As we crossed Nevada, we developed a plan to do some off-roading on the iconic Utah trails. We picked two trails, with the option of a third if we were doing well.
We arrived at Moab in the afternoon and started along the Hurrah Pass and camped at “Ledge B” campground. Now for some serious off-roading!
Our go-to off-roading app is OnX, which scored this trail at 2 out of 10 and “easy.” It then joins to “Chicken Corners” trail which is rated a 4… Plan was to do Hurrah and then see if we were up for Chicken… We aired down the tires (20psi front, 30psi rear) and set off. It was great fun, starting out pretty easy on a rutted trail and then transitioning to driving up shelf rock, which was more tricky. We really had to concentrate on where to place the camper on the trail. The truck managed it with ease – mostly in 2WD but really the camper set-up is not great for this type of driving – with the camper moving all over the place. The camper is attached to the truck with 4 spring loaded clamps, so it’s secure, but allowed to move – and it sure did! It’s also very top-heavy and we often found ourselves completing a maneuver and then having to wait a little in order for the camper to stop rocking the truck from side to side. We had fun fun filming the trek with iPhone and drone – so you can get a feel for it it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El4sQuHf3hM&t=70s
Having got to the Top of Hurrah – and a fair way down the other side, we opted to turn around and not continue onto Chicken Corners!
We made our way towards Canyonlands National Park for our next trail – Shafer Road, camping by ourselves just a couple of miles from the entrance to the park. We got an early start the following morning. Shafer Road – another 2 out of 10, is a longer trail at over 40 miles, but turned out to be somewhat easier than Hurrah. The scenery was spectacular and how they managed to cut the trail into the cliffside was mind-blowing!
We made it through the pass and then resumed our trip east towards our next destination, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado – however, this park gets lots of traffic and the guides suggest not going during the weekend so we’d planned accordingly – which gave us time to make a visit to an RV manufacturer in Longmont, CO – Rossmonster. The factory tour and build quality was impressive and the design of the RV interesting – with the camper permanently attached to the truck and with a lifting roof. Unfortunately, the sleeping arrangement was not to our liking – E/W not N/S https://rossmonster.com/pages/baja-series?srsltid=AfmBOooCe5zP3AeNLytjpEm0Pg4MsDTd-c-0arJvcl10eht87FOlzcg6
We arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park and found a single camp spot available at Aspenglen and grabbed it. Not the best spot – but we were in. We had previously booked a spot at another campground for the following night – so we were set.
In the morning we set off to do a gravel road to the top of the park (13,000ft) but unfortunately some early snowfall had closed that route, so we headed down towards the southern end of the park – and did a fantastic 6 mile hike, along which we came across a herd of Elk – one 12-point bull and about a dozen cows. The circular route took us up to Cub lake and then brought us back along a river.
In the evening at our Morraine Park Campground we delighted in hearing the Elk and Mule deer ‘Bugleing’.
The following morning we decided to drive up the paved road to the summit – which was now open to traffic. Some spectacular scenery…
Next up: Badlands National Park in South Dakota