White Rim Road in a 5th gen Limited

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Fort Bottom Trailhead

We paused at the Fort Bottom Trailhead. After their experience with Moses and Zeus the previous afternoon ("It's only a mile") BIL decided posing with the sign was preferable to hiking. He is from TX where you can cut the air with a knife, so the skinny air sneaks up on him. The picture on the left is looking back at the Hardscrabble section.

 

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Switchbacks above Potato Bottom

A quick look down the trail told us we were not shifting out of 4WD LO yet. We walked down to the first curve to check the layout. BFD is laughing because BIL decided to walk down all the way. We speculated that perhaps he felt safer walking than riding. The lower pic is looking back up the trail at the 4runner, I thought I might need a before and after.

 

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Down, Down!

One last pic before I decided to put down the camera and grab the door handle. Around the next corner was the steepest down angle yet. Sorry, no pics, I was not letting go! The whole time the Coopers held firm with no slippage.

 

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Candlestick Campground

We proceeded on to the Candlestick campground

 

[Ducmonsta]

So would you do it with a trailer in tow?


Nice pics. It brought back a few goosebumps from my trip this summer.

 

[RonJR]

As far as I can tell, there is no restriction against trailers on the White Rim road. You'd definitely want one rated for off-road travel. There are a few steep sections that can get a bit slick when wet - a trailer might be a liability then.

I've seen one trailer on the Dollhouse road in the Maze, which is much rougher than White Rim, so it's definitely doable.

Best would be to contact Canyonlands directly.

 

[jwatson]

Thanks for all the entries, really fun to scroll through and read about your awesome adventure!

 

[Orbital Debris]

If you have a high clearance trailer, and you have some experience with it on rough trails, I think you could do it. I would not want to have to back up on some of the narrow sections with a trailer if you met oncoming traffic though. Before going, I read through as many trip reports as I could and some were campers or larger. I think those people were nuts.
The majority of what I saw in the backcountry were toyotas (about 1 FJ, 2 LC's, 2 other 4runners and 3 Taco's) and a few jeeps.

 

[Ducmonsta]

As far as I can tell, there is no restriction against trailers on the White Rim road. You'd definitely want one rated for off-road travel. There are a few steep sections that can get a bit slick when wet - a trailer might be a liability then.

I've seen one trailer on the Dollhouse road in the Maze, which is much rougher than White Rim, so it's definitely doable.

Best would be to contact Canyonlands directly.

If you have a high clearance trailer, and you have some experience with it on rough trails, I think you could do it. I would not want to have to back up on some of the narrow sections with a trailer if you met oncoming traffic though. Before going, I read through as many trip reports as I could and some were campers or larger. I think those people were nuts.
The majority of what I saw in the backcountry were toyotas (about 1 FJ, 2 LC's, 2 other 4runners and 3 Taco's) and a few jeeps.

Haha.. sorry, I kinda meant that tongue in cheek. That's me tackling White Rim with my teardrop trailer, "Recon" this past summer. White Rim is considered a moderate trail but it's far from technical. Only Hardscrabble Hill and Murphy's Hogback gave me, or I should say the teardrop, some difficulty. There were definitely a few come to Jesus moments there.

It's definitely doable. And don't ask the park rangers in Canyonlands because they flat out told me "no".

 

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Consumables

BIL and BFD took on the duty of refilling water bottles. I brought along 2 cases of bottled water and a 7 gallon Reliance container, for about 13 gallons total. Towards the end, we drained the ice chest for wash water.

I brought along a 5 gallon gas No-spill brand gas can. Logistically, it would not fit up top, and I don't like to put heavy stuff on top, so I had it in the back. During the rough roads, I detected a whiff of gas, so I checked everything, and the gas can had a few drops of gas around the collar. It would have been ok I think, except for the hard sloshing and angles. Therfore, we drained the extra gas into the tank and aired out can.

A note on gas mileage. I calculated an average of 12.4 mpg for the portion including the trail, which included the drive from Moab. The miles from Moab (with the in and out of Arches) to exiting the trail were about 190. With the addition of the 5 gallons I ended up with a little less than half a tank. I was protecting in case we had to backtrack out at some point, and I think carrying the extra gas was good insurance.

 

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Candlestick was a good night of stargazing and relaxation. The wind was calm, there was a clear sunrise. We set out the next morning with me driving for the next leg. Murphy's Hogback was ahead.

 

[ecarpenter2]

I am so jealous. Looks like an incredible trip.

