Trip Report Montezuma Canyon, Alstrom Point, Smokey Mountain Rd to Left Hand Collett Canyon (Oct 15-18)

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
Let's kick off this report! First of all, what a great group with great people. It was really good to meet up and hang out with all of you.

This was quite the journey for the tacocart. I'm very happy to report that it made the whole trip with no issues other than one broken exhaust hanger from that washboard road between the Collett Canyon turn off and Escalante... X-D those were some epic washboards.

As per the trip plan, we all met in Moab @ 9am and proceeded to Monticello. It's been a while since I've been through Monticello but what a sight for sore eyes after all the development in Moab. Montezuma Canyon turn off was just outside of town where we dropped down into the beautiful canyon. There are quite a few really nice homestead ranches down there that I kept a jealous eye on. What a neat area.

From there we stopped to check out a few dwellings and the big kiva that you can't really miss. We stopped often which was nice because the stretch from Bluff to Paige was a long one.

cVO1.jpg


c0wc.jpg


copk.jpg


c5qA.jpg


cCa3.jpg


cQ49.jpg


cH96.jpg


cIUU.jpg


cYQg.jpg


czbC.jpg


c4wD.jpg


cGBu.jpg


cK7X.jpg


cWqe.jpg


cpa7.jpg


c7An.jpg
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
End of day 1 put us into Paige AZ wheres we split. 1 group went to find camp and 1 group stayed to eat burgers before heading into Big Water.

Day 2 we headed toward Alstrom Point with a detour to try to get to the beach and find shoreline. After finding water access we headed to Alstrom Point. Since we hit Alstrom near noon we made the decision to head further up Kelly Grade & Smokey Mountain Road to find camp.

cE9q.jpg

cLtK.jpg

cuHZ.jpg

cObM.jpg

cbxz.jpg

cgX8.jpg

ch7r.jpg

cryH.jpg

c9aS.jpg

cJAb.jpg

cMJ5.jpg

citw.jpg

clHL.jpg
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
Day 3 we left camp near Smokey Mountain and headed toward Left Hand Collett Canyon. On this morning we were down to 3 vehicles total.

The drive across Smokey Mountain Road was gorgeous. I definitely want to head that direction and explore the area more.

Collett Canyon was pretty amazing. It would be wild to try to get through there after some weather. The water certainly flows through there...

After Collett, we headed into Escalante for gas and a quick bite to eat and planned out the rest of the trip since we covered the original ground almost a whole day early. We decided to stay on dirt and head over the mountain and into Loa. From there we searched for a new camp for the final night. We ended up in an area called Horse Canyon (IIRC).

cqd0.jpg

cyx1.jpg

cFXc.jpg

ceEf.jpg

cvyk.jpg

cxfA.jpg

cDG3.jpg

cRJ9.jpg

cT86.jpg

cUHU.jpg

p8DC.jpg

pPEu.jpg

p3XD.jpg


That morning we all headed our individual routes back home.

Great trip. Would do again.
 

zgfiredude

Old Fart in Training...
Location
Silt, CO
Ok, clearly we are missing some details regarding the snake that appears in a couple of the pics............share the facts please! ;)
 

Kevin B.

Big hippy
Moderator
Location
Vehicular limbo
Ok, clearly we are missing some details regarding the snake that appears in a couple of the pics............share the facts please! ;)
At Three Kiva Pueblo. We'd all spent several minutes clambering over the ruin and checking it out, and only noticed Mr. Slither as we were walking back to the trucks. Not sure what kind of snake he was, couldn't see if it had a rattle? He was pretty chill though, I think he thought he was hiding.
 

jeeper

Currently without Jeep
Location
So Jo, Ut
Not sure what kind of snake he was, couldn't see if it had a rattle? He was pretty chill though, I think he thought he was hiding.

Looks lite a rattle snake to me. And this only further proves that the suckers are becoming more graboid-like daily. That guy is huge and remained silent. You are lucky his buddies didn't come from the ground and eat you!
 

Kevin B.

Big hippy
Moderator
Location
Vehicular limbo
Looks lite a rattle snake to me. And this only further proves that the suckers are becoming more graboid-like daily. That guy is huge and remained silent. You are lucky his buddies didn't come from the ground and eat you!

It had a very viper looking head, for sure. They say that natural selection is favoring rattlers that don't rattle, because rattlers that rattle get killed. I dunno about that, but whatever this guy was he wasn't rattling.
 

zgfiredude

Old Fart in Training...
Location
Silt, CO
The skottle cooking photo looks to have a "chunk" of that snake on the ground under the skottle......it may just be the ground/shadow, but I assumed it was Rattlesnake cooking in the pan! :rofl:

I don't do snakes, I'd have put a couple of rounds into him/her!
 

jeeper

Currently without Jeep
Location
So Jo, Ut
It had a very viper looking head, for sure. They say that natural selection is favoring rattlers that don't rattle, because rattlers that rattle get killed. I dunno about that, but whatever this guy was he wasn't rattling.

4 of the 5 I have encountered made no sound at all.
 
Top