Trip Report Hole in the Rock 4/24/21

[Hickey]

I've had this trail on my bucket list for many years. I almost ran it several years ago, but work got in the way. I decided this year was the year I'd make it happen. We ended up with a crew of four rigs for the trip. @Herzog and myself, plus two friends of mine from Albuquerque. HITR is halfway between my house and Albuquerque, so our travel times were nearly identical.

Shane and I set off on Friday the 23rd and met up in Spanish Fork Canyon. We continued toward Hanksville, then stayed on highway 95 until the turn for Halls Crossing. The Ferry was supposedly closed per the website, but after we passed Hanksville there were electric signs stating that it was running. Oh well.

Shane and I stopped a couple times near Hite Marina to take in the view.





You can see the boat ramp in the center of the picture, not very close to water.

We continued to Halls Crossing Marina campground where we met up with Scott and Tank from Albuquerque. They rolled in about 15 minutes after us. We set up camp in the primitive campground for the night, got the fire going, and enjoyed the fruits of @Cody and his labors. I should mention here that the sausages from BeWilder do not fit in the standard hotdog pie iron, but they do fit in the double wide sandwich iron just fine. 😎

 

[Hickey]

Saturday morn we dragged up our camp and headed for the trailhead. We were aired down and ready to roll about 10 am. We wanted to start earlier, but there was some issues with our original tow-rig parking plan.

Shane had to be back home in time for work on Tuesday, so we needed to stay on the throttle when possible to get the trail completed in 2 days.

We quickly made it to the Half-Track and grabbed some pictures. That thing is a really neat chunk of iron.



After that, we got truckin' and eventually hit the first named obstacle, "The Twister". It doesn't really look that bad, but all of us lifted the left rear tire coming down it.

 

[Hickey]

Various bumpy roads.
Various uppies and downies.

 

[Hickey]

The climb to Grey Mesa. You can see this sucker a pretty long ways before you reach it, and it's no joke. It appears to climb straight up to the sky and hook left on a precarious ledge. You're given way too much time to think about it's level of excitement before you reach it. Upon reaching it, I waited for no cameras or discussion. I wanted it over with before my Check Testicle Light came on. We've recently heard it referred to as "Poopy-Pants Hill". Up we go.



The worst part of Poopy-Pants Hill is a narrow spot on the right that's washed out a few times and has been somewhat repaired a few times. It's about a 100' drop off of that right side. There's a big rock in the middle of the trail that tilts most rigs toward that right side. Shane has a pic of me from behind that gives a pretty good idea of what it takes to give me a panic attack. Also, this hill is covered in marbles. Moqui Marbles. You know, for traction. 😬



The rest of the hill is only a little less intimidating.

 

[Hickey]

Once you reach Grey Mesa you can really cover some ground, especially if you have some Teraflex Speedbumps to soften the blows. You get some pretty amazing views of the San Juan river and it's massive horseshoe.

 

[Hickey]

After a whole lot of bouncing and squeaking you finally reach the iconic "Chute" formation. It's certainly not a difficult obstacle, it's just really cool.



We finally reached the end of the trail at about 5:30 pm.

 

[Hickey]

We turned back and stopped about a mile from the end to set up camp for the night in this neat little spot to block the wind. Both of these shots were taken at about 11 pm using the night mode on my iPhone 12. Notice the stars.

 

[Hickey]

I have more pics and vids of the return trip, but I'll ad those tomorrow.

 

[TRD270]

One of my favorite RME trips I went on think it was 10 years ago. Neat trail, lots of views

 

[Jinx]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

 

[DAA]

Nice! Wish I could have gone...

- DAA

 

[Pile of parts]

Nice! Glad you finally got to do it.

 

[Stephen]

Great looking trip! My memory of HITR is that it was bumpy! There wasn't a moment of smooth trail anywhere. But that was in a Samurai, so results may vary.

 

[moab_cj5]

Great report! Now I don't need to post mine...

 

[Hickey]

Great looking trip! My memory of HITR is that it was bumpy! There wasn't a moment of smooth trail anywhere. But that was in a Samurai, so results may vary.

That's true in most any vehicle. Big tires with low pressure and significantly upgraded bumpstops make a lot of difference.

 

[Spork]

I thought Poopy pants hill was going to have to have a bypass years ago when I did it, it was narrow back then.

 

[Herzog]

Longest, bumpiest slick rock trail I've ever been on. But totally worth it. I have photos to add soon.

 

[RockChucker]

So rad. I'd love to do this trail. How were you guys on fuel? My family did it back in '09 when I was on a 2 year vacation in Florida. They were getting close to fumes at the end. However, I think they took 3 days to do it, not 1 like you. Unless I misunderstood. It sounds like you guys boogied and did the whole trail in one day, then backtracked a bit to camp?

 

[Herzog]

So rad. I'd love to do this trail. How were you guys on fuel? My family did it back in '09 when I was on a 2 year vacation in Florida. They were getting close to fumes at the end. However, I think they took 3 days to do it, not 1 like you. Unless I misunderstood. It sounds like you guys boogied and did the whole trail in one day, then backtracked a bit to camp?

We took two days, we just back tracked a few miles to camp because the wind was really bad in the exposed areas that day.
Seems like everybody but me did pretty well on fuel. I was below half after the first day by the time we found camp but I had a 5 gal tank that I added that night so I was back to about below half (1/3rd tank) by the time we got out.

I headed back to the gas station at Halls Crossing to top off and noticed the timing to take the Ferry across was pretty decent so I did that while Hickey and the others headed to play in Moab for Sunday evening - Monday.

Taking the ferry across the lake was pretty awesome. I'd recommend it.

 

[DAA]

Longest, bumpiest slick rock trail I've ever been on. But totally worth it. I have photos to add soon.

Add the damn photos already .

- DAA