by Stefan Roth, 1997
As you might have noticed from the occasional Moab T-shirts I wear, my friends and I in the Renegade 4WD Club have gone 4-wheeling in Moab, Utah a couple of times. People always ask me if it was fun. Yes, it's a LOT of fun! You really can do all that crazy stuff you see in the magazines. The type of rock in Moab is called slickrock. It looks slick, but it's not. The traction on slickrock is absolutely phenomenal. You really can go straight up a wall, provided you don't tip (more on that later). For example, if you encountered Tellico trail #9 in Moab with Moab slickrock, you'd never give that big ol' rock a second thought and just crawl up it in 2WD! I've recommended visiting Moab to everyone that asks me about it. However, Moab trail riding is very different than in the southeast and different preparations are required. With that thought in mind, I've written down some suggestions for the novice Moab adventurer.
The town of Moab is in southeastern Utah and is located in a deep canyon with vertical cliff walls. The canyon is crossed north of town by the Colorado river, which floods spring through June. Because the canyon is narrow and long, real estate in Moab is very limited. Hwy 191 runs north-south through the canyon and is known as Main Street in Moab. Almost all streets run either parallel or perpendicular to Main Street, with Center Street being perpendicular in the middle of downtown. Most streets off Main are named 100N, 200N, 100S, or 200S as you would expect. Downtown is a big pedestrian paradise, with shops, restaurants, and motels everywhere. Moab is a big tourist attraction for sight seeing, biking, and 4-wheeling (in that order), so make hotel or campground reservations early. We don't recommend camping in the desert. It's hot during the day, cold at night, sand gets into everything, there are lots of interesting and interested critters, and when it rains, it pours and floods. I recommend picking a motel or campground downtown, so you can walk to breakfast or dinner when you're not on the trails.
Speaking of trails, they're all within a few miles of downtown. Some trails are loops while others are dead ends. Some trails well-defined in canyons, while other trails meander through the desert. Lion's Back and Hell's Revenge are about 2 miles away, while Cliffhanger, Pritchett Canyon, Golden Spike, Poison Spider Mesa, Moab Rim, Gold Bar and others are less than 10 miles on the pavement. Many are on the desert plateau above the Moab canyon. You must use maps and they're available at the downtown Visitor Center and most Moab bookstores. The best ones we found are two maps ($7-9 each) by Latitude 40, Inc., called Moab West and Moab East. They are for "Mountain Biking & Recreation", but contain all the area trails by name on the two maps. These maps and more are also available on-line at www.4x4books.com. The Visitor Center also has extra copies of the Red Rock 4-Wheelers' Easter Jeep Safari newspaper that contains descriptions and ratings of about 30 trails that you can use to decide which trails to go on. If you go before late June, you'll be sharing the trails with a lot of bikes. After June, it gets too hot for the mountain bikers. Except for some of the canyon trails, the majority of trails are out in the open desert on rocky plateaus that hold few or no tracks. It's easy to get lost because there are few landmarks and the hardest trails aren't very well marked. Drive in a group of three or more vehicles. Bring a full tank of gas, at least a gallon of water per person, and enough food and warm clothing to spend the night in case of problems. Remember, the dry heat dehydrates you very quickly and nights in the desert are cold even in the summer.
Weather in the southwest is quite different than in the southeast. Most of Moab is closed for the winter from November through March. Expect snow in April and warming in May, with a lot of heat in June, July and August. It's a very dry heat, so you don't really feel that hot, but you dehydrate and burn quickly. Take plenty of water and Gatorade on all trail rides or sight seeing trips. The sun is very hot and intense. It will heat up your vehicles' bodies to the point where you can't touch them and any electronic components mounted to the fender or firewall under the hood suffer from extra heat. Wear a wide- brimmed hat and use sunscreen due to Moab's 5000 ft elevation (higher in the desert).
Because of the steep rock climbs, declines, and side hills you can achieve with the high traction on slickrock, you should have a vehicle with mid-sized tires and a small lift only. 33" or 35" tires are really the tallest you should use. Moab locals use all-terrain tires, but my Buckshot Radial Mudders gave excellent traction on the slickrock at low psi. There is no mud in Moab. Avoid sand obstacles if you're using mud tires, because you just dig yourself in. My Jeep now has 36" tires. It's great for Tellico, but it was definitely too tall for Moab trails. I nearly tipped over backward on the Dump Bump, White Knuckle Hill, and several other obstacles. Two years before, I went to Moab in my Scout II with 33" tires and it had plenty of ground clearance. Install a lift that is barely enough to clear the tires you have. You don't need huge amounts of ground clearance. A medium wheel base (avoid CJ5s) with a wider track is also recommended, but be sure to have a good approach and departure angle. Some of the obstacles require you to drive up to a vertical wall. Even if you have to go at it a bit from the side, you need clearance in front of your front wheel to bump yourself up the wall. A pickup truck with a lot of overhang in the rear will not just drag the rear, but will also lift your rear tires off the ground as you climb steep angles or come off large boulders. Steve Turek's red Jeep Cherokee had 33" tires giving him good ground clearance, a longer wheel base, and a low center of gravity, however he had to be pulled up several obstacle climbs when the overhanging rear bumper dragged on the ground and lifted up the rear wheels. Other helpful vehicles modifications include at least a rear locker (and preferable one in the front) and very, very low gearing. Most trail riding requires low speed crawling. Don't bother with clutch limited slip differentials because they won't do anything at the low speeds. Surprisingly, a winch has few uses beyond using as a tow rope. There aren't any trees to winch off. Don't use big boulders as anchors unless you want to pull them on top of you. We almost did that two years and ago and I can tell you from personal experience that it's a bad feeling when a 10 ton rock starts sliding toward you. Naturally, a strong roll cage is required if you want to do the steepest climbs. Because of the high traction, it's easy to get into dangerous rollover situations. Bring tools and spare parts like U-joints, axles and driveshafts. A useful spare part is a spare ignition box. We had a lot of problems with them breaking due to the heat and sun. NAPA and Big A auto parts stores and small junk yards are in Moab, but they don't carry everything and we also found that there is no driveshaft shop in town. The nearest city with full services is Grand Junction, CO and it's over 100 miles away. A useful navigation aid is a GPS system for satellite navigation. It allows you to accurately determine where you are on the map, tells you where you've been, and gives you an idea where you need to go.
