Moab + soon = Where?

[PHO2GR4]

(Thread title edited to let y'all know about the photo essays)

Hi Kids!

I'm leaving early on my road trip...next Tuesday, May 8th, to be exact. I'm taking my sweet time to get down to Moab.

The thing is, with all of the posts about campgrounds and trails and convoys and stuff, my...what do you call it...BRAIN...has gotten all confused about when and where the VX crowd will actually be meeting.

Where da VXs at?

Does anyone have a concrete date, time and place where my camera can capture the most VXs in one spot? If so, please either post here or PM me with the details. I'll want to print some stuff out and add phone numbers to my high-tech cell phone device thingie.

[nfpgasmask]

You got my info dude...

Bart

[tomdietrying]

I think the most VXs in one spot will be Tuesday at Elephant Hill.

Have a safe trip and see you at the Hill.

Peace.
Tom

[biju]

^ yes.

Meet at the Moab McDonalds at 8am.

as far as the other days, i'm sure there will be discussions over dinner/drinks on what to do, etc.

-biju.

[PHO2GR4]

People actually get up before 8:00 am?

Oh wait...I meant to say...people actually eat at McDonalds?

:p

Is this mysterious "Elephant Hill" easy to find?

[Triathlete]

Noone really eats at McD's...just use their parking lot to meet! :bwgy:
Elephant Hill is VERY easy to find...just follow the VX in front of you.
From posts on the 4X4Wire sounds like most of the other ZuZoo peeps will be planning their next days trips around the campfire at the Arche View campground.

[Locomigo]

Or if you're me... you have a plan of the trails you want to run and will throw it out to others to join you.

Im envisioning, small groups (3-5 rigs, maybe more, who knows), and covering a LOT of ground. With the small groups the only limiting factor is fuel. :cool:

I would expect that 2 trails a day isnt out of the question and in some areas; 3-D, Golden Spike, (those are easily 3 trails), but a small group on 3D will be done by lunch time. :cool: Then back to the condo, grab a bite and hit something else in the aftenoon, maybe take a quick dip in the pool.

Heck, I cant tell you the possibilities that exist without a structured plan, as they are numerous. I cant speak for anyone else, but it is entirely refreshing to me to actually be on vacation during vacation instead of working... :thumbup:

I imagine, that I will venture up to the CG after dinner each night and see what is happening and if there is more interesting things than what I was thinking.

[ZEUS]

If you want to cover some ground, try this route... Head over Hurrah Pass and complete Chicken Corners. Then when you finish that, move on to Lockhart Basin (the trailhead is right off of Chicken Corners). The beginning canyon of Lockhart is pretty technical (about a mile or so) - after that, it's a cakewalk. I did this last month and we clocked about 60 miles of trail plus the drive back on pavement in one day!! About 10 hours of seat time and walking, I figure. The Lockhart Basin trail takes you from Moab and into Canyonlands - It is so long and generally an easy trail but I am glad I did it because the scenary is insane - the weather changed 3 times while we were on that trail because of how much backcountry we covered in that duration of time! It was weird to see people again after that run.

[Locomigo]

Yeah we had considered that since we wont have time on the exploration pre-Moab run to hit it on the way into Moab.

Just FYI, the pre-Moab run starts for us on Fri 5/11.
Depart Denver, arrive Capitol Reef, set up camp @ Fruita, do a little hiking and relax.
5/12, meet up with a few friends coming down from SLC, travel down Notem-Bullfrog road, take ferry across and gather fuel supplies @ Halls Crossing, get down to the Spanish Fort and set up camp.
5/13, Run Hole in the Rock trail into Cheese Camp and the overlook. Head back out to the Chute/amphitheater and set up camp.
5/14, get back out to the main road and either:
A) Head up through Cottonwood Wash/Beef Basin/Bobby's Hole as far as we can until daylight wanes and setup camp.
B) Check out Natural Bridges and do that loop (I understand that is 1.5-2hrs), then take highway around Blanding and Monticello and find somewhere to camp.
5.15, is planned to run Elephant Hill. Whether that is entered from the park (I will be able to meet up with some others that plan to run the trail that day) with option B
Option A enters the trail from the west on the SW corner of the loop. This misses the first half of the trail, but allows to see some of it, perhaps meet up with the rest of the folks we know running the trail.
Either way we plan on getting to Moab Tue eve.