 

[mountnbykr]

Great photos, thanks for sharing!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[RonJR]

:worthlessI brought along a 5 gallon gas No-spill brand gas can. Logistically, it would not fit up top, and I don't like to put heavy stuff on top, so I had it in the back. During the rough roads, I detected a whiff of gas, so I checked everything, and the gas can had a few drops of gas around the collar. It would have been ok I think, except for the hard sloshing and angles. Therfore, we drained the extra gas into the tank and aired out can.

A note on gas mileage. I calculated an average of 12.4 mpg for the portion including the trail, which included the drive from Moab. The miles from Moab (with the in and out of Arches) to exiting the trail were about 190. With the addition of the 5 gallons I ended up with a little less than half a tank. I was protecting in case we had to backtrack out at some point, and I think carrying the extra gas was good insurance.

Just a note for any one doing this kind of thing in the future. Put the extra gas can on top, never in the cabin. Five gallons of gas only weighs 30 lbs, which raises your center of gravity less than 1/2 inch. That's a lot less of a safety hazard than having 5 gallons of highly flammable fluid inside your passenger area. Also, don't fill the extra gas can until you head out on your offroad trip. No sense in barreling down the interstate at 75mph with that much gas on top in a sketchy container.

BTW, OP, I love your pictures and narratives. Canyonlands is one of my all time favorite places, and I never get tired of reading about it or seeing pictures of it. Glad you enjoyed it so much and are willing to share your experience with the rest of us.

 

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On top of the Hogback

Not many pictures of the ascent because I was driving. Going up was the steepest ascent I have done. One of those places where you make sure nothing is in front of you, put it in 4LO and go. First pic is from the top and you can see the approach. We stopped to eat lunch at the top, and a couple showed up in an SR5 from Illinois. I took some pics of them on the way down, but pics dont do the steepness justice.

 

[Orbital Debris]

Just a note for any one doing this kind of thing in the future. Put the extra gas can on top, never in the cabin. Five gallons of gas only weighs 30 lbs, which raises your center of gravity less than 1/2 inch. That's a lot less of a safety hazard than having 5 gallons of highly flammable fluid inside your passenger area. Also, don't fill the extra gas can until you head out on your offroad trip. No sense in barreling down the interstate at 75mph with that much gas on top in a sketchy container.

BTW, OP, I love your pictures and narratives. Canyonlands is one of my all time favorite places, and I never get tired of reading about it or seeing pictures of it. Glad you enjoyed it so much and are willing to share your experience with the rest of us.

Yeah, I wanted to put it up top, but it did not fit with the boxes. Next trip I will work the loading to keep it on top. I only filled the can the morning prior to starting the trail, and the spillage was minor, so lesson learned.

Thanks for the feed back. My goal is to share info, and I'm trying to focus on the 4runner pics to give some perspective. But the views everywhere were fabulous!

 

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Gooseberry A

We ended up that night at the Gooseberry A campground. There are two campgrounds about 100 yards apart, sharing a pit toilet. While we were there, the service truck showed up and cleaned it out. More on that guy a little later. In the first pic, BFD is checking out some folks that were rapelling down into the canyon into caves. The clouds were starting to build, so we staked the tent thoroughly, and after a good dinner we turned in early as it started to rain and the wind kicked up.

 

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Communications

While at Candlestick, I tried out messaging through the Ham radio. I had a good enough reach to hit the digipeaters, and sent out messages through SMSGSATE. http://smsgte.wixsite.com/smsgte This is a way of sending APRS messages that get ported to the internet and then texted to the cell number designated. Pretty nifty, and it worked well to let family know we were alive and well at the campsite. It worked well enough to allow for emergencies if necessary.

Once we rounded the plateau and were on the east side of the park, we had intermittent cell phone coverage since we had line of sight to towers near the La Sal Mts.

 

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Gooseberry to Shafer

After a series of morning photos and breakfast, we set out from Gooseberry, and got underneath Monster tower and washer woman arch. We had about 27 miles to go and then head home for the day, so we got on the move.

 

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Ghost Cowboy

It is here that I come to the strangest anecdote of the trip. As we rounded the bend under Washer Woman arch, we pulled to the side to allow some mountain bikers to go by. At that point, we see a hiker come over the ridge in front of us. He spoke briefly to the bikers, then BIL (w/binoculars) tells me there is something odd with the hiker. He has no pack, and dressed like a cowboy, so I took a pic with the zoom. Straw hat, jeans, neckercheif, belt buckle and boots. We pull abreast of him and ask if he needs assistance. He sticks his handlebar mustache in the window and says: "Y'all seen my horse? He run off on me." Um, no. Would you like a bottle of water? "No, do you have any whiskey?" No, sure you don't want water? "Naw, I'm off to track mah horse."