Field Report from a first time Moab visitor

[ExpatMJGuy]

So I’ve been away from the site for a bit, but for good reason.  I took a roadtrip out west from Georgia and have gotten away from working on my Jeeps for a bit.  And then in the short period after the trip I had to clean everything and transition right into doing things around the house with the spring planting season.  We road tripped through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, clipped Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, a small part of Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana!

 

I bought a new Crua AER Rooftop tent, and with an $800 price tag for shipping I decided fuel for pickup wouldn’t be much more expensive and I get a road trip out west out of it.  Pickup was near Ft Collins Colorado.  We took full opportunity to explore that area a bit.  And looking back, the Pawnee Buttes in Pawnee National Grassland was a surprising enjoyment and more than just a free place to stopover.  Unique scenery with great hiking, and Amazing sunrises and sunsets with a cool windmill backdrop.  I explored Rocky Mountain National Park as best I could but in reality early to mid April is still just too cold for the Rockies.  We still got snow and snowshoed around Bear Lake.   And not to say it wasn’t worth it, because it totally was, the cold snow made unique scenery that will forever be in my brain.  Parts oft the scenery reminded me of the one time I made it to Switzerland.  But the cold was always something to be dealt with and detracted from the experience.  With that we decided to head further west with our new tent and explore UTAH on our big cross country loop with the drive on I-70 in Colorado being another highlight of the trip and spotted a Comanche being towed to Moab along the way!

 

Utah is everything everything any Jeeper could dream of and then more!  And while I didn’t drive any of my Jeeps on this trip I still felt like a Jeeper at heart behind the wheel of my Pro-4X Frontier and figured out why it’s the Mecca of Jeep.  We checked out the 4 corners area, Monument Valley, lots of stuff along the way there and back, but in my mind Moab, Arches and Canyonlands NP were the crown Jewel of the trip.  If you’ve never been it’s something to behold.  Especially if you are from someplace east of the Mississippi river like myself.  The dramatic scenery difference from the southeast is worth it alone.  The easter Jeep Safari is even held in April with good reason.  Not too hot and not too cold.  While totally not planned we arrived the week before Jeep Safari and stuck around about half way through the safari before we had to move on.

 

Before the Jeep Safari it seemed like every third vehicle in Moab was a Jeep.  Once it started it seemed like more than 3/4 of the cars on the road were Jeeps.  There’s Jeeps of all kinds there.  Unique Jeeps can be found but mostly 4 door wranglers are what’s found.  They even have Jeep rental places all over Moab.  It’s super easy to fly out there, and rent a Jeep if you don’t want the hassle of driving all the way across the country to get the Jeep experience and truthfully the best way to experience Canyonlands National Park.  There’s trails of every difficulty level around the Moab area with all kinds of terrain on all kinds of land ownership.  Riverbeds in the bottom of canyons to mountain paths in the La Sal Mountains!  Water crossing to boulder hopping.  My personal highlight was the Shaffer Trail in Canyonlands where you take an old cattle trail past colorful potash plant ponds, along the rim of a mini grand canyon, into a canyon, and right up the switchback sides of a canyon wall towards the National Park visitor’s center.  If you can dream of the off roading terrain, the Moab area pretty much has it and tons of views along the way!

 

With multiple land types and multiple federal agencies owning the land there’s cheap and free camping all over the place for all types of setups and rigs with few restrictions.  Everything from a place to boondock a full size motorhome to a hidden spot to place a backpackers tent.  Just remember some of the free areas with the least restrictions and best access can be more crowded and the crowds can be a bit more rowdy here.  Personally the sounds of ATVs running up and down the dirt roads all night while I sleep in a tent is unappealing.  (Willow Springs Road)  But if your not afraid of the beaten path and a small drive from Moab you can still find a camping spot with a great view and not see a living sole for days which is exactly what we did and found a spot near a cliff with an excellent canyon view with an Amazing Sunset!  And if camping isn’t your thing there’s still plenty of nice hotel space in Moab itself.  There’s plenty of things to do besides Jeep.  Crazy vista views, mountain biking, road biking, horseback riding, rafting, hiking, fishing, ATV or dirt bike riding, if it’s outdoor related it can most likely be done in the Moab area.  And there’s not much there for dangerous animals as there are in other desert areas or even the rockies so the terrain feels pretty safe.  Just remember, sun screen, drink lots of water, and chap stick.  Especially if you're from someplace non desert like such as myself.  You would be amazed how fast that sun can reach out and get you.

