Moab advice

bronco slim

bronco slim

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2006
Location
High Point
There is a group of us going to Moab in Oct. and was looking for advice on campgrounds. I've read the ads/sites by Googling but would like to know from someone who has been there which one is better than another and why. Also, restaurants/ bars to hit. I have no idea what to expect but the pics I've seen of the trails are awesome. Any advice would be appreciated...
 
I've been 5 times and have stayed at a different place each time. Portal RV Campground was pretty nice. We stayed at a remote camp ground, but I don't remember the name. It was remote though! It was in the Hells Revenge/Porcupine Rim/Fins-N-Things park.

Other times we have stayed at hotels and one other camp ground in the middle of town, but I apologize, I can't remember its name. The showers are nice, so look for a place with those!

We are heading out again hopefully in the Spring and are thinking about staying in a Cabin this time.


Trail wise, it's difficult to run multiple trails per day because of how far apart they are. It's doable, but realistically you get about one trail in a day. The exception is the Poison Spider Loop- which is incredible! You run Poison Spider Mesa, Gold Bar Rim, and Golden Spike in one day. It took us about 12 hours with a group of 6. We tried every obstacle, fin, and ledge we could find, which added to the time and also stopped for a lunch. The quickest I have seen people get through i is about 9 hours wit no break downs.

My trail suggestions would be:

Fins-N-Things as your very first trail. It is the best intro into slick rock crawling.
Poison Spider Mesa
Golden Spike
Hells Revenge
Cliffhanger
Pritchett Canyon
Moab Rim
Behind the Rocks

Pritchet and Behind the Rocks are pretty intense. I don't know the driver skill level of your group or how well built your rigs are, but you need decent rigs and above average driving to get through those.


Everything in Moab is the exact opposite of wheeling i the South. Because the surface is so sticky (when it's dry), you can take 200hp and 32"s up hill climbs that you would need 500hp and 42"s to climb down here.

It's all about low RPM crawling. Straight up, straight down, over ledges, way off camber, exact tire placement.

Last piece of advice- take a million pictures. You will see some of the most spectacular views imaginable out there.

My wife standing in The Hot Tub on Hells Revene:
hottub.jpg


Just a random shot from the top of Gold Bar Rim:
Moab.JPG


Entering "Escalator" on Hells Revenge. My favorite obstacle in Moab.
Esc.JPG


The entrance to Pritchett:
MMM1.JPG
 
Thanks for all the info. It's exactly what I need. I searched the other day and saw the pic of your wife and the others in an old thread. Some of the rigs are truggies with min 40's and everyone is very experienced with east coast wheeling but no desert slickrock. We'll be meeting others from around the country off the zr2usa website but 6 of us are local and wheel together all the time. I'll definetly be taking lots of pics. I can't seem to find a site to buy trail maps of the area. Any ideas?
 
We went for Easter Jeep Safari 2005. Best restaurant we ate at was the Moab Brewery...we stayed at some campground and after three nights ended up at the Best Western which was pretty nice. (The first three days it rained constantly, so we and all of our belongings were soaking wet, and cold). Take LOTS of pictures...take some time to see the National Parks too. Arches National Park is definitely worth the time to explore. Have fun...that was the best trip we have ever been on.
 
We had the worst service at the Moab Brewery. You'll come to love the Moab Diner though, that place rocked for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also there is a good pizza joint in town, I'll have to dig to find the name. Slick Rock Cafe was also a dud for us as well. We found that the restaurants on the east side of the main drag in Moab were the better joints, we even had the jingle... East to Feast! haha.
Hells Revenge was our first trail and was an absolute blast, with obstacles like Hells Gate, Escalator, Mickeys Hot Tub etc. You'll have a great time for sure. It was our perfect immersion into Moab slickrock wheeling. Be prepared to go up stuff you never thought you would. Its like wheeling on 100 grit sandpaper.


All of my favorites:
Hells Revenge
Poison Spider Mesa
Pritchett Canyon
Behind the Rocks
Area BFE
and for the best views the Top of the World trail.


I'll even give you my best find on the net: 99% of the trails listed for Moab have a GPS exchange file so you can download it into your GPS' map manager to install on your GPS unit. If you don't have one I would recommend it. If you get stuck out there after dark, that place turns pitch black, and the painted trail markings and sparse cairns disappear, making it near impossible to stay on course. With those files I pretty much had turn by turn directions. The trail listing also gives turn by turn directions from the McDonalds down town (the common meeting point) to the trail head. That site for me was indispensable.

http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php

We go every other year. We'll be heading out April of this year. We stay at the condos, just South of Moab (3-5 miles) But three bedrooms, good parking, two car garage, pool and a hot tub. We had just as much fun there as we did on the trails.

My advice for Moab..... Do whatever you have to do to get out there, it is just that good!
J.R.
 
