Added 13 June 2000
THE DISCLAIMER: With the exception of stock ponds, and the occasional necessity of turning around, I *ALWAYS* drive on established roads and trails. Doing otherwise is not only bad karma, but it leads to ill-will towards four-wheelers/four-wheeling and makes people want to close vehicles out of the beautiful environs that we all enjoy. Please be respectful of private property (don't trespass!) and public lands, as other people want to enjoy them too. Also leave gates as you find them (closed if closed, and open if open.) If a road has a big mud hole in the middle of it, do NOT go around it, as it only makes the road wider, eventually making the mud hole wider. This cycle of foolishness can get out of control. If you can't make it through the puddle, you shouldn't be there. Turn around and find someplace else to explore. TREAD LIGHTLY! For more information on responsible wheeling, go HERE or HERE Ziggy at dirtroad.com says it best, "Use your 4-wheel drive to enjoy the environment, don't use the environment to enjoy your 4-wheel drive!"
Shannon and I got to Moab in the early afternoon, and well ahead of the rest of the group, so we decided to hit Arches National Park. I've been there before, but it is always an amazing place to go. While there, I noticed a "4X4 road" to Tower Arch on the map. After checking out the usual spots, we decided to check it out. I expected the road to be pretty light fare, with the "high-clearance vehicles only" warning as just the standard 'don't do something stupid' safety warning. I was rather surprised to find the trail to be quite technical. I found out later that the trail supported a 3 rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 4 being extreme and 5 being nearly impassable by any vehicle). Although not nearly the most difficult obstacle, this was one of the steepest rock faces on the trail. Photos never to justice to the actual steepness of the trail though.
I found myself back on the same trail the next day, but with the rest of the group. There are so many gorgeous views along the way that I was only too happy to do the trail again.
The next day, the group got together and headed north of Moab to do 3-D, a 3 rated trail. All in all it was pretty easy, but none of us were really sure what to expect with regards to the rating system, so we played it safe the first day. The scenery, as expected, was phenomenal. The turn-around point is a spectacular viewpoint.
We took an alternate route back through Lunar Canyon, despite warnings that the route-finding was confusing and not recommended without someone who had been there before. After some, well, confusion, we were able to navigate our way across an expanse of deeply cracked slickrock to the trail on the other side. The scenery was true to the name of the canyon, very other-worldly and beautiful. Here is one of the drop-offs crossing the slickrock in Lunar Canyon.
After 3-D, we headed to the east side of Highway 191 to do a couple of trails that lead into Arches National Park. I can't remember the name of the first trail, but it was very cool. It contained a great deal of slickrock and we saw some dinosaur footprints along the trail. The foot prints were in the area where this crack was. The first is Tim and Angela navigating the crack in their built-up Scout, then Steve going through with his '98 BlaZeR2.
We ate lunch at the end of the trail at an old copper mine. After lunch, we backtracked about a half a mile and took a cut-off over a ridge to access Salt Valley Road to get to the Tower Arch trail I mentioned earlier. Here is Tim navigating the cut-off.
The route down was pretty narrow, and threataned to crunch some door panels without some caution.
All in all, it was a great day. If you want to see DAY 2, CLICK HERE
If you're in the Tucson area, drop me a line and we can go wheelin' sometime.
Speaking of which, if you own a Highrider/ZR2/BlaZeR2, or want to find out more about the best little 4X4's around, check out these great sites:
http://www.zr2.com and http://www.zr2hr.org
There is also a ZR2 discussion group, which is very fun for talking about our special trucks and in getting ideas, help, and useful information. I have learned a great deal from the list. You can join by sending an e-mail to mailto:zr2@zr2hr.org with the word "SUBSCRIBE" (without the quotes) in the subject line.
ENJOY!
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