Hole-In-The-Rock Solo Mission 5/28

[Lord Al Sorna]

Ever since I learned of this trail I have been itching to go explore this area and experience it myself. Using the long weekend as an opportunity at make a fun trip to the Lake Powell outskirts sounded like the perfect plan, so my girlfriend and I loaded up my Taco, and we headed south with our four-legged copilots on a solo mission to reach HITR.
We left Park City at 3pm, and drove down to green river Friday night. We planned on camping in an area we had passed through on a previous trip to Moab, and it payed off very well. We had a relaxing evening checking out the Crystal Geyser, and camping on the banks of the Green River.







Saturday morning we broke camp and headed south on SR24 toward Hanksville. We passed by the reef area of the SR Swell, and some very interesting rock formations along the way. The Henry mountains also gave us a dramatic showing of different color schemes on our way.





We drove to Halls Crossing via SR95 and SR 276, where we stopped for fuel and prepared for the trail ahead. We found and alternative road that meets the trail and drove in a couple of miles, where we took a quick lunch break. Due to me having older GPS information and our alternative entrance from the highway, we made our way toward Lake Canyon.


Lake Canyon was very dramatic and beautiful, and we were glad we made the accidental detour. We were able to spot multiple interesting varieties of lizard, and came across the CRAZY washout at the end of the old road. The magnitude of erosion and the amount of soil that washed away from this spot is very interesting.










Upon the point of arriving at the washout I realized our mistake. We turned around and found the proper road at halftrack junction : )

 

[Lord Al Sorna]

The scenery of this trail is as beautiful as it is vast, and the trail itself is very fun and technical over its entire length. We pushed HARD on this trail with the goal of camping out at the very end. In retrospect, it would have been much better to plan more time to follow the trail. It is hard on the body to push through like we did, but well worth it.







It was always very moving to think about the Mormon pioneers that crossed through this area. I confess to not knowing much of the history of this expedition. Nonetheless, I have such a huge respect and admiration of the spirits of the people who made that voyage.





I am standing on a wagon road with the copilots. A WAGON ROAD! Talk about technical driving…


It took us a total of 6 hours of four-wheel driving with only very minor stops along the way to take breaks, attend to the dogs, and check out all of the cool natural and man-made wonders along the way.






We achieved our goal for the day, rolling up to the end of the trail and overlook of the HITR right at dinner time. The question that still lingers in my mind is this: “How in THE HELL did those pioneers get wagons down that?!?”








At this point is where the weather ceased to cooperate with our weekend itinerary. Anyone who was in S Utah over Memorial Day weekend will know exactly what I am about to mention. The winds had progressively picked up throughout the day, and by this time they had become quite strong. There was sand and grit blowing all over, we had to weigh everything down that we took out of the truck. Then I improvised a solution for dinner!

My truck bed became an “oven” with the stove and food safely tucked out of the weather. I shut the lid on the topper after a quick stir, and we managed to keep most of the blowing sand out of dinner.  The selection for the evening was a quick-and-dirty stir fry of chicken, peppers, onions, and carrot. It came out delicioso!
The end of the trail is out on a bit of a point, and we were very exposed to the winds that were growing stronger by the minute. This led us to backtrack to an alternative camp spot in a slot canyon. We set up shop here, mostly protected from the wind, and camped for the evening.


*Take note of strategic placement of truck and bush to block wind.

 

[Lord Al Sorna]

Sunday we made our way out the trail, and took in more of the amazing scenery. We pushed hard back out, with the goal of linking this trail to the Blue Notch Canyon trail up the highway. It was 6 hours back out, with roughly the same pace. It was easier on us this day because we started fresh and ready for the ROUGH road that lay ahead of us.

Can YOU spot the trail? Waldo is also in there somewhere…



We hit Halls Crossing again, and re-fueled. The wind had still been growing progressively stronger during the day. The ranger at the fee station informed us that the winds were going to reach their worst later on that evening. By the time we made it back to Halls Crossing the wind was a sustained 40-45 mph. Initially, the plan was to camp on the shore of the lake via Blue Notch Canyon. This area would be VERY exposed to the winds, and thus we made the decision to tuck-tail and just head for home. We never regretted this…


We took the last ferry across the lake to get home, which was a mini-adventure in the 3-5’ rolling whitecaps on the lake. Spray was whipping up over the boat all the way across the lake (veeery refreshing). The wind was pushing us straight at the landing piers of the ferry at the end of the crossing, and the boat ended up ramming the uprights at an alarming velocity. No harm done, just playing bumper boats on a big scale

There was a sweet Disco I on the ferry with us, note the RTT. Happy trails!




We cruised home, enjoying the lack of traffic that we both knew would have plagued us on our way back the day after.

What a trip!! This is one of the most unique and beautiful 4x4 trails I have been on to date, and it sets the bar very high! Additional photos can be viewed HERE

 

[SAMI]

:LIKE:

Great trip report!

 

[YOUKNOW]

Thats a cool trip.

 

[PolarXJ]

Nice!

 

[Greg]

Awesome, HITR is great fun! Pretty brave of you to take it on solo, too. Thanks for sharing your trip with us, it makes me want to get back there again.

 

[jeeper]

That looks like a lot of fun. It made me want to try it..

 

[Lord Al Sorna]

Pretty brave of you to take it on solo, too.

Toyota reliability!

It made me want to try it..

TRY IT! You'll like it Unbelievably cool trail...

Thanks for the comments all!

 

[Houndoc]

a great reminder of an unfinished item on my to do list.

 

[Robert T]

Its one of my favorite trails of all time, if your into reading at all try the undaunted, its a good book that makes you wonder and also ponder what they went through making the trek. After running the trail and reading it, its cool to put a picture with the book and know where they are going through.

 

[sixstringsteve]

It's on the top of my list of trails I want to do. I just need to dial in a few more bugs on my rig then it'll be ready. I won't be doing it solo though, even in a toyota

 

[lewis]

Nice, your nuts to go all the way out there by yourself. I did the trail earlier this year and agree it is a good one.

 

[Lord Al Sorna]

undaunted, its a good book that makes you wonder and also ponder what they went through making the trek.

I will definitely give this a read


Hehe... I am pretty crazy sometimes, but for all of you who think I am completely off my rocker for going out there solo, just know that I was backed up by a couple of other groups we ran into out there, as well as a borrowed satellite phone. If s**t really hit the fan I could have gotten out of there...

 

[cruiseroutfit]

While Undaunted is a great read, is historical fiction i.e. doesn't really present many of the actual facts and time lines of the journey. I'm an engineer at heart with little emotion and I still enjoyed the book however I found David Miller's book far more enlightening.

A few more references here:
http://www.expeditionutah.com/featured-trails/hole-in-the-rock-4x4-trail/

 

[dunatic67]

Nice pics and write up. We were down there also and saw you drive by. The wind was terrible, Friday day and saturday morning were nice but that ended fast.
I've read undaunted and it is a good read, although very long. I've wanted to read other historical accounts but haven't gotten to it yet.
I want to run the west side from Escalante later this year and be able to hike down THIIR. There is also a marker on that side where an accident occured with a scout troop years ago (one of my buddies fathers was one of the scouts involved).