I am stoked, because I have never seen these areas before, and it will all be new sights/territory for me until I get to Moab.

After that, I am fairly open to trails:

[nfpgasmask]

Yeah, hopefully I can bring up the rear, as I will have my video cam on dash so I would love to have nothing but a huge line of VXes in front of me the whole time!

Bart

[BigSwede]

Is this mysterious "Elephant Hill" easy to find?
Just so you know, Elephant Hill is about 75 miles from McDonalds...so on your own it might be difficult to find.

McDonalds, OTOH, is pretty easy to find. ;)

[PHO2GR4]

I'm leaving Seattle tomorrow morning, pointed approximately south - southeast. I'm going to follow some main highways down through eastern Washington and north-eastern Oregon, stopping for the night wherever I get tired. My two dogs are pretty excited. They know we're going somewhere, because I've been gathering my gear all day.

I'm looking forward to meeting those of you heading to Moab! This should be a blast.

A few issues:
1) I hate packing. I always feel like I'm forgetting something important...which is dumb, since there's a Wal-Mart on every corner these days, where you can pick up anything you left behind.
2) Gas prices! Holy crap! Nothing like taking a 2 1/2 week raod trip when gas prices are at an all-time record high. And I'll be in a loaded Vehicross, which gets bad mileage to begin with.
3) Already bought my regular-strength, non-Utah beer. :cool:

See y'all on the flipside!

[Ldub]

I'm leaving Seattle tomorrow morning, pointed approximately south - southeast. I'm going to follow some main highways down through eastern Washington and north-eastern Oregon, stopping for the night wherever I get tired. My two dogs are pretty excited. They know we're going somewhere, because I've been gathering my gear all day.

I'm looking forward to meeting those of you heading to Moab! This should be a blast.

A few issues:
1) I hate packing. I always feel like I'm forgetting something important...which is dumb, since there's a Wal-Mart on every corner these days, where you can pick up anything you left behind.
2) Gas prices! Holy crap! Nothing like taking a 2 1/2 week raod trip when gas prices are at an all-time record high. And I'll be in a loaded Vehicross, which gets bad mileage to begin with.
3) Already bought my regular-strength, non-Utah beer. :cool:

See y'all on the flipside!

Lookin' forward to it !... I'm really starting to get the "Moab fever", almost did laundry today, but took a nap instead. :rolleyes:
OK, maybe tomorrow I'll REALLY get the Moab fever...right after I read my book on overcoming procrastination.

[Knigh7s]

overcoming procrastination.

Whats that? :_beer:

[Triathlete]

Start saving now for 2008!!!!!!
Every body have a safe trip, have LOTS of fun and make sure and post pics daily!

[Knigh7s]

Start saving now for 2008!!!!!!
Every body have a safe trip, have LOTS of fun and make sure and post pics daily!

Yuppers!!

Sucks I can't make it to any trips this month. But next year... I'd be damned if I'm not prepared to go!!!

[biju]

b safe. see you soon.

-b.

[PHO2GR4]

I took my time driving today. I enjoy getting the dogs outside, and stopping for coffee, and visiting all of the "Historic Centers" of all of the old towns. Today I spent time in Yakima, WA, Pendleton, OR and now Baker City, OR. I found a "quaint" hotel called the Oregon Trail Hotel, smack in the heart of historic Baker City. It is conveniently located next to the Oregon Trail Restaurant!

(BTW, it's only $35/night, and includes breakfast at the restaurant next door. Sweet! And free wi-fi!)

So I pulled up to my room, and ALL of the restaurant employees run outside and start asking about the VX. They wanted to know if it was a Porsche or a Lexus or something. I guess de-badging really does make the VX into a Mystery Mobile. I don't know what the restaurant customers were doing this whole time, but the employees pretty much hung out with me in the parking lot for 20 minutes or so, checking out my ride.

And this is just Day One...

See y'all soon!

[Triathlete]

Did you swing through Walla Walla and pick up some sweet onions?

[PHO2GR4]

I love Walla Walla sweet onions! I think we just made them the official vegetable of the State of Washington, too...

No, really.

I didn't go there today, though. I headed south from the Richland/Pasco area right to Pendleton. After goofing off there for an hour or so, I came here to fabulous Baker City. There's gold in them thar hills!

