The Maze, Canyonlands, November 2011
- Thread starter nakman
- Start date
Caribou Sandstorm
Hard Core 4+
It was all good till the 4runner lost an eye or footing...
Ok epic trip for sure.
We met up with Wes, Romer and Dan on Wednesday after they blazed the RIM on Tuesday.
Wes had some Regulator issues to fix and I met with Big Jim at the Canyonlands Park reservation office. Then we all headed to Devil's Kitchen via Elephant Hill Trail.
Arrived at Elephant Hill trail just passed dusk..Tricky trail in the dark, for sure...We arrived in devil's Kitchen set up our camps and were joined soon by Marco, Jacket, Tim and Bruce.
After a few beers and brauts it was time to explore Devil's Kitchen.
We woke up in morning, packed it up and headed to Bobby's Hole..enroute had some cold start issues with Bruce's motorcycle and then Wes broke a tie rod on the off camber tight left turn squeeze section before the open run out dirt trail.
Finally fixed and all together we headed out of Canyon Lands, passed Beef Basin and on to Gooseberry and Elk Ridge Loop. With a foot Plus of snow at the highest elevations it was time to load up Bruce's bike and make up some lost time. We bagged Wooden Shoe all together and jumped on 95 to Hite. Gassed up at hite and back on the road by 2:15 or so, made it to Chimney Rock just above the Doll House to see the Moon rising over the snow capped La Sal's....
Breath taking view and our timing could not have been better.
Set up camps and partied at the Premium camp site Doll House #2..
Got up Friday, big breakfast and a group headed to the Harvest scene hike, 9+ mile loop. Some stayed back and hiked down to the Colorado, Romer fixed his tire..
Got back and partied at the Premium Doll House #2 again. Late Friday into Saturday the wind really kicked up and we headed out to the Maze Overlook in the morning.
At the Junction to make the turn for the Maze, we all decided it was too windy to camp at the very exposed Maze Overlook camp site, we decided to make our way out via Poison Springs Wash Road and cross teh Dirty Devil River a day early. This would also insure the Dirty Devil was passible, as the forcast was for increasing CFS Sunday - Monday.
Marco had to go shag Bruce on his KTM waiting up at the Maze, while we headed to the River.
We all crossed with ease, me going first. Then with time to spare waiting for Marco and Bruce, many decided to make a second run at the river crossing it was a lot of fun. Water was maybe grill high or up to the wheel wells...
I decided to run it from another entrance and with not much thought, I drove in and found a soft bottom about 30 feet from the exit. I was immediately stuck and Jacket prepped for winching, I had to climb out via the sun roof to attach the winch line on the upper loop, could not see the frame tow loop, water now coming in the cabin, engine shut off via electrical water issue, Matt's 80 was slipping, 4-6 inches of water now in the 4runner cabin, Barry tossed his winch cable to Tim, Tim jumped in the river to help, we connected to the other loop of my bumper and pulled me out.
Drained the water, removed the connectors both driver and passenger, blew out with Marco's air compressor, no start...
Romer towed me to Green River, we ate dinner in Green River and stayed at a Motel 6.
All headed home Sunday, 4runner towed to Western Slope Toyota on Sunday. I caught a ride with Barry in his plush 40!
That is it in a nutshell..
Great trip, wished I had skipped the additional water crossing..
I don't have any pics downloaded yet but there are plenty to be shared..
Ok epic trip for sure.
We met up with Wes, Romer and Dan on Wednesday after they blazed the RIM on Tuesday.
Wes had some Regulator issues to fix and I met with Big Jim at the Canyonlands Park reservation office. Then we all headed to Devil's Kitchen via Elephant Hill Trail.
Arrived at Elephant Hill trail just passed dusk..Tricky trail in the dark, for sure...We arrived in devil's Kitchen set up our camps and were joined soon by Marco, Jacket, Tim and Bruce.
After a few beers and brauts it was time to explore Devil's Kitchen.
We woke up in morning, packed it up and headed to Bobby's Hole..enroute had some cold start issues with Bruce's motorcycle and then Wes broke a tie rod on the off camber tight left turn squeeze section before the open run out dirt trail.
Finally fixed and all together we headed out of Canyon Lands, passed Beef Basin and on to Gooseberry and Elk Ridge Loop. With a foot Plus of snow at the highest elevations it was time to load up Bruce's bike and make up some lost time. We bagged Wooden Shoe all together and jumped on 95 to Hite. Gassed up at hite and back on the road by 2:15 or so, made it to Chimney Rock just above the Doll House to see the Moon rising over the snow capped La Sal's....
Breath taking view and our timing could not have been better.
Set up camps and partied at the Premium camp site Doll House #2..
Got up Friday, big breakfast and a group headed to the Harvest scene hike, 9+ mile loop. Some stayed back and hiked down to the Colorado, Romer fixed his tire..
Got back and partied at the Premium Doll House #2 again. Late Friday into Saturday the wind really kicked up and we headed out to the Maze Overlook in the morning.
