overlandFX4

Indiana to Utah

In early April, some of us from Midwest Overlanders took a long awaited trip to Utah to run the White Rim Trail. The plan was to run White Rim and then we were going to split up. Like many adventures, plans changed and more on that ahead.

Three of us took off from Indiana on a Tuesday evening. Cody (Toyota TRD Pro Tundra), Andrew (Jeep JK w/ offroad trailer), and myself (Ford F150) met at a rest stop on the west side of Indianapolis and took off. Plan was to make it west of St. Louis and stop at a rest stop for a few hours sleep. It was all smooth sailing but when we woke up it was a driving rain storm. Minimal sleep and white knuckle driving is no fun!!! Things cleared up later in Kansas but we were driving into a nasty headwind. We finally made it (exhausted) to Denver for the night. Cody was picking up his wife, Katy, and baby girl at the airport there.

The drive from Denver to Canyonlands National Park was extremely scenic. High elevation mountain driving is interesting when you’re a flatlander like me! Cody and his family left early. Andrew and I met up with them at the start of the White Rim later that day. We were fueled and supplied up for the next 3 days and ready to hit the trail!

White Rim Trail

As we descended down the Shafer Switchbacks, we began to feel like we were on Mars. Everyone was giddy with excitement. We made it to Airport campground by early evening and set up. I was sleeping on a home built platform under my softtopper. Andrew was sleeping in a CVT tent on his trailer. Katy, Cody, and their kid were sleeping in an Oztent. We all ate dinner and relaxed at camp that evening. After several long days, the sleep was much appreciated.








In the morning, I made a breakfast burrito and some coffee. Once we were all packed up, we hit the trail. The plan was to split the trail into 3 days so we would have time to get out and enjoy the area, take pictures, etc. without feeling rushed. One cool thing we saw was a group of Bighorn Sheep in the late morning. The views along the entirety of the White Rim are beyond spectacular especially if you come from a relatively flat area like Indiana. The trail was bumpy but could be handled pretty easily by any 4x4 (at least in dry weather). Of course, we hadn’t yet reached our destination climb for the day – Murphy’s Hogback…

On our way to Murphy’s, we stopped for lunch and pictures several times but it was fairly uneventful. We passed several 4x4s and quite a few motorcycles/bikes each day but it didn’t seem crowded at all. The only thing that was sketchy was the 2 wheeled travelers sometimes went the wrong way. Not usually a big deal but some turns and climbs were pretty blind. When we reached the big climb, it looked rather daunting (pictures do it no justice of course). Murphy’s is steep and narrow with loose rock. To be honest, it wasn’t that bad but I imagine it could be if the weather was poor or your equipment was subpar. It is definitely narrow with a large drop to the driver’s side. When we made it to the top, we all felt accomplished, excited, and tired. It was time to set up camp on top of the ridge/butte/whatever. That night was WINDY!!! It was so windy it shook my truck enough to wake me up and I can sleep through most anything. To be honest, the whole theme of this trip could simply be “wind.”







In the morning, we made the descent down the other side of Murphy’s Hogback and headed towards Labyrinth campground. Just another day of beautiful scenery including the Colorado River. It was weird seeing a narrow strip of green lushness in the middle of the desert. We got down to water level on the trail and then had to climb Hardscrabble. In my opinion, this climb was more challenging that Murphy’s Hogback. It was definitely much longer. As we set up camp, we were still fighting the wind. In fact, it was so windy that Cody and Katy had an issue with their Oztent. Unfortunately, the rocky ground doesn’t give much to anchor to so they ended up finishing the last few miles of trail that night and heading out that evening. Andrew decided to take his RTT down and just slept in his Jeep with the dog. I was very happy with my softtopper setup in these high wind situations. I was comfortable even though it was shaking the truck.

This was the end of the White Rim portion of this trip. Cody took Katy and the baby back to Denver and Andrew and I headed to Moab to meet with some friends from California, Tom and Mike.

Spring Canyon/Hey Joe

We met Tom and Mike in Moab and ate breakfast at Denny’s and re-supplied what we needed. From there we took off to Spring Canyon. Spring Canyon is not managed by the Park Service so is a bit more “free.” We found a campsite and made basecamp for the next two days. We spent the next two days relaxing, shooting, and exploring.






We didn’t really know where we were going and ended up on some very challenging trail. Well, it was challenging for me. Andrew had no issue in his Jeep on 35s and Tom had little issue in his FJ on 33s. However, my wheelbase is LONG and I ran into several obstacles I had to be pulled over. I put my RCI skids and P&P Engineering sliders to good use on this trail.
Unfortunately, while on Hey Joe I also kicked a rock up into my driveshaft and ended up denting it. It wasn’t apparent on the trail but as soon as we left Spring Canyon to head back to Moab, highway speeds made the issue super clear. We assessed options while back in Moab and found a driveline shop in Salt Lake City that said they could turn out a new one quickly. Unfortunately, this stopped our plans to run White Rim again but I really appreciate having good friends that helped me out. We holed up a few days in the podunk town of Green River, UT. We were able to take the old driveshaft to the shop 3 hours away in SLC and spent that day exploring the city. We spent some time down town, saw the Tabernacle, and made our way out to Salt Lake. The lake is quite beautiful but the State Park was pretty pitiful.

Once we got back and put the driveshaft back in, we had some extra time and we just happened to be in the area while Easter Jeep Safari was going on. Andrew had planned to attend the whole time but the rest of us thought it would be fun to check everything out. It really was a good time. Lots of extremely cool vehicles and vendors plus all the Jeeps driving around town made for some good entertainment.




Colorado and Back to Indiana

I woke up early the next day and started to make my way to Fraser, CO to see my old high school friend (who is also named Tom). I had about 6 hours of driving in the morning. I thought it was going to be all highway but Google ended up taking me about 25 miles on graded gravel roads through BLM land. It was a wonderful drive full of scenic overlooks. I met up with him around noon and we went fly fishing all afternoon. I have to say that fly fishing in the Colorado mountains is pretty spectacular but it wore me out! We both hit the sack early that night. In the morning, I got up and drove from Fraser, CO straight through to my home in Indianapolis. It was a long solo drive but I made it. This trip was one of my favorites of all time and definitely falls in the category of epic.

Stay tuned: I can’t wait to head back to Colorado in June!!!

MORE PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://goo.gl/photos/L4VeydSanbwbfTGc6

Brian Glendenning

Lovely! Is the White Rim Trail doable in a stock F150 with the usual offload packages?

overlandFX4

Easily. I saw plenty of stock pickups out there.

Lockelamora

iTrader: (1)

Looks like a great time, thanks for sharing.

Brian Glendenning

Thanks to this post I ran the White Rim Trail with my sister and a friend in the last few days (in my F150 XLT FX4). We had a fantastic time! (The truck had no issues - some of the humans were nervous in spots, especially on Hardscrabble Hill. I wouldn't want to do this in wet conditions).

Somd FX4

awesome pictures! looks like a lot of fun.

Brad-150

Great post!

A few friends and I are doing the White Rim in late September this year from California. Any pointers for places we should detour to or things we should plan to make extra time for?

Brian Glendenning

On the trail itself definitely drive down to the Colorado river (Lathrop trail IIRC), stop at Musselman arch, and go to White Crack campground and walk out on the rocks for the view.