dscowell
September 15th, 2015, 03:53 PM
My friends and I went to Moab in august. I've been fairly busy with life so I have not had time to comprise a report. Along with a late report I do not have all the pictures from my friends so I also apologize about that cause I probably won’t get them for about a year. My roommate got a lot of good pictures so I'll try and harass him to get them sometime soon.
We went August 8 - 11. We hit Fins & Things, Bull Canyon and Kane Creek. Overall it was a lot of fun and a fair amount of damage. We left my house the 8 and got to Moab at dark and ended up setting up camp in the dark. On the 9th we went to Fins and Things and later Bull Canyon. The 10th we went to Kane Creek. The 11th we went to Arches then headed home. My biggest complaint about the whole trip was the poorly maintained campsites. There part of the national park or forest system so I can understand.
Fins and Things wasn't too technical but still a lot of fun. Trent brought his Xterra and I had the MJ. The biggest difficulty with this trail was dragging on the steep drop offs but that wasn't a problem because we both have aftermarket front and rear bumpers so no damage but scratches were obtained on this trail.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-o36tY5OZ4T4/VfjRfDy_S-I/AAAAAAAACeA/xCj0cXxzXVw/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150809_095957138.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NHu_zsdYFjA/VfjRfP80JzI/AAAAAAAACeA/tAE1wOyh5MQ/w1598-h338-no/IMG_20150809_110441004_HDR-PANO.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-OypWIAH_-JI/VfjRfGeJCpI/AAAAAAAACeA/6mRVYmwPPZQ/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150809_121708679.jpg
Later that day we went to Bull Canyon. We decided to do this one because it was fairly moderate and we didn’t want to get stuck on a trail when it started to get dark. Bull Canyon gave us some excellent views without being terribly difficult.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zribttXALrA/VfjRfIHfiII/AAAAAAAACeA/df4IuYQUbEc/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150809_163416148.jpghttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-OtPjQr3H2TY/VfjRfIhnKxI/AAAAAAAACeA/mcFlK-JGzZQ/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150809_175753339.jpg
The next day we went and did Kane Creek. I got the FunTreks Moab book because I have the Colorado books by them and they have always done a good job with trail description and ratings. With a lot of the trails it said to not do them in a stock SUV so we made sure to avoid those ones because Trent suspension wise is all stock. The first third of the trail was fairly moderate with one spot that was a tight pinch but we both made it through. I got a little bit of a dent in the cab and bed but nothing really noticeable unless you were looking for it. After that we headed into the creek. It was low and we only had one real water crossing the rest was either no water or a low running stream. The book mentioned this part can get tricky to navigate and that was very true. We got lost for a while in a couple areas trying find the actual trail but finally made it out. Once out of the creek you make it to a hill. This part was mentioned in the book but it said an earlier part of the trail was the hardest. Yeah… this final 2-3 miles was by far the hardest. We didn’t get a lot of pictures cause we were busy getting unstuck and spotting each other. I made it up the first hill no problem. Trent not so much. He was getting high centered quite a bit and we tried multiple lines. Eventually we had to jack him up and put some rocks under his wheels and we made it out. Farther down the trail was another hill I got a little high centered but ended up going a different line and making it out. Trent ended up doing the same thing. After that we were almost out and I ended up getting a sizable dent in my driver door and rocker panel from losing some traction on the sand and going straight into a rock.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-npeRQztv6QU/VfjRfDHtwgI/AAAAAAAACeA/kXwRJCIyacM/w496-h881-no/IMG_20150810_114146455.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bEOH38Lkl28/VfjRfO_GChI/AAAAAAAACeA/PtlZLrVgYK0/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150810_120255903.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Dq5p3HGcfDg/VfjRfB6gchI/AAAAAAAACeA/80HPHTN4c_A/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150810_130129338.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T7z110sy4dU/VfjRfN3NzZI/AAAAAAAACeA/WNMYKFID_-0/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150810_143000341.jpg
It was a fun trip and I want to go back again and do some other hard trails that Trent’s Xterra wasn’t capable of doing as it sits now.