Once you arrive in Moab, you'll want to plan your trails. The Red Rock 4 Wheelers rate the trails on a scale from 1 (easiest) to 4 (hardest) with a 4+ assigned to crazy trails. If you intend to challenge the hardest trails, I recommend starting with Cliffhanger Trail (a.k.a. Amasa Back Trail on some maps), rated 3 to 3.5. It's southwest of Moab off Kane Creek Road, which parallels the Colorado River. This trail is well defined most of the way, so you won't get off track. The trail is hard without being too punishing on the vehicle for the experienced driver, but it's fun for Moab first-timers trying to get acquainted with Moab's conditions. Cliffhanger starts off going steeply down through a creek bed, which is dry most of the time but may be uncrossable if it rained hard recently. This trail is tough and turns into one big rock garden. It's very scenic, because as its name implies, the trail runs along a canyon cliff where you can look down a 500+ foot drop into the valley below. Fortunately, the trail doesn't get within 20 feet of the edge. The trail dead ends at a beautiful overlook over the Colorado River and a Potash (fertilizer) Plant. In and out takes about half a day. Back on the paved road one mile back toward Moab is the entrance to Pritchett Canyon trail, but you'll need a full day for it because it's long and possibly the hardest trail in Moab. Instead, drive about 3 miles on Kane Creek Road back toward Moab to find the entrance to Moab Rim Trail. This is a true 4+ rated trail and it's not for the faint of heart. The name is derived from the fact that the trail starts in the Colorado River canyon and climbs rapidly along the canyon cliff and after 1 to 1.5 miles comes out on the Moab canyon rim overlooking the town of Moab. It takes a couple of hours to get to the top due to the extreme difficulty and the lack of a well defined trail. Take your time. Don't just pick the best line, but pick the route that has the best hope of continuing on up the cliff. Once at the top, relax and enjoy the view. You'll need the rest, because you have to go down the same way you came up. All those steps and boulders you ascended earlier can become treacherous when you have to go down them. Consider using straps in the rear of taller or short wheel base vehicles to let them down the worst steps. Two years before, an early Bronco almost flipped over forwards on a steep step and I had to pull down his rear end and pull him back up the step with a strap. The rear end was so high up in the air, the driver's wife had to reach UP to attach the strap to his rear bumper. Moab Rim takes about a half day, so your first day will have been an adventurous learning experience. For other days, consider running Pritchett Canyon Trail. Note that there is a "campground" that blocks the entrance of Pritchett Canyon Trail and the owners make you pay a fee ($4?) to drive through their campground. This is a thinly disguised entrance fee for the trail, but you don't have a choice if you want to ride the trail. The trail is rated so hard because its main obstacle, the Rock Pile, has no bypasses. One of your vehicles must make it up under his own power, so he can pull others up. Poison Spider Mesa Trail is another full day (and then some) trip. It's long, scenic, and difficult and Golden Spike Trail can be accessed in the middle of it. Golden Spike Trail is infrequently marked, very difficult and punishing on vehicles. If you want to run these trails, start early in the morning and keep up a good pace. The trail eventually turns into Gold Bar Rim Trail and Gemini Bridges Trail before exiting onto Hwy 191 far north of Moab.
If you have access to the Internet and the web, you can look at the Renegade 4WD Club's web page (www.renegades.us) and see lots of pictures on our club Trail Reports Index web page from our Moab trips in 1995, 1997, 2002, and 2004. For information on Moab, contact the Moab Chamber of Commerce about 3 or 4 months in advance so all the hotels have time to send you brochures. Tell the operator that you want to go on Jeep trails and they'll also send you some information on off-road trails and activities. If you don't want to go 4-wheeling everyday while you're in Moab, visit Arches National Park, about 5 miles north of Moab. It has the world's most beautiful arch formation and is the location of the world famous Balanced Rock, Landscape Arch, and Delicate Arch (shown on Utah license plates). About 40 miles from Moab is Canyonlands National Park, also a beautiful destination. Never seen the Grand Canyon? Visit the Colorado River at Dead Horse Point in Dead Horse State Park at sunset. It's less than an hour from Moab, more beautiful than the Grand Canyon, and there are no crowds. These parks charge entry fees per vehicle.
If you have any detailed questions about Moab, feel free to contact me. I hope you'll consider 4 wheeling in Moab. It's an experience of a lifetime.