Tuesday, Sept. 16

6AM, up and ready. By 7:45 the sun is up over the hills and shining brightly on the massive red cliffs to the west. Ahead of me is the Portal, the cut through the 1500' cliffs where the Colorado River runs across the Moab valley, geologically known as a paradox. Yes, this is the view from the motor home, from a commercial campground appropriately named, "The Portal."

Need to do a little periodic maintenance, replacing the taillight on the motor home (yes, it arrived) and the exhaust pipe holder on the Jeep. By noon we'll be ready to head out on the first trail, Fin 'N' Things, an easy trail, so Joe can get acclimated to Moab wheelin'.

My original plan was to stay at a BLM Campground (no water, electricity, etc.) BUT the weather here is hot and really windy - like 90° and a 30 mph wind. And last night it didn't get below 75°. Much different than the spring!!! A private campground (with at least electricity) is much better.

So why is this better - simple - in a primitive CG I'd need the windows open but with this wind there's so much dust and sand blowing that the inside of the motor home would be as dusty and dirty as the outside. So, this private CG isn't bad, and certainly scenic. Early next week we'll be south of town and will have no choice but to be in primitive sites - but for now air and cool temps inside are sure nice.

Joe and I did Fins 'N' Tings to get started. After that we jumped into Hell's Revenge.

He did great for his first time at Moab. (Shown here is the approach to Tip Over Challenge.)

The only downside is that I had my windshield down and the blowing dust was really bad on my eyes. But I came all this way - be damned if I'll wheel with the windshield up!

So we finished about 5, came back and had a great meal of steak and baked potatoes at camp, drank some beer and got ready for the morrow.

Wednesday, Sept. 17

Strike Ravine. We did good! Got to Lower Helldorado about 10AM, Joe was doing great so we took it. Had a great time.

As we got out of the ravine, I got temporarily discombobulated and it took a while to find the trail again.

I thought it was fun!

Made it out by 2. Headed back in an incredible wind. There was so much dust that I could hardly see the LaSals from the motor home. This is very unusual. Went to McStiff's to rehydrate. Afterwards, crossing the street, I was flagged down by Jim & Ingrid (from Illinois.) They are out here wheelin' and we decided we'd all do the Spike tomorrow instead of the Delores Triangle.

Then on the way back to the campground, saw Bob (from the Red Rock 4 Wheelers) driving his Pinzgauer into town so dropped Joe off at his camper and went back to town. Stopped at Moabilia and had a nice chat with Bob . We sat on the bench in front of their store and watched tourists walk by and look at the Pinzgauer and then the dam Jeep. It was quite entertaining. It was nice to catch up on local news.

Joe's "sticker of the day!"

Thursday, Sept. 18

Golden Spike. Well, the weather has indeed changed. The night before it didn't get below 75°, this morning it was 48°. This is more like the weather I would expect. Guess the adrenaline is flowing today, got up at 6 AM ready to wheel. Just looked out the window and, yes!, can see the La Sals today. Looks like a good day.

Jim and Ingrid joined us. The first real fun was at the Wedgie. From there we headed to Little Arch and then continued on the trail.

Once we got to the Crack we played a little and then had a great time watching a Hummer group work its way through. They didn't do bad there.

Now the Whammy was something else. The H1s with lockers crawled right up it but those without and the H2s provided much entertainment.

On the way out we hauled a couple mountain bikers out of the canyon and back to Hwy 191. One of them was having mechanical problems.

Back to Moab and headed to Zak's for pizza and beer. Thanks Jim & Ingrid - the food and beer was great!

Friday, Sept. 19

I called and talked to Ber, one of the Red Rock 4 Wheelers, the night before and got an update on the Triangle area. After chatting with him, decided that we weren't equipped for this trip: too far for one tank of fuel and the gas station at Gateway is closed. Bummer. If we knew where to ford the Delores, that could have cut out many miles but the river flow is up due to the snow in the Telluride area a few weeks ago. Will head there some other time when I'm better prepared (like having 10 -15 gallons of extra fuel.)

Headed out instead to Spring Point, an overlook over the Green River.

On the way, stopped at the Dallenbaugh Tunnel, a geologic formation where the water created a tunnel through the slick rock.

Made it to the overlook and on the way back noticed the transfer case shift levers were moving a little too much and there was an ominous clunk when accelerating. 40 miles out, broke the rear engine/transmission mount in half. Babied it back to the campground, replaced the mount with a spare and headed into town for food and libation.

We found a great place to camp - far away from any commercial or "established" campground. We got set up and started to head into LaSal to see Dave and Debi, who would show us some of the hidden treasures in the LaSals (the ones you don't find in books.) On the way, Joe's rear end (of his Jeep, that is) started to sway back and forth. Turns out there were some loose bolts in the rear track bar and we spent an hour tightening them up. All was well then except for the "death wobble" he has been experiencing for sometime. We took our time, 40 mph, and got to Dave and Debi's in about an hour.

Dave took us into the LaSals to an old line cabin.

The construction was wood and clay and they used newspaper to hold some of the clay when it was being constructed. One can still read the newspapers, from 1918! Unfortunately, some morons are breaking away the wood and tearing off the newspapers, I guess as souvenirs. What a shame. Dave mentioned that from the last time he stopped here until now, there had been a marked deterioration due to vandalism.

Next we went up LaSal Pass Road to Mt. Peale, 12,000 some feet, the highest in the LaSals. We drove through a great forest of Aspen, but they hadn't started turning yet.

On the way back, we stopped for fuel (as we can't get fuel in LaSal on Sunday.) Joe's "death wobble" was getting worse. He had assumed it was tire balance. I crawled underneath while he turned the steering wheel and discovered the front track bar was also loose, really loose. After that got tightened, the "death wobble" was gone. Yes!

This was a good day - got a number of serious issues resolved with Joe's Jeep, drove some great trails and saw some nifty sights. Unfortunately, I noticed my Jeep was making a new noise going up hills and found my left front motor mount was bad - the heat from the exhaust manifold over the years zapped the rubber bushing, it became brittle and now the rubber is mostly gone. I can probably get by, but would feel better if I had a replacement, just in case.

Back to the camp for some steaks and beer. Watched a great sunset and saw several satellites fly overhead right after dusk along with a number of shooting stars. Low humidity and low ambient light provided an ideal setting for star gazing. I've never seen the Milky Way as clear as here.

Sunday, Sept. 21

After a little more tightening on Joe's Jeep (on the road, of course), we headed back to Dave and Debi's. This time we went to an old mine we had stopped at with them a few years ago. Most of the equipment is still there, even some of their paperwork is still lying on the floor.

Next we took a drive up the Lisbon Valley anticline where Dave and his Dad (who was his passenger for the day) showed us dinosaur footprints right in the middle of the trail. Notice the circle around the footprint. Again, some morons are chiseling away at the rock and stealing the footprints! ARG!

There was a whole series of footprints (less the ones where there were holes due to the theft) where one can see where the Raptor was running millions and millions of years ago. Awesome!

Next was Charlie Steen's mine, Mi Vida. This started the whole uranium boom in the Moab area. We did some exploring here and then went up on a shelf road to see another mine that was so large one could drive a Jeep into it.

After that, we headed back the 40 miles (at a much higher rate of speed thanks to our marvelous repairing skills), had a great meal and saw more satellites, shooting stars and the Milky Way.

What a great two days, but with some parts and repairs we need, must now move on (sniff!)