White Rim Road Nov 19' Trip Report
I was hoping to do White Rim earlier in the year, but I didn't start to do research and planning for it until July, and with a 4 months wait to get permits I had to set it for November. This ended up working out nicely though, since we were already getting snow dumped on us in early October in the Colorado rockies, so a break from the snow was appreciated.
During my research I heard that Murphey Hogback A and Taylor were some of the best campsites, and I was lucky to see permits available for Shafer > Murphy Hogback A > Taylor in a row on days I was not working, so I quickly bought the permits.
Luckily, the weather was about as good as it could be for November. I didn't see a cloud in the sky the entire trip, highs of 65 during the day and lows of 30 at night. I wish I took more photos during the trip. The few photos I got simply did not do the experience justice.
Day 1: Home > Shafer
I set the first campsite for Shafter since it was the first campsite in the loop and I knew I would be arriving late anyway. We dropped down from Grand View Point Rd via Shafer Trail. Maybe they did some road maintenance, but last time I drove on Shafer I was running BFG KO2s and I definitely felt the need to air down to keep from getting bounced around too much. This time I ended up not feeling that need and left my Falken Wildpeak's at highway pressure. They seems to handle rough roads at highway pressure better.
Due to the trip beginning just after the daylight savings switch we arrived well after sunset. Someone else had poached our campsite, but they had their tent set up way in the back so I wasn't bothered much by it. Based on other trip reports it sounds like Shafer is an often poached campsite due to its proximity to Moab. They ended up packing up and leaving before sunrise.
Day 2: Shafer > Murphy Hogback A
Unfortunately, I realized that my portable butane stove was severely less efficient with even the slightest breeze and I only packed one bottle of fuel. To be safe I ended up driving to town to get some more fuel and some tinfoil to make a wind block. I won't make that mistake again. This ended up being a good decision since I used up the rest of the first bottle during the 3rd morning of the trip. On the way to Moab we passed a long bed semi truck that had driven down the wrong road and was backing up Shafter Trail. That must have sucked. It took three tries, but I finally found some butane fuel and headed back to white rim via Potash Road after topping off my fuel again. That 4 hour detour ended up killing all of our spare time for the day.
White Rim isn't a difficult trail. You could do it a subaru. However, I would not recommend doing it unless you get some all terrain tires that you can air down. I saw another 5th gen on the trail on what looked like stock Dunlop tires, which I assume he left at highway pressure. I can't imagine how bumpy the ride must have been. I aired down my tires about halfway into Potash Road and left them at about 20 PSI for the whole trail.
Murphy Hogback A is a phenomenal campsite. All of Murphy Hogback is at the top of a bluff, but only site A is situated near the edge of the Bluff so that you have a view for hundreds of miles of the canyons below. I woke up at about 1 to go water a tree and was blown away by the stars. There was absolutely no light pollution and I could see every star in the sky. If you look at darksitefinder.com it is one of the few places in America that is in a “black” area on the map. I got some great photos with my DSLR of both the stars and some photos of my rig below the stars using light painting with my flashlight.
The drive from the gas station in town to Murphy Hogback took 4 hours and 50 minutes of driving, and we were driving with the intent to shave off time.
Day 3: Murphy Hogback A > Taylor
Without the need to go on an unplanned trip to town we had more time to get to camp. On the way to Taylor we stopped to have lunch and hike at Fort Bottom Ruin. This stretch of road is usually the place that floods if the river is high. When we drove it there was not even a puddle, but you could see some deep ruts where people must have drove through thick mud.
Taylor is another great campsite. It is situated at the end of a roughly 5 mile road that doesn’t see much of any road or bike traffic. There is also only one campsite their so as long as you are the one to reserve it you probably won’t see anyone else out there. The campsite is in a valley surrounded by steep cliffs and has an excellent view of “Moses and Zeus”, two interesting rock formations that you can hike up to, or even rock climb if you have the required experience and equipment.
The drive from Murphy Hogback to Taylor took about 3 hours of driving.
Day 4: Taylor > Home
The drive back to civilization was uneventful, but still have some great views.
The drive from Taylor to the gas station at the intersection of Mineral Road and 313 took about 2.5 hours of driving, putting the total driving time from gas station to gas station at 9.5 hours.
More Photos:
Fuel Usage
I brought an extra 6 gallons of gas to be safe. Some of the most unstable terrain is on the west side of White Rim so if you get right to the end and have to turn all of the way back there is a risk you won’t have enough gas. I averaged 11.7 MPG and used 11.859 gallons of gas from a gas station in Moab to a gas station right at the end of Mineral Road. That was about 47% of the absolute drive to empty 25 gallon capacity of the 4runner. If the road was blocked at the end of the trail I could have made it without extra gas, but just barely.
Also, make sure you bring enough water. The only source of water that you ever get close to is the Green River, and even then it is usually down a cliff or with thick brush in your way to access it. It also is usually full of silt so filtering it could be a challenge. I would count on no filterable water for the whole trip.
