Moab Trip Photos

[TrialByFire]

I just got back from 5 days in 4-wheel heaven. There were four vehicles from Albuquerque and perfect weather.
On Friday afternoon we had just enough daylight to do the first half of Fins and Things.
On Saturday, I elected to join up with a group from Salt Lake City doing Flat Iron Rim (in the reverse direction--rated 7). The first major obstacle was called "The Intimidator" and with good reason. The trail came very close to the edge of a 400 foot cliff (and I do mean cliff!). We had to squeeze between a large rock and the edge on a turning, off-camber, ledgey section:






I broke another CV half shaft climbing Easter Egg Hill and had to winch up, but was carrying a spare and in 45 minutes, we were back on the trail again.

One of the last obstacles was called "The Chute" and consisted of a steep 30 ft plunge. The rest of the group winched down, but my buddy Jamie got me to let him drive "Sherman" down unassisted:

[TrialByFire]

On Sunday, I was without a spare CV so Jamie and I went solo to do just Poison Spider and stay fairly close to civilization, but in a moment of irrationality, decided to do the whole 7-hour "Trifecta" of Poison Spider, Golden Spike, and Gold Bar Rim. Except for a couple of Farabee rentals and some dirt bike, we had the trail to ourselves and made very good time. We finally ran into a large party at the Golden Crack, who had come in from the other side. It was very compforting to have company for the rest of the trail.


Monday morning, we spent getting a bent tie rod straightened and sleeved. After lunch we joined back up with the Albuquerque group to do Hell's Revenge:





Here is some of the action on Hell's Gate:


...and in the Devil's Hot Tub:

We didn't make it and had to winch out.

[TrialByFire]

The Coup de Grace was a Tuesday run of Moab Rim (again solo). Moab Rim has real exposure where a wrong move can send one plummeting over another large cliff. The obstacles are intimidating and challenging.


The Z-Turn:



The Overlook:


...and the return descent:



This was the best trip to Moab yet (my third) and I am really looking forward to the Ultimate Jeep Summit in May!

[07JeepXK]

Awsome pics! Someday I will make it out to Moab. What happened to the roof of you XK in the rear?

[TrialByFire]

What happened to the roof of you XK in the rear?

I backed into a tree branch last year :-(

[Carn75]

Sweet pics! Moab has always been on my bucket list of 4x4in' and mt.biking destination trips. Hopefully I'll get there sooner than later....

[ScorpionCrawler]

Thanks for sharing.
Love it.

[Omelet]

Man that looks like so much fun! One of these days I will make it out there. That is a sweet XK you have there, way to rep the XK/WK platform! Thanks for sharing.

[TrialByFire]

Some more shots of Hell's Gate. I was the first one up and picked a wrong line and almost rolled it on its side (twice).








I went back a second time and cruised it.

[Omelet]

And that's when you shoot your spotter! What an idiot! If you already have a tire in the air why would he tell you to continue going driver when it will clearly cause you to tip backwards? Some people have no bushiness spotting!!! He should have told you passenger to bring the front end down.