[PHO2GR4]

Okay, here are some photos of the road trip so far:
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/bakercity.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/bakercity.jpg)

That's the VX at sunset, outside of Baker City, Oregon. Here are a couple of others, with my diggity dogs:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/passengers.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/passengers.jpg) http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/baker2.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/baker2.jpg)

And here is the world-famous Oregon Trail Motel. I still can't believe that the $35/night included a real breakfast.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/oregontrail.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/oregontrail.jpg)

[PHO2GR4]

I liked Idaho more than I expected. I was listening to an audiobook on my stereo...John Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley", which is his non-fiction account of a road trip he took across America with his dog, Charley. I thought that would be appropriate under the circumstances.

My first stop was in a town called Mountain Home. I liked the feel of it immediately. Here's a quick shot:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/mthome.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/mthome.jpg)

The dogs needed a walk, so I went to a large, grassy park and let them out for awhile. I was immediately surrounded by three lovely women, all of whom were in love with my dogs and my VX. Which left me wondering: what if I'd been at the park WITHOUT dogs or VXs? Any love left for me???

I'll never know.

After that nice break, we continued down to Twin Falls, which also impressed me with its beauty. I honestly had no idea that Idaho had so much pretty scenery! Here's the VX at sunset:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/sunset.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/sunset.jpg)

And here's a shot that reminded me of the Devil's Tower scenes in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind":

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/shoshonefalls.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/shoshonefalls.jpg)

Okay, that was a stretch. Anyway. Twin Falls ended up being a popular place for Russian and Bosnian refugees. There's probably a good reason why they ended up there, specifically. But it seemed like every other person I met was from Russia. That means that the women are all tall, slender and gorgeous, and the men are short and pissed-off-looking.

Here's one last glamour shot, just for fun. Don't look too closely or you'll see lots of bug guts:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/shoshone2.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/shoshone2.jpg)

If you ever visit Twin Falls, be sure to stop at a coffee house called "Java". It had GREAT espresso (which is a huge compliment, coming from a Seattleite). It also has incredible breakfasts. And to me, breakfast ranks up there as one of the top three meals of the day!

[PHO2GR4]

I left Twin Falls, Idaho this morning, after snapping one last photo of Shoshone Falls:
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/shoshone3.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/shoshone3.jpg)

Pretty place.

Then I made the LONG drive into Utah. Unfortunately, there really wasn't any way for me to avoid passing Salt Lake City. I'm sure that the city itself is fine, but MAN the whole Salt Lake area is butt-ugly. (Now please understand, that is just my OPINION, based on the fact that I have eyes and can see that it is butt-ugly.)

And here's a surprising bit of trivia: did you know that the state of Utah has ANOTHER lake, which is not salty?

You did? Liar. No you didn't.

It's in the area south of Salt Lake City, in the creatively-named "Utah Valley" region. In another fit of creativity, they named this huge lake "Lake Utah". Here is proof that this non-salty lake exists:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/lakeutah.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/lakeutah.jpg)

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/lakeutah2.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/lakeutah2.jpg)

After the post-apocalyptic barren wasteland that is the Great Salt Lake, this Utah Valley region is strikingly pretty. As the guidebook says, "Adventure Awaits!" I haven't found out which TYPE of adventure is awaiting me, but I'm staying here for a couple of days to find out! I'm in Provo, Utah tonight. I want to explore this city and the city of Orem, just a few miles north, tomorrow. "Orem: Gateway to Lehi!"

Oh...and speaking of Mormons, I found out that Brigham Young University...the alma mater of my hero, 49ers QB Steve Young...is right here in Provo! I guess I assumed it, like everything else in Utah, was in Salt Lake City. Wrong! It's right up the road from my hotel. Here's proof:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/BYU.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/BYU.jpg)

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/BYU2.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/BYU2.jpg)

As I was taking these photos, the Dean of Admissions came up to me and asked if I was a student there. I said no, but would it be possible to admit my dogs? He looked thoughtfully at both of them and decided that it would be okay if my WHITE dog attended...