 

Now that I understand what the attraction to Moab is, I’ll be back again, and again, and again.  And next time since it will be the focal point of my trip most likely in my XJ.  My Frontier didn’t let me down at all.  In fact it did better than I expected.  Other than a few minor departure angle scrapes, and a broken plastic $50 mud flap on a larger rock, it handled everything I threw at it with ease.  Of course I’ve gotten past the stage in my life were I go off-roading with the intent of going hard enough to break things and knew that it needed to take me the almost 2000 miles home!   I didn’t even engage my lockers at any point or use 4 Low.  But coming back in my Jeep and signing up for official Jeep Safari rides which sounds incredible and I can’t wait to do it.  Just remember not to get in over your head if you're by yourself and off the beaten path.  My experience with cell reception is that it’s sketch on both T-Mobile and Verizon in many areas outside of town as I have an e-sim on one and physical sim on the other network and still didn’t have service many times and no data even more.  Jeepers still tend to help fellow Jeepers but if needed tow bills can be quite expensive the further off the paved roads you are.  Discretion is the better part of valor here and make sure your rig is ready enough to be out and about in highly remote areas.  You don’t want to overheat, and you don’t want to stop to go to the restroom and come back to a dead battery 15 miles from the paved road.  And again have water with you.

 

Regardless, I highly recommend a spring or maybe fall trip to Moab for any of you.  If you’ve been on the fence about going, DO IT!  If you're in a pristine MJ or something hard to replace I’d just be real selective about where you go and stick to the main trails in and out of the national parks.   I’d avoid any trails that require boulder hopping to protect body panels especially for your bed, but there is plenty of stuff that can be done with just minimal ground clearance and even 2wd.  The biggest issue will be departure angles for long bed MJs without lifts but can still be done with the right line and going slow.  There’s trails around Moab for everyone, a variety of rig setups, and every skill level.  And best of all a local community that is friendly to the off-road community instead of adversarial.

 

I always thought Moab was hype and maybe it is if you live out west.  But to someone from back east it’s not.  Happy Desert Trails Ya’ll !!!

[ExpatMJGuy]

 

The morning we picked up the tent taken in Pawnee Grasslands Colorado

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Sunrise over Pawnee Buttes Colorado

Mounting the roof tent over the bed of the truck in a park, Ft Collins, Colorado

First use of our Roof Top Tent

One of the Many Pics from Rocky Mountain NP

My poor daughter Freezing in Rocky Mountain NP

My daughter posing when stopping at Vail Pass Colorado

Someone's MJ on it's way to Moab, because I saw it there a few days later.

Our tucked away camp spot along a ridge near Canyonlands NP

You can see the ridge better here

Sunset from Camp

View short hike from Camp

Beginning segment of Shaffer Trail

Shafer Trail half way up looking back

Looking up the switchbacks of the Shafer Trail

 

I have TONS more pics but just wanted to give an idea what a basic trip to Moab can be all about!  My the way it was 70 Degrees when we left Atlanta, 14 Degrees in the Rockies, in the mid 70's in Moab, 86 degrees Across Texas, and upper 70's by the time we made it back to Atlanta.  Talk about temp whiplash.  In Colorado the wind was worse than the cold temps but we packed for it so it's all good.  We said to each other when we hiked to delicate Arch and were boiling hot we couldn't believe we were essentially in a blizzard just a few days earlier.

[fiatslug87]

Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for sharing.

[Pete M]

roadtrips are the best   

[FrankTheDog]

Thanks for sharing. 
My wander lust is getting strong, I haven’t been out west since 2014.

Definitely going to take at least two weeks in the next couple years to hit western Montana and Utah. I have family in SD MT and UT I can stay with so that’ll help.

