Steel Bender 04-01-14

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.

Top of The World 03-31-14

Several of the others in the group left this morning.
The only ones left were Cheryl and Dennis M, Becky and Dennis K, Patti and I.
We met at the Lions Park parking lot at the intersection of 191 and 128 at 9:00 and headed east on 128 along the river again. We were headed for the Top of the World for lunch.
Patti and I had driven this trail last year but none of the others had so we guided the trip.

Once again we stopped at the Dewey Bridge to air down.

This time however we followed the road to the south. The first five miles were on a graded dirt road.
Along the way we passed these folks herding some cattle up the road.

We continued along the road

until we came to the turnoff for the top of the world.

The trail starts out as a narrow dirt road but quickly becomes rocky with many steep ledges to climb.

Here are a few pictures of the trail.

Patti got another flower picture along the way.

Eventually after a bone jarring couple of miles we came to the top of the world at 7088 feet, just in time for lunch.

The views are great.

Here is Dennis M standing on a rock overhang enjoying the view.

The trail has a loop at the top that connects back to the main trail about a mile back down the mountain. It is actually rougher than the trail going up although the pictures don’t show how rough it actually is.

 

This trail is probably the bumpiest trail that we have driven on even though the obstacles aren’t as technically challenging.

We got back to the highway around 2:30, aired up the tires and headed for home. Even though the ride wasn’t very long we are still pretty beat up.

Around 5:00 we went to dinner at the Szechuan Chinese Restaurant. The food was fantastic and we ate every bit.

Tomorrow will be our last ride in Moab for this year. We will be following Dennis M, on a trail ominously called “Steel Bender”.

I’ll let you know how that works out.

Dome Plateau 03-29-14

I was so tired after yesterdays ride that I didn’t do a blog last evening.

WE met the group at The Lions Park; parking lot at junction of highway 128 and 191 at 8:00. There were 9 jeeps. Once every one was there we headed east on highway 128 along the Colorado River. The drive along 128 is very scenic.

 

We stopped 30 miles out at the highway and stopped at the old Dewey Bridge

to air the tires down.

From there we crossed the river on the new bridge and turned left onto the Dome Plateau trail.

The beginning of the trail is pretty rough That’s why we didn’t get any pictures; Patti was to busy holding on.

We climbed a steep hill over some rocky ledges and across some slick rock.
After a couple of miles the trail got better.
We passed a small arch on the right.

And followed the sandy road to the west.
At one point we came to a steep drop down some small ledges.
The drivers got out and inspected the rout.

We decided that the best way was straight down the right side.

It turned out to be a piece of cake.

At the bottom we grossed Yellow Jacket canyon.

We continued along the dirt road

and turned onto a short track to La Boca Arch

After leaving La Boca Arch we followed a few dirt roads some small and narrow and some wide and graded

until we got to the lunch spot at a fantastic over look of the Colorado and the mountains and mesa’s beyond.

Patti tried this panoramic shot of the view.

I’m not sure how well that worked out.

Every one seamed to enjoy the views.

This is probably what she is seeing below her.

I coxed Dennis over near the edge to have a look. He has a  problem with height so this was a big step for him and he did very good to get as close to the edge as he did.

After lunch we retraced our path and drove about 3 miles on smooth dirt roads the flats to Cave Springs where we stopped to let everyone explore the caves.

This one has a spring inside that feeds a water trough for cattle.

 

In this one has a very large room where native people lived.

 

It looks like a perfect spot for a native settlement as there is water, shelter, plenty of game in the area and large flats for growing corn and beans etc.

We left the caves and continued along the road past the whale,

up a steep rock climb and along a graded road to an old mining area where the buildings were built from railroad ties.

While we were there a cowboy came by with his horse.

After checking out the buildings we continued on this road for a couple more miles until we came back to 128 where we stopped to pump the tires back up.

From there we got on the highway and headed west looking for the cave house.
I had been there once before but couldn’t remember exactly where it was so I had to pull off and check a out a couple spots before I finally found it.

The owner started the project several years ago but ran into trouble because the rock was too unstable and part of the roof collapsed.

The county pulled his permit and he had to stop construction. It looks like it would have been a pretty neat place if the builder had chosen better rock to excavate.

The square things in the sealing were the builders attempt to stabilize the rock but it failed.

From the cave house we headed for Moab enjoying the scenery along the way.

Patti took some wildflower pictures during the ride.

We got back to Plan B around 5:00. At 5:30 we went to dinner at the Branding Iron Steak House.

Today we are taking the day off. We went to Milts for lunch; Yum.
Patti is presently doing laundry while I finish the blog. When we left to go to lunch I tried to save the draft but hit the Publish button instead. so if you only got the first half, I’m sorry. 

Since Patti is doing laundry I had to proof read this my self. Therefore there are probably several mistakes.