4 days and 200 miles of Utah Trail

[LilKJ]

Just got back yesterday from a 4 day trip through the Utah desert. I met up with some folks from California and set off into the San Rafael Swell on our way to the Maze District of Canyonlands.

We met up in Moab and headed off to Green River...
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We were behind schedule for the day as we headed off pavement...
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Off into the desert we go...
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The sun set while we were on the trail and we reached our campsite in the middle of the night.
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We arrived at at camp atop a place called Panorama Point. It was dark so we couldn't see anything that night... Here are some shots from the next morning as the sun came up.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2715editresize.jpg

Then I saw where the name came from...
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This campsite offers a 270 degree view of the maze district... you should make an effort to end up here at least once.
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[LilKJ]

Cooking breakfast before we hit the trail...
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Packed up and hitting the trail for the day... our destination was the Dollhouse in the Land of Standing Rocks.
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The route: following the Flint Trail down to the Dollhouse... 40 miles of trail for the day
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Red and Dolly heading down the Flint Trail
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What it looks like from the cockpit...
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Some easy cruising across the desert... you have to love a breeze just strong enough to move the dust off the trail.
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Waaaaaaaaay back in the middle of nowhere...
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The trail to the dollhouse does have some fun wheeling...
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2785editresize.jpg

[LilKJ]

We carried on for a long day and finally arrived at the area called the Dollhouse... I've never seen anything like it.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2786editresize.jpg

Pictures simply can't capture the area...
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2803editresize.jpg

Our campsite among the standing rocks...
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Crazy rock formations...
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2801editresize.jpg

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[LilKJ]

We had a quiet night listening to bats flutter around overhead. You have to keep your voice down in the dollhouse as every little noise seems to be amplified and echoes on forever... the next morning it was back on the trail to Teapot Rock.
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Heading out of the Dollhouse area...
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Some of the slickrock sections...
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Finally made it back to the Waterhole Flats Junction...
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2851editresize.jpg

From here we had only a loose plan: to head into BLM land and find a cool place to camp. We headed up a couple of washes and small side roads... found some interesting stuff up some remote canyons...
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2858editresize.jpg

We hit a big series of small trails that headed into the ends of various canyons...
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2864editresize.jpg

[LilKJ]

One such canyon had this carved out waterfall from floods in the canyons above. We found a lot of different things below this waterfall crack. Petrified wood was everywhere... some pieces over 200lbs. My best guess is that is all got washed into the basin from the canyons above. I plan to head back there and take a look for fossils and whatnot...
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2866editresize.jpg

Heading up another wash to a canyon rim where we camped for the night...
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The following day we headed all the way out to Hite on Lake Powell...
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2878editresize.jpg

And back to pavement...
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/bennance/IMG_2886editresize.jpg

Total for the trip... 196 miles of dirt. We only scratched the surface. No complaints from me.

:D

[ttora4runner]

Nice.

[pskhaat]

Love it.

[mph]

In my opinion...you hit one of the best places in Utah!!!! Good for you...Checkout the road that leaves the Sunset campsite (close to Waterhole Flat) and heads West. It goes through some crazy scenery, crosses the Dirty Devil River and exits out to Hwy. 95. Just another fun way to enter/exit the Maze.

The Maze...If you haven't; check out the Maze chapter in Desert Solitaire by Abbey.

[LilKJ]

I saw that route as a possible exit.... it's Big Ridge if I remember correctly??

I'll check out the read... thanks

[mph]

it is the road below big ridge...

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Amazing pics...thanks for the report! :sombrero:

[maXTERRA]

Just beautiful!!!
Another item on the list of Have-to-see places I must go!

Thanks

[1leglance]

Is there any chance I could get a waypoint or track file of this trip?
Whatever system you have can usually be converted if you can offload the info.
my email is info AT disabledexplorers DOT org
What an amazing looking area and somewhere I want to go really bad :)

[LilKJ]

Is there any chance I could get a waypoint or track file of this trip?
Whatever system you have can usually be converted if you can offload the info.
my email is info AT disabledexplorers DOT org
What an amazing looking area and somewhere I want to go really bad :)

I could... if I used a GPS. Topo and compass is how I roll:victory:

[1leglance]

I could... if I used a GPS. Topo and compass is how I roll:victory:

Cool....could you call me and read off the turns as you look at your map...you know old school info sharing :)
Or really old school, could you draw me a map and I could go treasure hunting? :)

Hey thanks for the inspiration and now I want to go check it out even more.