[ExpatMJGuy]

I want to go again and again.  I'm not hooked on going west now.  I also want to go far north, towards Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and further up into Canada.  I'm well well well versed on the east coast and I've had a taste of something new and I want more.  I've lived in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia most of my life.  I don't even need maps to navigate pretty much from Alabama and central Tennessee all the way to the Atlantic Ocean and all the way south to Orlando.  I may not know every road but once I wonder to a main state or US route I can figure it out. I can navigate by interstate number further.  I've seen so much of the SouthEast I'm up for something new.  My wife is originally from Wisconsin so I've explored some up that direction and grandparents lived in Ohio.  I've seen Many corners of the SouthEast and traveled from Miami up towards New York City and west pretty much to the Mississippi.  I lived in North Carolina when I first joined the military and where of all places in the world did the army send me?  Ft Bragg, North Carolina.  Fort Gordon Georgia.  I did live in El Paso Texas when I was in the Army for a few years as well, but I was kept on a real short leash and couldn't go more than an hour or two from post.  And that was only North as I wasn't allowed to cross the border into Mexico for any reason.  I hated it back then, as I didn't have the freedom to go and see what I really wanted to and I wasn't impressed with El Paso itself.  This was also the days of flip phones and there was less information on the internet about what was around me back then when directions consisted of printed Mapquest routes and paper maps.  When I would go on leave I seemed to always need to go back east to see or deal with family. The SouthEast is my home, but my wanderlust for the west is stronger than ever and now I've had a taste and it's made it even worse.

 

I have family in Kansas that didn't live there back then and visited with them a few days on my trip, but I really looked at public lands for free dispersed camping, and campgrounds in national parks.  Something that is much more difficult to do back easy.  Usually either in National Forrest or Grasslands when we were in the plains.  I used an app called iOverlander to help find AMAZING camp sites along the way.  Since I retired from the military, most military bases have campgrounds that you can stay at for 5 bucks a night for tent camping and 20 for full hookups.  They usually have restrooms that have showers that are better than national parks have, and many have playgrounds and or lakes at them.  So we stayed on a few military bases along the way.  Great stops for early turn in evenings or slow start mornings to get showers after being further off the beaten path.  My daughter wanted to see the difference between Carl's Jr and Hardee's and in the process ate something that totally didn't agree with her and we so we stayed at a hotel in Amarillo and held tight that night for her but all in all we didn't spend much on lodging.  Less than $200 for just over 2 weeks of traveling with the bulk of lodging cost in Amarillo.  

 

What I would totally change for future trips is how I packed.  Just over 2 Weeks across ALL KINDS of terrain and weather with the food and kitchen for cooking that 2 weeks of food meant taking lots of gear and the space added up quick.  I wasn't sure how the truck would load once we got the tent so I pulled the garden trailer to ensure there was enough space for gear and the tent in the box. With anything that can't be wet we put in the plastic bins inside plastic bags.  It worked GREAT for the actual tent pickup as I just strapped the box on top of the trailer.  You can see in the pic I added the box for the tent before I threw it away.  Other than destroying it's cheap paint finish from all the gravel and dirt roads, surprisingly a cheap Tractor Supply trailer held up great to all the abuse of a cross country road trip with some light off roading for getting to some of these camp sites off the beaten path.  The trailer made it easy for the actual tent pickup, but all in all it was such a PITA to get something simple as a change of socks out.  Unstrap the bin, dig and hunt for it, reseal everything, strap everything back down. Especially during those cold mornings with high winds in Colorado trying to use my fingers to secure the straps in the cold was outright painful and dried my fingers out to leather.  I could only do so much strap adjustment with gloves.  The new rooftop tent did excellent in the wind but I'd strap everything back down on the trailer even at night to secure it from the winds and protect things from Animals.  I love the space the trailer provided.  It allowed space in the bed for casual stuff still.  For Example in Mississippi, my daughter stepped in a mud puddle on accident in the dark and soaked a pair of shoes.  Plenty of space in the bed to leave her shoes to dry while going down the freeway.  Nice spot in the open and she was back in them by lunch that day.  But at a minimum, I think a small enclosed trailer would would work better.  Easier for waterproofing, animal proofing, easier access without having to lock and strap each individual bin, and more secure storage in the event we do decide to stop at a hotel as we did in Amarillo.  Learning this and going all in for road trips such as this, in an ideal world I think I want a teardrop camper trailer, and then put the roof tent on top of it for the kids.  Someplace I can store all my camping gear permanently, but short term I might be looking for a small box trailer for future west coast trips like this.

 

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