I won't bore you with all the details of the run up to the trip, but suffice it to say that originally it was going to be just my buddy Nate, his son Riley, my son Josh and I going to the Confluence, Devil's Kitchen and Elephant Hill by ourselves. Somewhere along the line that turned in to Nate, Riley, Josh, Me, our buddy Travis, his daugher Lexi, one of my daughter's Chantelle, and one more of my boys Eli. No problem, the more the merrier is often our moto.
We were obviously going to need a 2nd vehicle, not a bad idea anyway when venturing in to the back country. I had my choice of renting a Jeep of some sort in Moab, but I'm a cheap SoB(note, this is going to come back to haunt me). Or I could, let's call it 'borrow', a Grand Cherokee in Salt Lake and driving it down. Now, my experience with Jeeps ends with mid 50s CJs... I grew up driving my dad's '56 and I have a '46 CJ2A sitting in my shop that needs some work. I'll blame the whole thing on Nate because he said, "Grand Cherokees are trail rated, you should just get one of them".
Cut to the chase and we are headed to Moab trying to make it to the ranger station before 4:30pm in a Grand Cherokee Laredo with Quadra Trac I. Yup, ONE... as in grocery getter, all wheel drive, no low range here we come Elephant Hill... yee, frickin' ha!!!
A side note: Do NOT expect the Park Service to stay at their office until official closing time of 4:30pm on a Friday even if you call ahead and tell them you are going to be there before 4:30 but maybe just before 4:30. At 4:25pm, on their own clock, the place was shut down and pitch black. Oh well, we figured it out.
So after tanking up the rigs and the tummies in Moab we headed on out to Canyonlands and Elephant Hill. Did I mention I was driving a stock Cherokee Laredo? Did I mention that it doesn't have front lock in or a low range? No problem, I had been assured that a stock Pathfinder recently made the trip over Elephant Hill, how bad could it be?
Maybe we should heed this warning?
An hour later we found ourselves sitting at the start of Elephant Hill and my Spidey Sense was going off. Nice thing about Elephant Hill is that you know within about 50 yards how bad you've messed up. Me, well, I've never been to quick to learn. I sort of live by the moto, "It's bound to get better". We had to do some ramp building on some of the first steps, had to use liberal amounts of throttle and Travis had to spot me the whole way up and down the other side, but after about 4 hours... yes 4 hours we found ourselves headed down to the Devil's Kitchen campground with no damage to the Cherokee but my legs cramping and shaking from standing on the brakes. A wiser person would have turned around after the first 50 yards... but as my wife says, I've never been accused of being too wise.
We made it in to Devil's Kitchen well after dark and found the place empty as a ghost town. In fact, since leaving the trail head below Elephant Hill we had only seen one other person, a guy from Denmark who had hiked in and was lost. We pointed him towards the parking lot and off he went.
The Devil's Kitchen campground is a beautiful place. We stayed in camp 2, generally people say 4 is the best, but 2 was nice. Temps were down, it had rained on us some coming over the Hill and a breeze would blow through the tent every once in a while. Temps had dropped in to the upper 60s, remarkable for mid July in Canyonlands. Middle of the night brought rain storms. Once again I found that Nate and Riley can sleep through anything, even rain coming in their tent because they didn't put the rain fly on. They will say it was my fault because I told them it wouldn't rain... seems like Nate would learn not to listen to me.
Next morning, Saturday, we were up and off towards the Confluence trailhead. The run up through Devil's Lane is fun with rocky spots here or there spread between long stretches of rutted dirt. Scenery is beyond description. We quickly made it to the trialhead and hiked out to the Confluence. Again, not a soul in sight anywhere, we had the whole place to ourselves. Temps were holding in the upper 70s... what are the chances in mid July?
After getting back to the Jeeps (I use that term loosely when referring to the Laredo), we headed south with the idea of going up and over Bobby's Hole and making the loop through Beef Basin. Now at this point those of you who have been up Bobby's Hole are yelling at your monitor "NOOOO, don't do it". I however, sat in air conditioned comfort eating beef jerky and sucking on ice cold water listening to SiriusXM and looking at all the beautiful scenery as we headed down through Devil's Lane clueless to the horror that awaited me.
We finally saw another vehicle when we got to the petroglyphs. A Ford crew cab super duty with a big box on the back. The rocker panels were beat up pretty good on it, but the guy was taking it places I didn't think it could go. My heart was lifted as I thought that if that big lumbering thing can go over Bobby's Hole surely my Laredo can too.