[PJPR01]

Very enjoyable pics and trip report...nice!

[VicHanson]

Great photos of an amazing place, thanks! Unfortunately my proposed camper build (camping trailer on an Isuzu NPR) will never be able to do that, I guess I'm going to have to get a Samurai to pull behind it!

Vic

[olympiccop2002]

Awesome pictures and area! I have to visit there someday...

[toyota_jon]

great pics can't wait to head out that way!

[Willman]

Very nice!!

A few of us are doing this trail this weekend with some of the same campsites!

Thanks for the pre-trip warm-up!!! I'm totally pumped now!!!!

Anything that we need to know before we head inn?

:smiley_drive:

[Backwoods Rambler]

Very cool. I can't wait to see some of the more remote areas of Utah.

[Funrover]

Very cool, looks like a great time was had!

[Moody]

Excellent!

Nice selection of photos. Anything a traveler to the area might want/need to know about?

[02tacotoy]

Excellent!

Nice selection of photos. Anything a traveler to the area might want/need to know about?

I am interested as well- Thinking about heading out there this spring.

[Cabrito]

Nice write up.

looks like a great time.

Thanks for sharing.

[LilKJ]

Hmmmm... if you're heading into that area a couple things to keep in mind:

1. Unfortunately, you need to get your permits from the Hans Flat Ranger Station regardless of where you actually wanted to enter the Maze District. This can create a long day if you are coming from the Moab area.

2. Utilize BLM land as much as you can. The camping is free and there are some prime locations.

3. If I were to run the same route again I would start the trail in Green River and take airport road south into the San Rafael Swell. This road gets you off pavement sooner and ends at the Hans Flat Station. (on google maps its airport road, green river, ut.... follow it south to flint trail, lower sanfael rd, and finally hans flat rd.) This is MUUUCH more interesting than the highway by Hanksville.

4. *removed* Ignore ;)

5. Bring fuel... my Diesel did the whole thing on 11 gallons total. The wrangler with us has a tank 5 gallons bigger than stock and had to empty one 5 gallon can.

6. If it rains, this place would be NASTY!!! Most of the dirt would just turn to slime from the looks of it.

7. As a reference point... it took 6 hours of driving time to get from Panorama Point to the Dollhouse. It was about a 10 hour day but 6 of it was rolling.

8. The trails are very well marked so taking a wrong turn isn't much of a worry.

9. If you're going to arrive at Hans Flat after about 3pm call the rangers that morning and they can do their speech over the phone and leave your permits outside the station. They have to get the vibe that you know what you're doing though.

10. Make sure you bring a toilet that: a)uses the little bags or b)is made to be flushed out at an RV dump site.

11. Of the campsites I saw, I would recommend Panorama Point and Dollhouse #2. Flint seep is blah. The Wall, standing rock, and chimney rock are very exposed (views are good though). Dollhouse 1 is buried in the rocks and Dollhouse 3 is more in the open. Dollhouse 2 is a perfect blend of the 2. Do not camp at Teapot Rock!!! It's right in the middle of everything and practically on one of the busiest parts of the trail. Those were the only sites I got to check out.

12. There is gas and diesel at Hite. (they could be out so be ready for 50-60 miles of hwy)

I think that's about it... it'll be awesome!!

[James86004]

Hmmmm... if you're heading into that area a couple things to keep in mind:

6. If it rains, this place would be NASTY!!! Most of the dirt would just turn to slime from the looks of it.


I can confirm that. We went there a decade or so ago, and when we were on the trail it started raining. Harder and harder, until we couldn't see. We were on a long section of shelf road, so it was scary, even though we had stopped. The areas of bentonite clay get extremely slick. We decided the weather was just too bad so we retreated to flatter BLM land, and we missed a lot of this scenery.

We need to get back.

[mph]

Confused...Not sure about the Time Change you mention...Colorado and Utah are on the same time zone...

Just curious,
Mike

[LilKJ]

Hmmm... I didn't look into it but just assumed there was one... everyone's cell phones jumped an hour near Green River and we had to all agree to go off of watch time as opposed to cell phone time. The phones were back with the watches when I checked again by Monticello. I assumed that part of Utah did somethign wierd like AZ's general lack of Daylight Savings time...

Who knows, the cell towers by Green River may have just been off or something. It threw us for a loop though.:Wow1: I'll edit it out.

[mph]

No worries...I was just curious. Your guess on the cell phone towers going crazy sounds pretty plauseable to me...

Great trip...By the way, did you hike down to the ruins outside of the doll house area? Pretty amazing! The granaries...FYI...check out the Fins area located south of the road...we accessed it via the Standing Rock campsite...there is some real cool stuff in there...believe it or not...there is a white-man made ruin in there...the rangers dated it back to the 70s...someone had some time...even put a juniper log roof on it...

Anyway, the Maze is the ticket!

[Willman]

Thanks for the heads up!!

;)

[Scott39]

Nice trip report, I plan on using some of the info for my trip soon.
I hope to be out in this great area by the end of October:wings:

[TXJeepers]

Really enjoyed the pics. Back in 2003, two friends, my wife, and I spent several days in the Maze area of Canyonlands, visiting many of the same landmarks you show above, some from the same vantage point. It was the best trip of its kind that we had ever taken. We also spent time at the Great Gallery pictograph area and in Arches, going to Tower Arch.

[Larry]

Man LilKJ, that is awesome. I hope to visit that area on my next UT/AZ adventure. Too bad you didn’t have a SPOT GPS tracker with you and created a SPOT Adventure page so we all could see exactly where you went. Thanks for sharing!

Here is an example of a SPOT Adventure page from one of my trips this summer.

http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=172579

[DrMoab]

Who knows, the cell towers by Green River may have just been off or something.

Bingo!

A tip to anyone traveling in Eastern, South Eastern Utah. If your phone has a setting to automaticly set the clock...turn it off.

I drive truck in this region a lot and its a constant problem. I don't know if it's all carriers. I have AT&T.

[maXTERRA]

Was just down in the northern part of the swell last friday for the entire day.
Just cruising the desert roads south from Price, up to Cedar Mountain, Buckhorn area, The Wedge and around. Could have spent several more days there alone.
Really want to get a few other prople and check out the maze next year though.

A few pics of the area. Absolutely beautiful and perfect weather!!!:wings:

http://s619.photobucket.com/albums/tt280/maxterra/San%20Rafael%20Swell%2010%2009/?albumview=slideshow

[dzzz]

great report

Would any part of your trip be difficult in a longer wheelbase truck?
I'm planning a trip in January.

[LilKJ]

great report

Would any part of your trip be difficult in a longer wheelbase truck?
I'm planning a trip in January.


Hmmmmm.... a couple specific turns on the way to the dollhouse would be awkward in a bigger truck but would certianly be do-able. You're pretty much good to go.

[Mashurst]

Thanks so much for posting your trip. I would love to follow in some of your track. Would it be possible for you to show us some kind of a map with your rout on it? One simple way to do this is to use Google maps to plot your rout and then hit the "link" link in the top right. That kind of saves your rout to the link and then we could see where you were. Thanks again

[dbreid]

Any word on how this would be in the winter? I used up a lot of my vacation doing other more rock crawling specific trips this summer (Dusy Ershim, etc), so to do this, I'd probably hae to do it over a holiday, like Christmas/New Years etc.

Do they get rain? Snow? Some of the midwest passes I have done would have been pretty soupy in the rain, but if the ground was Frozen, that wouldn't be as big a deal.

I don't care about the temperature, but I'd prefer to go to this place when I could spend time seeing things, not dealing with horrid roads/trails.

Plus, I'd prefer to drive the Suburban as opposed to the Rock Truck. :)

-Dan

[mph]

You could access the Maze through the Hite road without a major problem in the winter. The flint trail is usually closed due to snow and ice.

Unless there is some freaky snow and wind, the Maze is pretty amazing any time of year...The only down side in my opinion with the area is that you can't have a fire...Short days and no fires are a little cold.

[Remote]

We just returned from a near identical Maze trip, so no new thread. As for the long wheelbase, we passed a full-size Dodge with a slide in pop up out near Dollhouse. Just take your time.
As for the rest, we were a little bit disappointed. We were glad we went, it's just one of those "had I known/if I did it again" things. The solitude was nice, the wheeling was fun but a tad monotonous and frankly the scenery was less spectacular than other parts of Canyonlands. Maybe we're just getting old, but it just seemed like a lot of effort for the return. Add to that, we have done most all of the rest Canyonlands. To paraphrase what LilKJ said, the SW area (mostly BLM) can be equally remote, just as scenic and far more interesting. Stuff like that dry fall with the Petrified Wood littering the ground is what does it for us. By the way, we climbed around a bit at that site and kept finding Petrified Wood the higher we went. So likely it did wash down from the bench above. Read, need to explore more.
If I were to recommend a route now, it would be to enter from Poison Spring Canyon/North Hatch Canyon, camp/explore for a day or so (all BLM so far). Then get up EARLY and do an out/back (a really long day) to the Dollhouse, only if you are not a regular to Canyonlands. Following that, explore more of the North/South Hatch and Happy Canyon area. Then exit back out Poison Spring or to Hite. Poison Spring would allow for exploring all the things you didn't on the way in, Petros/Pictos, mine sites, Lith scatters etc. All with no reservations or permits. By camping on BLM you retain the flexibility to deal with weather should it occur. The reason for entering at PSC is if the Dirty Devil River can not be crossed it will result in only a 15 mile backtrack as opposed to 65 or more. There have been numerous washouts, undercut banks and deep holes developing at that crossing this year. Hanksville BLM office or Hans Flat Ranger station frequently do not have up to date info on the crossing/area. The USGS has a gauging station at PSC/Dirty Devil and up to the day CFMs can be had online.
Also, just when you think you are getting away from it all, while checking in at Hans Flat, a voice from behind says "Hello there neighbor". It was our next to next door neighbor. A small world indeed.

[mph]

I agree with your analogy about the drive...Can be long and tiring...The key to the Maze in my opinion is all of the canyons. The hiking and solitude is ridiculous! Ruins, rock art, springs, cowoby camps, arches, overlooks, solitude, etc. is all the canyons. We got cornered once by a few big horn sheep...We watched a falcon dive-bomb us as we enjoyed lunch... My wife and I have spent 40 days or so in the Maze...We would always spend a day getting into the area and then hike/explore, etc. I would never go there just for the driving...If you want a wild experience...Try canoeing down the Green River and accessing the Maze from the river. Crazy awesome...Just my two cents...

[Remote]

I do not dispute that aspect at all, nor am I ignorant of it. We are old folks, our bodies have worn out, broken, missing and non OEM parts. Why just last year I lost my butt in a New York canyon!

[theksmith]

great report!

we also just finished a trip to explore canyonlands maze district and nearby areas! we didn't have enough time and gas to make it to the dollhouse after all the other places, but our plan is to go back and maybe just spend 2 days at Dollhouse (to allow for hiking time) and 2 days at The Maze Overlook next time since those seem to be the most interesting places!

anyway, here was our trip thread with pics (page1) and a trip report (page2): http://www.offroadpassport.com/forum/showthread.php?t=201

[mph]

Remote...Thanks for the awesome response! That made me laugh:)

[Cypher]

Man I am getting the itch to get out seeing all these great pics! OK well I always have the itch but you just made it worse... Thanks for sharing!

[rctr03]

thanks for sharing, great report!

jimmy

[Red Zebra]

Awseome scenery! Definetly on my list-to-visit-someday!

[Aids10]

Great Pics!

THX M8 :smiley_drive:

[6string]

I've been putting off this trip for way too long. I must break from my other distractions and just steer the truck that way.

Amazing. Thanks for sharing. Glad you all made it in/out safely.

[Desert Drifter]

WOW!!!! That is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing. :cool:

[pskhaat]

No worries...I was just curious. Your guess on the cell phone towers going crazy sounds pretty plauseable to me...

Several places on Lake Powell in Utah actually (like AZ) and are on MST only, you may be picking up signals from those servicing the lake.