We went August 8 - 11. We hit Fins & Things, Bull Canyon and Kane Creek. Overall it was a lot of fun and a fair amount of damage. We left my house the 8 and got to Moab at dark and ended up setting up camp in the dark. On the 9th we went to Fins and Things and later Bull Canyon. The 10th we went to Kane Creek. The 11th we went to Arches then headed home. My biggest complaint about the whole trip was the poorly maintained campsites. There part of the national park or forest system so I can understand.
Fins and Things wasn't too technical but still a lot of fun. Trent brought his Xterra and I had the MJ. The biggest difficulty with this trail was dragging on the steep drop offs but that wasn't a problem because we both have aftermarket front and rear bumpers so no damage but scratches were obtained on this trail.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-o36tY5OZ4T4/VfjRfDy_S-I/AAAAAAAACeA/xCj0cXxzXVw/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150809_095957138.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NHu_zsdYFjA/VfjRfP80JzI/AAAAAAAACeA/tAE1wOyh5MQ/w1598-h338-no/IMG_20150809_110441004_HDR-PANO.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-OypWIAH_-JI/VfjRfGeJCpI/AAAAAAAACeA/6mRVYmwPPZQ/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150809_121708679.jpg
Later that day we went to Bull Canyon. We decided to do this one because it was fairly moderate and we didn’t want to get stuck on a trail when it started to get dark. Bull Canyon gave us some excellent views without being terribly difficult.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zribttXALrA/VfjRfIHfiII/AAAAAAAACeA/df4IuYQUbEc/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150809_163416148.jpghttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-OtPjQr3H2TY/VfjRfIhnKxI/AAAAAAAACeA/mcFlK-JGzZQ/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150809_175753339.jpg
The next day we went and did Kane Creek. I got the FunTreks Moab book because I have the Colorado books by them and they have always done a good job with trail description and ratings. With a lot of the trails it said to not do them in a stock SUV so we made sure to avoid those ones because Trent suspension wise is all stock. The first third of the trail was fairly moderate with one spot that was a tight pinch but we both made it through. I got a little bit of a dent in the cab and bed but nothing really noticeable unless you were looking for it. After that we headed into the creek. It was low and we only had one real water crossing the rest was either no water or a low running stream. The book mentioned this part can get tricky to navigate and that was very true. We got lost for a while in a couple areas trying find the actual trail but finally made it out. Once out of the creek you make it to a hill. This part was mentioned in the book but it said an earlier part of the trail was the hardest. Yeah… this final 2-3 miles was by far the hardest. We didn’t get a lot of pictures cause we were busy getting unstuck and spotting each other. I made it up the first hill no problem. Trent not so much. He was getting high centered quite a bit and we tried multiple lines. Eventually we had to jack him up and put some rocks under his wheels and we made it out. Farther down the trail was another hill I got a little high centered but ended up going a different line and making it out. Trent ended up doing the same thing. After that we were almost out and I ended up getting a sizable dent in my driver door and rocker panel from losing some traction on the sand and going straight into a rock.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-npeRQztv6QU/VfjRfDHtwgI/AAAAAAAACeA/kXwRJCIyacM/w496-h881-no/IMG_20150810_114146455.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bEOH38Lkl28/VfjRfO_GChI/AAAAAAAACeA/PtlZLrVgYK0/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150810_120255903.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Dq5p3HGcfDg/VfjRfB6gchI/AAAAAAAACeA/80HPHTN4c_A/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150810_130129338.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T7z110sy4dU/VfjRfN3NzZI/AAAAAAAACeA/WNMYKFID_-0/w1566-h881-no/IMG_20150810_143000341.jpg
It was a fun trip and I want to go back again and do some other hard trails that Trent’s Xterra wasn’t capable of doing as it sits now.