Day four of the Moab trip (better posted late than never!). We started out the day with a pow-wow to decide what trails to run and chose Elephant Hill, which is south of Moab, down in Canyonlands National Park. I was a little bit bummed that we were leaving the slickrock playground area that is the off-road Mecca for which Moab is so notable, but excited that we were going to do some more exploration instead of sitting in line on trails full of other vehicles.

Another amazing sunrise, red rocks, Kane Creek wash	more rocks	Not climbing here is a pity, there seem to be fantastic routes all over the place. Next time... next time...	We decided to hit the road and drive back "to California" the long way. Whatever way that turned out, we were just going to head Southwest-ish and see what happened.
Our first stop was Canyonlands, where we decided to tackle "Elephant Hill" Some day it would be fun to plan something out, and get permits to really explore.	hard to look at all this and not think "roadrunner and Wile E Coyote"	Rock Mushrooms	Near Elephant hill. Somehow the terrain looks less rugged when there is an economy car driving behind the Cruiser.
The signs make it clear where the economy car's and Cruiser's paths will diverge. There were only a few tough obstacles on an otherwise easy 4wd trail.	More fabulous blooming desert plants	A view down to the starting point of the trail (with cars parked) gives some scale	Soop is very comfortable offroad. No worries!
Slow and steady....	Seth follows, also no problems	Even a relatively "easy" switchback can be a challenge, especially in larger Landcruisers	Beautiful terrain
A little steep	Very steep. Enough that they've textured it. Another perspective on the steep part. At some point they poured concrete to make it more all-weather, I suppose. Pity.... it is still a challenge but now it is much uglier.	Awesome rocks! These evoke thoughts of monkey heads (for me at least)	No, that's not the trail, but shows how tight the switchbacks are. There is even one switchback where you *can't* turn around, you have to reverse for 50 yards.
Guess what? Cool rock!	Our first glimpse of something like Hoo-doos	This was our view for quite some time, it reminded me of some sort of alien village from Star Trek.	Another reason why bigger isn't always better offroad. One of the most infamous obstacles on the trail, this is a really tight squeeze. Notice where roof racks have left their mark.
Maybe better to fold in that mirror....	Another perspective of the Squeeze	Like something out of a sci-fi movie More Star Trek village	Endless variations on red, yellow, beige, and rocky
You actually do go left here! Thanks, rock.	We did several miles through this valley. Nice, soft floor, beautiful canyon walls	Towards the end of the valley there is some rock art. No walls. No fence. Just a little plaque that says "hey, this is a few thousand years old, please don't break it. So far it seems to have worked.	More of the rock art, and the valley. The overhang is probably what kept the art visible for the last few thousand years.
Lunch break. Nice view seats.	More wildflowers	I'm not very impressed by the Anazasi ruins that were mentioned in our book as a "good place to stop"	But at least there were more flowers
Now this is some quality ruins!	Impressive that without mortar of any sort, these walls have been standing, buffeted by rain and wind and snow, for centuries. Amazing that the wood is still mostly intact.	Great views, too! We wanted to camp here (excellent location) but the incoming weather urged us to keep moving, looking for something less exposed (it was starting to get cold)	Little did we know that all the roads out of there went up. A lot. We left the prarie grass behind and started to see pines.
Then left them behind for Aspens and Birch (and snow)	This was starting to look like worse and worse camping	Darn pretty, but Brrrr! Notice the excellent quality of the fire roads. Great area to just drive around.	Deer. Idyllic sparse forest that is probably superb camping in the summer, but not so great when the ambient temps are dropping like a rock (about 25 F* at this point)
This Alpine lake is listed as a preferred campsite. We can see why. But too cold for us this time around.	Climbing higher still, excellent views of the sun setting into canyons	More canyons to the west. We saw a camp with some turkey hunters along way and they gave us very very vague directions to the main road. Between that and the books we had, we managed to find the highway.	By the time we did find the highway, it was getting dark (and late) Now our problem was: Which way is which? Notice the complete lack of signage on the highway.

We did eventually find a town, which was a relief as we were all pretty tired and the weather had turned really cold- below freezing throughout the area with some areas well below freezing. We settled on a little motel, tried to find some food for dinner, but eventually just cooked in our rooms then headed off to sleep.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, expedition, landcruiser, moab, photo, travel, utah, vacation