We continued our push south finally reaching Bobby's Hole. Time for a scouting hike to see what the lines look like so Travis and I head up the hill. It took all of about 3 minutes for it to become completely apparent that the Grand Cherokee Laredo with QT1 had come to the end of its road. Bobby's Hole is a dirty, loose rock, big bolder, rough uphill with no option but going through it. Unlike Elephant Hill, it wasn't even tempting to take the Cherokee up it. Nate, just to rub my nose in it I'm sure, went up it in the Rubicon and then came back down and confirmed what my dim perception had already picked up on... I think the exact words were "Yea, we ain't going that way".
After having lunch we turned the rigs around and headed back, only option was going to be to traverse back over Elephant Hill. At this time my mind flashed back to the night before, the 4 hours of adrenaline induced shakes and more than a few times of "Dad, I'll get out and walk if that's ok". And what was worse, the big black clouds were brewing up and I figured we would have nice wet 'slick rock' for the trip back up Elephant Hill. We boogied our way up north. It was about 2:00pm and I remembered Elephant Hill being like 62 miles up onside and down the other so I knew it would be midnight before we were out.
Funny how once you've been through an adrenaline headache induced section of trail once it isn't nearly as bad or long or troublesome the 2nd time as you remember it. We made our way to the bottom of Elephant Hill and with only having to reset once or twice on a couple of the more technical sections found ourselves over the top and back on 'pavement' by 4:30. Even the giggling Rubicon driver commented on how it seemed a lot shorter than the night before.
All in all one of the best trips I've had in a long time. I will be the first to admit that I never understood the whole "Moab" thing or "Slickrock" thing. I get it now, 100%. See my other post in the General Section, I've started looking for a 4x4 so I don't have to 'borrow' anymore. Yes, the 4x4 part was terrific, but the scenery in that part of the Canyonlands is mind numbing spectacular... just incredible.
Anyone know what kind of lizard this guy is?
And finally, in case someone does a search for info on Elephant Hill, I'll put this in here. Do NOT take a stock Cherokee over Elephant Hill. Ok, I did it, but I wouldn't do it again. IF it had the ability to lock in to 4 wheel drive and it had a low range... maybe, but even so you are going to hear a lot of scraping, grinding and banging when you hit stuff. Just splurge for the modified Jeep rental in Moab and leave the grocery getter on the pavement.
Nate had his GoPro along so I put together a video compilation of some of the footage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV3jZPbcUHo
sled_guy
We were obviously going to need a 2nd vehicle, not a bad idea anyway when venturing in to the back country. I had my choice of renting a Jeep of some sort in Moab, but I'm a cheap SoB(note, this is going to come back to haunt me). Or I could, let's call it 'borrow', a Grand Cherokee in Salt Lake and driving it down. Now, my experience with Jeeps ends with mid 50s CJs... I grew up driving my dad's '56 and I have a '46 CJ2A sitting in my shop that needs some work. I'll blame the whole thing on Nate because he said, "Grand Cherokees are trail rated, you should just get one of them".
Cut to the chase and we are headed to Moab trying to make it to the ranger station before 4:30pm in a Grand Cherokee Laredo with Quadra Trac I. Yup, ONE... as in grocery getter, all wheel drive, no low range here we come Elephant Hill... yee, frickin' ha!!!
A side note: Do NOT expect the Park Service to stay at their office until official closing time of 4:30pm on a Friday even if you call ahead and tell them you are going to be there before 4:30 but maybe just before 4:30. At 4:25pm, on their own clock, the place was shut down and pitch black. Oh well, we figured it out.
So after tanking up the rigs and the tummies in Moab we headed on out to Canyonlands and Elephant Hill. Did I mention I was driving a stock Cherokee Laredo? Did I mention that it doesn't have front lock in or a low range? No problem, I had been assured that a stock Pathfinder recently made the trip over Elephant Hill, how bad could it be?
Maybe we should heed this warning?
An hour later we found ourselves sitting at the start of Elephant Hill and my Spidey Sense was going off. Nice thing about Elephant Hill is that you know within about 50 yards how bad you've messed up. Me, well, I've never been to quick to learn. I sort of live by the moto, "It's bound to get better". We had to do some ramp building on some of the first steps, had to use liberal amounts of throttle and Travis had to spot me the whole way up and down the other side, but after about 4 hours... yes 4 hours we found ourselves headed down to the Devil's Kitchen campground with no damage to the Cherokee but my legs cramping and shaking from standing on the brakes. A wiser person would have turned around after the first 50 yards... but as my wife says, I've never been accused of being too wise.