At the Junction to make the turn for the Maze, we all decided it was too windy to camp at the very exposed Maze Overlook camp site, we decided to make our way out via Poison Springs Wash Road and cross teh Dirty Devil River a day early. This would also insure the Dirty Devil was passible, as the forcast was for increasing CFS Sunday - Monday.
Marco had to go shag Bruce on his KTM waiting up at the Maze, while we headed to the River.
We all crossed with ease, me going first. Then with time to spare waiting for Marco and Bruce, many decided to make a second run at the river crossing it was a lot of fun. Water was maybe grill high or up to the wheel wells...
I decided to run it from another entrance and with not much thought, I drove in and found a soft bottom about 30 feet from the exit. I was immediately stuck and Jacket prepped for winching, I had to climb out via the sun roof to attach the winch line on the upper loop, could not see the frame tow loop, water now coming in the cabin, engine shut off via electrical water issue, Matt's 80 was slipping, 4-6 inches of water now in the 4runner cabin, Barry tossed his winch cable to Tim, Tim jumped in the river to help, we connected to the other loop of my bumper and pulled me out.
Drained the water, removed the connectors both driver and passenger, blew out with Marco's air compressor, no start...
Romer towed me to Green River, we ate dinner in Green River and stayed at a Motel 6.
All headed home Sunday, 4runner towed to Western Slope Toyota on Sunday. I caught a ride with Barry in his plush 40!
That is it in a nutshell..
Great trip, wished I had skipped the additional water crossing..
I don't have any pics downloaded yet but there are plenty to be shared..
Last edited:
rover67
Rising Sun Member
in case anybody is curious what the spot tracker stuff looks like, here is the tracking page for the last 5 days:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=08ZACrEGI45FxzgPSStR2OhNs2BtP9qS8
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=08ZACrEGI45FxzgPSStR2OhNs2BtP9qS8
I just returned home about five minutes ago and was greeted with gale force winds that put semis into the highway median and everyone else along the shoulder to wait it out. Hail, crazy lightning and house-shaking thunder with tornado warnings soon followed. It's great to be home. 
rover67
Rising Sun Member
For the record I did not Shag Bruce
.James, glad to hear you made it back!!
For the record I did not Shag Bruce
- It just sunk in what Davis claimed you were doing to Bruce on his KTM
Caribou Sandstorm
Hard Core 4+
ooops another Davis-ism...Sorry Marco..
wesintl
Moderator
wesintl
Moderator
wesintl
Moderator
Davis found a replacement for the 4runner when we were going thru idaho springs
Serious upgrade!
One thing that was cool about this trip was the variety of rigs
One 40 Series LC
One 60 Series LC
One 70 Series LC
Two 80 Seies LC
Two 100 series LC
One Fj Cruiser
One 4th gen 4runner
Oh and one RC 40
One 40 Series LC
One 60 Series LC
One 70 Series LC
Two 80 Seies LC
Two 100 series LC
One Fj Cruiser
One 4th gen 4runner
Oh and one RC 40
Really a cool trip. Those photos make me jealous already!
I'm a little late to the thread since it took me so long to get home. Here are a few of my best wheeling pics.
Inukshuk
Rising Sun Member
Chris, sorry to hear of your swim in the quicksand. That's quite a tow out you endured.
rover67
Rising Sun Member
Alright, here are my photos. not real great, but maybe they tell part of the story.
first one is lining up at e-hill... we did it with Bruce's motorcycle on the back and actually made it through Ok in the dark. Having the motorcycle certainly made it a bit more interesting...
second one is drivers meting at the devil's kitchen. it was a cool morning. I think it was 26 degrees.
third one is us lined up waiting on bruce. we kinda took off from the drivers meeting and later realized his bike wasn't happy, it was flooding. soon after with help from romer's jumper cables they got it going.
fourth one is the first sight of real snow as we climbed out of beef basin. I am sure others will have a better shot of what it looked like up top, but here's where it started getting slicker. we ended up going through what looked like a foot or so near the top of the ridge.
fifth one is wheeling into the dollhouse after gassing up in hite. It was really a pleasant road in with a nice mix of faster stuff and some slightly more technical wheeling. nobody had any trouble making it through.
first one is lining up at e-hill... we did it with Bruce's motorcycle on the back and actually made it through Ok in the dark. Having the motorcycle certainly made it a bit more interesting...
second one is drivers meting at the devil's kitchen. it was a cool morning. I think it was 26 degrees.
third one is us lined up waiting on bruce. we kinda took off from the drivers meeting and later realized his bike wasn't happy, it was flooding. soon after with help from romer's jumper cables they got it going.
fourth one is the first sight of real snow as we climbed out of beef basin. I am sure others will have a better shot of what it looked like up top, but here's where it started getting slicker. we ended up going through what looked like a foot or so near the top of the ridge.
fifth one is wheeling into the dollhouse after gassing up in hite. It was really a pleasant road in with a nice mix of faster stuff and some slightly more technical wheeling. nobody had any trouble making it through.
Last edited: