Moab in October

[Ratbert]

Thank you!! I’ll check this out next time we’re out there.

It's weirdly exciting to refill your drinking water from a mountain spring. My sister (from Orlando) refused to drink it until a day later, thinking natural water would somehow make us sick.

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[arnie_mueller]

It's weirdly exciting to refill your drinking water from a mountain spring. My sister (from Orlando) refused to drink it until a day later, thinking natural water would somehow make us sick.

We had several Artesian springs in WI that we’d fill up with, frequently.

 

[hilljumper]

Checkout the Facebook group “Moab friends for wheeling” you’ll get some locals who will wheel with you. I have a friend out there that has shown me some cool “secret” places.

Top of the world is really cool if you have a drone. Drone pictures/video is awesome, I did it the first time about a month ago, got some great footage. Had a 392XR who struggled at the biggest obstacle, got him on the right line and he got up. I’d take people there just for the pictures and video at the end. Rest of the trail is so-so I guess.

Elephant hill appears to still be closed. They had some heavy rains and washed out the last half of the trail. You want to do that part too, beautiful and a really awesome slot canyon hike, maybe next time for you. This is my favorite trail to date.

Poison spider I completed in a stock JLUR. I went back and didn’t scrape once after lifted 2.5” and 37s. Poison spider was my favorite trail until I ran elephant hill. It’s a very technical trail, a game of inches, a ton of fun.

Chicken corners was cool for the hike at the end. I was bored with it, it seemed so long. It was the first Moab trail I ever did though and I thought I was going to tip over and die. 22 degrees was scary at one part when I was alone, on my first trail, in my first 4x4, and no idea what I was doing.

If you’re into hiking, Mesa Arch in Canyonlands is cool but you have a crapload of photographers there asking if you’ll let them have your spot so they can take a picture, I hate them all. Get up earlier you jerks, I was here first and I don’t care about your social media BS. It’s worth a trip once.

Another amazing hike is Delicate Arch in Arches NP. This is my favorite Arch hike, do it during a sunset. Bring a headlamp and know how to navigate, you’ll walk back in the dark and it’s not a straightforward path. It gets busy up there too but it’s such a big space you’ll have a nice spot anywhere.

All that said, who knows if you’ll like anything I’ve said, I don’t know what you like but these are my favorites in Moab.

Best showers are at the KOA, $10 for a hot shower is well worth it after a week camping in the desert.

If you’re looking for firewood, go to the drugstore, Walker drug. Don’t buy any of the garbage from the gas stations or grocery store. It burns up too fast and full of sap. Walker has good firewood and it’s cheaper than the others, no one thinks to go there.

Check out Gearheads if you need water, they offer free filtered water in the back of the store, we always fill up there. Their camping stuff was lacking in June, it used to be great.

I love Moab and it’s only 6 hours from me.

Have a fun safe trip!! Don’t forget to check in for your badges!

Where do you camp? We like dispersed camping for solitude.

 

[arnie_mueller]

Where do you camp? We like dispersed camping for solitude.

There's a few nice sites towards the top of Onion Creek. There is tons of open space towards Chicken Corners. Or you can go into the mountains if it's summer to escape the heat. There are tons of lakes with quiet camping sites. Reach out and I"ll show you where we went last time, about 40 min from downtown.

 

[Ratbert]

There's a few nice sites towards the top of Onion Creek. There is tons of open space towards Chicken Corners. Or you can go into the mountains if it's summer to escape the heat. There are tons of lakes with quiet camping sites. Reach out and I"ll show you where we went last time, about 40 min from downtown.

Tons of lakes?

 

[AVGeek99]

Kane creek is one of the must do trails in my opinion. I also think Rose garden hill is worth doing.

OP, beware of Rose Garden Hill. I do not recommend it with a stock anything, including XR. Most of the Rose Garden trail is pretty easy. But there was one ledge at the half way point of Rose Garden Hill that was 40-48 inches, completely vertical, with holes at the top dug out from spinning tires. You will have extreme difficulty with this ledge, going up or down, with high risk for damage if attempting to go up.

My daughters and I were going down, using Rose Garden to connect Top of the World and Onion Creek. My JLUR was stock at the time with 35s. Rose Garden was pretty easy aside from Rose Garden Hill. Prior to attempting the afore mentioned ledge I stacked all the rocks I could find at the bottom of the ledge, but it wasn't enough. We got hung up on frame coming off the ledge. The front tires were just touching the rocks I had stacked, not enough to get any traction. The rears were in the holes at the top and couldn't get enough traction to climb out of the holes.

We ended up having just enough winch line to reach a tree down the trail a bit. If not for the tree we'd have been hiking out. Luckily we had plenty of water with us so we weren't really in any danger. But thankfully we got out without having to call Trail Mater.

I freely admit I didn't do enough research on the trail, and we never should have been out there alone. Do some research on Rose Garden Hill. It's pretty easy to find stories about people suffering major damage on Rose Garden Hill. I now have a 3.5" lift with 37s, I would still not think about doing it without a group of wheelers.

 

[AVGeek99]

It's weirdly exciting to refill your drinking water from a mountain spring. My sister (from Orlando) refused to drink it until a day later, thinking natural water would somehow make us sick.

Does she think spring water comes out of the ground already in a plastic bottle?

 

[arnie_mueller]

Tons of lakes?

Compared to in town, yeah, tons is 4 or more.

 

[Ratbert]

Compared to in town, yeah, tons is 4 or more.

Are you taking east of Moab? Clark Lake area?

 

[arnie_mueller]

Are you taking east of Moab? Clark Lake area?

And Oowah, the one I most recently stayed at:

Sure, they're ponds relative to where I'm from in WI, it's water in the desert though! The cooler temps at elevation in August are nice too. Screw the desert, I've gone three times in each June, July, and August. I'm never going back to the desert again in those months.

 

[NWJeepr]

Vacation accomplished.

Hired a guide to run with us up Poison Spider Mesa. That is about the limit of a stock JLU XR for ride height/breakover. Had an amazing time. Portal Offroad Tours really knows their stuff, guy knew the trail like the back of his hand. I thought I was in for a bad day at Gatekeeper. This is still a new rig to me, and had I not been with a guide, I would have turned around. Did the whole trail, no damage. I hit the frame once while exiting Gatekeeper on the way down, but that was just a bad line. Thought I had it, but, nope. Backed off it, and tried again with success.

Day after we braved Top Of The World ourselves. Most of the trail, meh, I couldn't figure out what the book (mentioned in the posts above) was talking about. My assessment until, maybe 3/4 the way through, was NOT difficult. And then holy crap. There are some bypasses, and some obstacles where there aren't bypasses, and you can get 5-star spicy in a hurry. Thanks to being pumped up the day before, NONE of it was a problem, and I learned a lot about the rig doing it myself.

The top is worth it, the view. Everyone who does it has the same photo, and I got mine. The descent out of there will also make you second-guess the worth of that view/picture. Coming out of there seemed extremely hard, moreso than most trails. It was extremely slow-going. But again, no damage*. I did notice a rock got into one of the trim rings on my XR wheels, a little quarter-sized scrape. That was disappointing, but after 2 hard days of wheeling some pretty gnarly stuff for a stock JLU? I'll take it.

For those who have stayed at the Portal Resort, it was amazing as always. Love the vibe, love the view. The week before we stayed at Sun Canyonlands Gateway, and, it actually kind of sucked. The view was decent, but our neighbors ended up being complete assholes, the sites were really tight/close together. If you enjoy people ripping around on SxS all day around your rig, kicking up dust, and being a nuisance, that place is for you. It wasn't our speed. Portal is our speed, wish there were more places around like it. Getting a reservation in their peak seasons is hard.

We also did Shafer, this time from the top. Always a nice ride. Did a lot of hiking at Dead Horse. Spent a lot of time along highway 128 just outside of town. Great walking trails, little hikes. Also, the river walk through town was nice for afternoon/eve walks. The drive to/from TOTW trailhead is absolutely gorgeous. And you'll start recognizing all the films that were filmed along that stretch.

As for food, I will be back just to visit La Dueña again. Some of the best Mexican food with a southwest flair I've had outside of Mexico. We also did dinner at El Tapatio, which is a more traditional sit-down Mexican restaurant. Also very good.

Zax' was decent, we like it because our dog can be with us on their lower patio. Moab Grill, it's all about that Jack Daniel's burger. Don't know why I like it so much, but I do. Add a cup of Beer Cheese soup.

City Market is still the better grocery store in town when you need to reload the fridge.

We finished Top of the World and were back to camp at 3:30pm on Thursday. The Jeep's Nav screen had flashed a Severe Winter Storm warning while we were on the trail. What?! We knew rain was forecast for our planned departure, but that apparently had turned into a severe storm that was going to mess up 191, 70, and 15 with snow overnight and extremely high winds. So instead of leaving on Friday, we sucked the slides in, threw the Jeep on the trailer, and boogied out of there on Thursday afternoon. We hit the front of the storm, just high winds and rain, and made it over Soldier pass just as night fell. They got snow, so I'm glad we left when we did. Woke up in Tremonton, UT, just north of Salt Lake and it was near freezing. Brr...winter is near...glad we took our trip when we did!

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