We made it in to Devil's Kitchen well after dark and found the place empty as a ghost town. In fact, since leaving the trail head below Elephant Hill we had only seen one other person, a guy from Denmark who had hiked in and was lost. We pointed him towards the parking lot and off he went.
The Devil's Kitchen campground is a beautiful place. We stayed in camp 2, generally people say 4 is the best, but 2 was nice. Temps were down, it had rained on us some coming over the Hill and a breeze would blow through the tent every once in a while. Temps had dropped in to the upper 60s, remarkable for mid July in Canyonlands. Middle of the night brought rain storms. Once again I found that Nate and Riley can sleep through anything, even rain coming in their tent because they didn't put the rain fly on. They will say it was my fault because I told them it wouldn't rain... seems like Nate would learn not to listen to me.
Next morning, Saturday, we were up and off towards the Confluence trailhead. The run up through Devil's Lane is fun with rocky spots here or there spread between long stretches of rutted dirt. Scenery is beyond description. We quickly made it to the trialhead and hiked out to the Confluence. Again, not a soul in sight anywhere, we had the whole place to ourselves. Temps were holding in the upper 70s... what are the chances in mid July?
After getting back to the Jeeps (I use that term loosely when referring to the Laredo), we headed south with the idea of going up and over Bobby's Hole and making the loop through Beef Basin. Now at this point those of you who have been up Bobby's Hole are yelling at your monitor "NOOOO, don't do it". I however, sat in air conditioned comfort eating beef jerky and sucking on ice cold water listening to SiriusXM and looking at all the beautiful scenery as we headed down through Devil's Lane clueless to the horror that awaited me.
We finally saw another vehicle when we got to the petroglyphs. A Ford crew cab super duty with a big box on the back. The rocker panels were beat up pretty good on it, but the guy was taking it places I didn't think it could go. My heart was lifted as I thought that if that big lumbering thing can go over Bobby's Hole surely my Laredo can too.
We continued our push south finally reaching Bobby's Hole. Time for a scouting hike to see what the lines look like so Travis and I head up the hill. It took all of about 3 minutes for it to become completely apparent that the Grand Cherokee Laredo with QT1 had come to the end of its road. Bobby's Hole is a dirty, loose rock, big bolder, rough uphill with no option but going through it. Unlike Elephant Hill, it wasn't even tempting to take the Cherokee up it. Nate, just to rub my nose in it I'm sure, went up it in the Rubicon and then came back down and confirmed what my dim perception had already picked up on... I think the exact words were "Yea, we ain't going that way".
After having lunch we turned the rigs around and headed back, only option was going to be to traverse back over Elephant Hill. At this time my mind flashed back to the night before, the 4 hours of adrenaline induced shakes and more than a few times of "Dad, I'll get out and walk if that's ok". And what was worse, the big black clouds were brewing up and I figured we would have nice wet 'slick rock' for the trip back up Elephant Hill. We boogied our way up north. It was about 2:00pm and I remembered Elephant Hill being like 62 miles up onside and down the other so I knew it would be midnight before we were out.
Funny how once you've been through an adrenaline headache induced section of trail once it isn't nearly as bad or long or troublesome the 2nd time as you remember it. We made our way to the bottom of Elephant Hill and with only having to reset once or twice on a couple of the more technical sections found ourselves over the top and back on 'pavement' by 4:30. Even the giggling Rubicon driver commented on how it seemed a lot shorter than the night before.
All in all one of the best trips I've had in a long time. I will be the first to admit that I never understood the whole "Moab" thing or "Slickrock" thing. I get it now, 100%. See my other post in the General Section, I've started looking for a 4x4 so I don't have to 'borrow' anymore. Yes, the 4x4 part was terrific, but the scenery in that part of the Canyonlands is mind numbing spectacular... just incredible.
Anyone know what kind of lizard this guy is?
And finally, in case someone does a search for info on Elephant Hill, I'll put this in here. Do NOT take a stock Cherokee over Elephant Hill. Ok, I did it, but I wouldn't do it again. IF it had the ability to lock in to 4 wheel drive and it had a low range... maybe, but even so you are going to hear a lot of scraping, grinding and banging when you hit stuff. Just splurge for the modified Jeep rental in Moab and leave the grocery getter on the pavement.
Nate had his GoPro along so I put together a video compilation of some of the footage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV3jZPbcUHo
sled_guy
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