[Triathlete]

Utah Lake is where they had the first (and last) Ironman Utah. The lake is pretty shallow (by lake standards) and is easily churned into a washing machine spin cycle with a little wind. On race day we had 5-6 foot chop and shortly after the start all the course marker buey blew away. Then the unfortunate happened and they found the lifeless body of on of the competitors less than 25 yards from the start. The swim was canceled and they sent boats out to turn us around (but not give a ride). So we had to find our way back with no bueys to navigate by. That is my memory of Utah Lake .
There is some great scenery in the area. Shoot up over the mountains eastward and you have some great state parks go south and you have Glenn Canyon. I slept in the VX in the Glenn Canyon area and saw the most beautiful moonless star filled sky ever!

[biju]

Beautiful pix!!! Beautiful dogs!!!!!!

Can't wait to meet you/them in a few!

-biju.

[PHO2GR4]

Hey Triathlete and Biju!

Thanks for the comments. Lake Utah IS shallow and really windy. My guess is that the unfortunate competitor probably hit or was blown into a rock or log right at the start. That's a sad story.

This morning I'm headed to the Provo River, to look for trout!

Maybe more photos soon...

[nfpgasmask]

Yes! Very nice! I will be chronicaling our trip too! My wife just bought a nice macro for her D50 so we should have some rockin shots of the trip!

See you soon!

Bart

[PHO2GR4]

I'm really getting into the rhythm of this road trip. Tonight I'm sipping a glass of fine Port...Fonseca Bin No. 27, "Finest Reserve"...out of a paper cup in my hotel room. Ah, the ambience of the Provo Sleep Inn!

Today I got an early start, because I wanted to hit the free breakfast buffet at the hotel. (Yogurt, bananas and a toasted bagel with strawberry jam. Dude!)

Then it was out into the wilderness. There's a river that runs into Provo, cleverly named the Provo River. If you follow this river out of town you'll venture into a lovely valley, named...you guessed it...the Provo Valley. It's really pretty! Why doesn't Utah promote these places?!? I've never even heard of this region before now. Here's a peek:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/provovalley.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/provovalley.jpg)

In Seattle we only have two seasons: a brief summer and a long, dreary winter-ish mess. In the Utah Valley region, they have FOUR seasons. I can only imagine how lovely this same view would look in the fall and the winter!

After this stop, we cruised up to the Sundance Resort to have lunch with Robert Redford. Sadly, he wasn't there...must have missed my email. But here are my dogs waiting for the lift to the top of the ski run:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/sundance.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/sundance.jpg)

And here's me, with the Sundance Resort area behind me:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/sundance2.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/sundance2.jpg)

Past Sundance, further down the Provo Valley, you run into Deer Creek...or at least, what USED to be Deer Creek until they dammed it up. Now it's the Deer Creek Reservoir. It provides the areas below with hydroelectric power AND a cool place to go boating and fishing. Yuki stayed in the VX because the AC was on full-blast:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/deercreek1.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/deercreek1.jpg)

And then...past the reservoir...you reach sunny Heber City! Yes, THE Heber City! Home of Granny's Drive-In! I drove in and had the world's best BLT. The bread was toasted, the bacon was lean and crisp, the tomatoes were fresh...smack smack smack...they're so perky, I love that. Granny wasn't there, I guess because she was somewhere with Redford.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/grannys.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/grannys.jpg)

I also had a thick, cold, incredibly delicious 'Grasshopper Milkshake'. (That's a mint shake with crushed Oreo cookies.) (Perfect in 92 degree weather.) And you should have SEEN the girl making the milkshakes! Oh my GOD she was gorgeous! And here she is, working in a drive-in, in Heber City...population, like, 48...when she could be a supermodel anywhere else.

Sigh. I would have converted to Mormonism for her.

Last stop: Wasatch Mountain State Park. A relaxing drive before heading back to Provo and Orem:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/wasatch.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/wasatch.jpg)

BTW, tonight I ate dinner at a tiny Mexican restaurant (the restaurant was tiny; not the Mexicans) called Beto's. I had a 'machaca torta', which is shredded beef with eggs, vegetables and salsa. Tasty. I don't know why food always tastes better on road trips, but I've really been lucking into some great local diners. I promised myself I would NOT hit any national fast-food chains on this trip, and so far I've done a good job at finding small mom-and-pop (and granny) places.

More tomorrow!

[PHO2GR4]

Since NONE of the photo essay posts I've made have anything to do with Moab (yet), I created a new thread here:

http://vehicross.info/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11150

As always, feedback is welcomed...

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/lehichicken.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/lehichicken.jpg)