a hard shell RTT be any better when it’s that windy? Seems like a trailer is about the only thing you could get any sleep in.

 

[COJeeper]

Would even a hard shell RTT be any better when it’s that windy? Seems like a trailer is about the only thing you could get any sleep in.

Good Question!

The guy in the Land Cruiser has an iKamper and said he has survived 50mph wind gusts in the San Rafael Swell. The RTT guys said if it gets really bad, you just turn the vehicle so the hard shell takes the direct hit of the wind. My tents would have survived fine if I had some way to stake them down. The orange tent in the picture was already pre-damaged from a Moab trip in May. I stayed in Sand Flats Rec area and Utah is one giant rock with 3" of sand on the top, no place to stake a tent. The dumb thing collapsed on me when the wind blew, bent up the poles nice, Big Agnes support is terrible.

I've had tents in 40 mph gusts and as long as they're staked out properly, I've had excellent success.

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