William Kelly from Arabian Outback and Yousuf al Shehhi from Absolute Adventure Musandam are no strangers to overland expeditions having completed some of the toughest four-wheel drive tracks on the planet: The famous Rubicon Trail in the United States, the Telegraph Track in Cape York, Australia, Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, Botswana’s Kalahari Desert/Salt Pans and Iceland’s Snow Fields are just a few.
This year’s trip took us to Utah, the Red Rock Canyon lands and home to Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track.
Day 1
26 hours later we touched down in Salt Lake City or SLC. We went out into the parking lot to see what vehicles they have to offer. We chose a Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk complete with off-road tyres.
We could not resist the temptation to take our chosen rental vehicle for a spin. Foot flat to the floor, and a wheel spin, I clocked 180kph but on salt that’s a scary feeling. Super adrenaline pump achieved.
Day 2
After a four hour drive south from SLC and we entered the Canyonlands National Park, A prehistoric landscape of oddly shaped red sandstone rocks which resembles something out of a Flintstones cartoon.
We checked in to our hotel & start planning our routes for the next day. This was to be the last time we saw any facilities, camping all the way from now on and the weather is expected to be -2 degrees in the next coming days with snow.
Day 3
A final check of our equipment and we need some supplies, off to the store we go.
Hitting the first route, the adventure begins.
Before entering the trail we had a crack at Baby Lions Back, a 60 degree incline slope straight up for 50m, 4WD low and rear locker engaged. All I could see was blue sky, the stock Jeep solidified itself as trail rated — a huge relief for my passenger and me, having reached the top. Armed with confidence we entered the trail, which was only nine and a half miles long, but it took us five hours to complete steep rock walls, vertical drop offs and tight twisty sections. We managed to bury the nose of the vehicle on one section and climb a near vertical slick rock.
The trail was rated as 4 out of 10. It was definitely interesting and excellent fun. Hell’s Revenge is next – rated at 6 and then back to camp to energise for tomorrow’s adventure.
Day 4
The Arches National Park was our next highlight with 76,000 rock formations. Erosion of time has led to some of the rock formations being named, such as the Matchstick Men, the Court House, Tower Arch and the Windows.
It was very touristy and we were itching to get away from the crowds. After speaking to a Camp Ranger and consulting our 4WD handbook, we set our sights on Tower Arch, a seven mile off-road track leading to a prehistoric landscape. It was well worth the effort. Surrounded by giant sandstone sculptures that dwarfed us in the valley below, a half mile hike to the Arch and a moment to experience our beautiful surroundings.
We backtracked out and made our way to the campsite. Sub zero temperatures made our bush camp uncomfortable. It was time to get the fire going and get a hot meal inside us and then early to bed ready for Hell’s Revenge.
Day 5
We rocked up to the start of this 4WD trail in a stock Jeep Cherokee. We were surrounded by wranglers on 37 and 40 inch tyres with winches.
The trail had some incredibly steep inclines that just looked impossible, with names like Hell’s Gate, the Escalator and Wipeout Hill. We sat back and let the little Jeep do its thing, crawl mode, hill decent – rear locker saved us countless times.
We had one wheel in the air for most of the route balancing like a seesaw. It was fantastic fun and extremely dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. This was my adrenaline kick I had so longed for since the adventure began.
We managed to complete the route in three and a half hours with only a scrape on the front lower bumper.
We then went back to the Moab town centre to buy some much needed warm items and onto Dead Horse Point, elevation 1,780m with snow. All our electrical items started to fail because it was so cold.
It looks like another cold night.
Day 6
I woke to freezing temperatures. My swag had completely frozen forming ice all over it. The ground was so cold that we had to chisel the pegs out. My colleague spent the night in the car due to the extreme cold.
We waited for the sun to come up so that all of our equipment could thaw out before setting off on our next trail, Potash Road – an 18 mile dirt track with washouts, switchbacks and mud that lead us from the top of the canyon at 1,780m to the bottom, over a 1000m decent where the weather was much warmer.
This was a mild change to the trails we had driven before, with fantastic views from cliff edges overlooking the Colorado River.
Day 7
The Sal Pass is the highest elevation point in the area at 3,466m snow capped. The trail was described as impassable in some areas but we needed to see it for ourselves.
We set off with the sun shining and eventually reached the start of the trail, we aired the tyres down to 25psi. The first part of the route was easy with jagged rocks. The trail zigzagged around the mountain with steep drop offs and narrow pathways.
As we climb higher the track became more difficult. We started to see snow on the track and the inclines became steeper stopping us in our tracks. We had to reverse onto a flat area and give it another go. Power, power, as we slide the little Jeep around a steep snow-covered slope, then the vehicle’s engine cuts out at the worst possible time. The transmission had overheated, we waited for it to cool and set off again. Due to the extremity of track conditions this happened several times in our three hour adventure.
We aired down to 18psi to get more traction and were 580m from the summit. The track disappeared from here and so it was up to us to make the road, the snow was half a metre deep and we were at 3,000m.Our progress was halted and it was a constant battle to clear the path, back and forth countless times, gaining a metre each time. With the pedal to the floor and one final push, we ploughed through the deep snow to reach the summit. What a relief, but what an adventure. It was all downhill from here, we planned to camp in a national park 100 miles away.
We found ourselves in the middle of a rock climbers’ paradise. Steep canyon walls towered above us. Our camp was nestled between the canyons at 1,475m and we were in for another freezing night so I heated a rock on the fire and wrapped it in a sock. Wow what a difference it made.
Day 8
A late start today due to the swags covered in ice as we had to wait for them to dry out before setting off. We planned to hike one of the trails to Spring Cave & Cowboy Camp as we were in the area – a pleasant stroll through some amazing landscape.
Back in the jeep we headed to the Natural Bridges National Monument to visit the National Geographic site that was published back in 1904.This area was home to many traditions over time including the Navajos. Once we reached it, the Park Rangers informed us of a weather report, a snow storm was expected for tomorrow, and we packed up early and viewed the National Bridges Monument from the viewing areas.
It was a race to get out of the Canyonlands to a major city before we got snowed in, we had to cover over 220 miles on a narrow twisty road.
We managed to get halfway before getting caught in a whiteout, our progress slowed and we saw a vehicle on the side of the road on its roof. The roads became slushy and iced, temperature was – 5.
Once through the worse of the weather we stopped for lunch. We just happened to stop next to an off-road wonderland — mountains of gravel shaped like sand dunes, the little Jeep once again did us proud as we played in the dirt.
We finally made it across the mountain roads where we shacked up in a hotel for the night.
Our final leg of this adventure was the drive back to SLC. We reflected on our Moab experience and started to discuss where our next trip would take us.
Moab is definitely a 4WD’s paradise. It has easy, moderate, hard and near impossible trails with a variety of conditions ranging from slick rock, mud & snow.
We covered a total of 2520km, 1/3 of it was off-road.
What an adventure, a petrolhead’s playground. Be sure to visit the information centre in town before embarking on a trail and pick up a copy of a map and weather track conditions.
Words By: William Kelly
