Hole-In-The-Rock Solo Mission 5/28/11

[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

 

[xpdishn]

Very nice report, thanks for posting. We've got to do that road someday.

 

[bugnout]

Great pictures, love that trail. Thanks for posting

 

[Borrego60]

Love the shots and a nice story line to go with it.

 

[bat]

X2

 

[Overland Hadley]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[chadlanc]

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.


happen to know exactly where this is?

 

[Lord Al Sorna]

View attachment Lake Canyon Walls.kmz Here is the basic area that the canyon walls were.
For a gpx file of the route go to Interpid XJ's site and grab the lake canyon file under GCNRA: http://www.myxj.net/blog/trails/utah-gps-tracks
The spot was just a little bit before the big washout of the lake canyon road.

If you go there and take pro photos I want a copy! You have some incredible shots on your website!


Here is another shot of the striped walls, just for fun. It was a neat spot!

 

[chadlanc]

thank you very much for the link, its incredibly helpful! Do you happen to have a master file with all the gps tracks by section or state?

I've been searching for some good desert wash with trees to hopefully get some good fall colors and stripes.

It's a deal, thank you for the kind words.

 

[Lord Al Sorna]

A "master file" is something that has been on my to-do list for a year, but that I have not done yet...

When I finally get around to it ill send it your way...