We plan on taking the mtn. bikes(which is how we all met 10 yrs ago in the first place) and maybe run porcupine rim trail I think is what it's called. Definetly want to explore the area as well as wheel. I didn't give alot of thought to rain til it was mentioned. What is the weather like in oct?
 
"East To Feast" and Top of the World I won't forget. We're in the early planning stage so all the input ya'll are throwing out is great. Almost complete on the latest morph of the Bronco so I'm itching for a shake down run. Thanks for all the advice...
 
HANO said:
Also there is a good pizza joint in town, I'll have to dig to find the name.
Click to expand...

That place is called Za!! It was one of my favorites also.

bronco slim said:
Some of the rigs are truggies with min 40's and everyone is very experienced with east coast wheeling but no desert slickrock.
Click to expand...

Oh, in that case you guys should be all over Area BFE, Behind the Rocks, Pritchett, Moab Rim, Hells Revenge, and the Poison Spider loop (PSM, Golden Spike, Gold Bar Rim).

bronco slim said:
We plan on taking the mtn. bikes(which is how we all met 10 yrs ago in the first place) and maybe run porcupine rim trail I think is what it's called. Definetly want to explore the area as well as wheel. I didn't give alot of thought to rain til it was mentioned. What is the weather like in oct?
Click to expand...

The weather in October is perfect. Rain changes everything out there, I've been extremely lucky with weather. But just a small warning- if it rains, get out of the river beds. That place can flash flood in an instant. I had a good friend of mine hydrolock his ZJ because we went through a river crossing right after the rain and he was windshield deep in a spot that was about 24" just couple days earlier.

Porcupine Rim was one of my least favorite trails. But it may be more fun on a mountain bike. In a jeep, there just wasn't any real challenges and I dont remember any spectacular views. But, any trail in Moab can provide life time memories.

I'll post a couple videos shortly. Youtube muted my Pritchett video, so I'll try to upload it on vimeo.
 
ai38.photobucket.com_albums_e105_jhaney3_Avatars_Moab2008035.jpg



Top of the World!

You guys could honestly hop into a 4wd towrig for this trail. Nothing really obstacle based, and really its a get to the top and turn around type of trail, but we drove the rigs just so we could drive out on the out-cropping for the photo-op!

Also a little known fact, about 25-50yards to the left if your looking out over the outcropping, there is a large crack in the ground that you can look through and see all the way to the bottom, fun to jump over too. haha

Boring drive but nice view at the end!
 
Dylan W. said:
This is awsome! I am paused at the 12 min mark,and will see it all soon. I am loving the tunes too!
Click to expand...


Yeah it is a long one, we took 3800 pictures while we were out there, so we had a lot to choose from for the slides. Also in the slideshow I wanted to include everyone on the main obstacles, as I didn't want anyone to feel left out, so that spreads it out a bit, gets a little boring, but I get nostalgic everytime I watch it. Once you get out there you'll realize why we took so many pictures!

I just bought my wife a Canon DSLR w/ 1080p video just for our trip coming this April, im sure she'll wear it out!

(oh yeah and the music on the slideshow is from Wes Tucker and The Skillets)

Jeremy whats your wheeling plans looking like in April?
 
HANO said:
Yeah it is a long one, we took 3800 pictures while we were out there, so we had a lot to choose from for the slides. Also in the slideshow I wanted to include everyone on the main obstacles, as I didn't want anyone to feel left out, so that spreads it out a bit, gets a little boring, but I get nostalgic everytime I watch it. Once you get out there you'll realize why we took so many pictures!

I just bought my wife a Canon DSLR w/ 1080p video just for our trip coming this April, im sure she'll wear it out!
Click to expand...


Thanks for posting. I never ever get tired of looking at Moab pics. Trail rigs or not...the scenery just amazes me.

^^That top of thr world pic is awsome...one of my favorites so far.
 
We have always stayed in Rim Village condos while we were out there. As stated, 3BR, 2 bath,2 car garage which has came in real handy. Right at 34 hrs to get there drivng non- stop.
Moab rim
picture.php

Golden crack
picture.php

Hells revenge
picture.php

Escalator
picture.php

Golden spike
picture.php


Can't wait for a chance to go back.
 
I've stayed at several campgrounds at Moab, my favorite one is Spanish Trail south of town a few miles. Jeff and his wife own the campground and owns a Jeep! Pretty easy going and understands why you are there. Resturant across the road and a conveinant store, both can be walked to. Strait across the road is the trail called Metal something and did several night rides there since it was so close. Moab Diner is a must as is Arches and Dead Horse Point. Go to Google Earth and you can see Hell's Revenge and a lot of trails on that and also sorta get a feel of the layout. If it does rain try Potash Road from the bottom up. Nothing hard but close and you will take a zillion pics. It is at the foot of Dead Horse Pt. and is incredible scenery. Yeah the pizza place is good too.
 
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