Today’s ride was one of the more extreme rides that we have been on so far.
It is called Steel Bender for good reason.
I banged more metal on this ride than on any other.
Fortunately all the metal that hit rocks was the springs and skid plates and the front and rear bumpers.
The drive started out innocent enough. We met at the shell station not far from the RV park where we are staying. The weather was blustery with dark clouds rolling above the red rock mountains.
We headed east toward the mountains through a high end residential district of Moab. After a couple of miles we got onto the trail. The trail started out on a not bad dirt road into a pretty rock bound valley.
We drove through a nice canyon with steep walls.
After passing through the canyon we crossed a clear stream three times.
After the stream crossings we bounced along the road over rounded river rock
and some small ledges.
Eventually we began to climb more challenging ledges.
Eventually we came to the first major challenge “The Wall”
We looked it over for a while and decided that it was doable.
Dennis M went first.
He made it look easy.
Next it was Dennis K’s turn and he also went up with no problem.
Next it was my turn. It started out easy but just as I was almost over the top
my left rear tire slipped into the notch and the jeep slipped back and hung up on the belly pan.
The front wheels had no traction since the left one was in the air. I couldn’t back up so I had to be towed up the wall.
After that we continued along the trail over many more tough spots.
Then we came to another major obstacle “The Fall”
We decided that in the interest of safety we attached a tow strap to the rear of my jeep so if I started to do an endo the flip would be arrested.
I am not sure if it was really necessary but having the strap on the rear gave me a lot more confidence and I got down with no problem.
We also hooked the strap to Dennis K’s jeep with good results.
Of course Dennis M had no problem getting down the fall unassisted.
After just a short distance we dropped down the second fall.
It wasn’t quite as extreme as the first one so we didn’t bother with the strap.
We drove along the trail further, over more bumps and jumps until we found a place somewhat out of the wind to have lunch.
After lunch we continued along the trail.
We started to climb another steep rock ledge.
We had trouble with a large boulder so we took an easier route.
The trail didn’t let up. Once we passed one rough spot
there would be another. We also went around this one.
Here is Dennis spotting me over another steep drop.
Eventually we came back to the stream.
After crossing it, the road improved and before long we were done with the Steel Bender.
We had our final dinner with our friends in Moab at the Sunset Grill.
It was kind of pricy but the food was good.
We are leaving tomorrow morning for the trip back to Quartzsite. It will take us two days with a stop at Cameron, AZ.
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