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Brady Melville
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Brady Melville
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Brady Melville
Story & photos by Brady Melville of Pathmaker Productions
After numerous trips to Moab over the years in the buggies and the rock crawlers, it was time to do things differently. Instead of spending an entire day to climb five kilometres up some crazy canyon, the idea for this trip was low-difficulty expedition-style wheeling. I was already in Cedar City, Utah shooting a rockcrawling event and drove up to Moab to meet with friends, get settled, and plan the week. The group consisted of former 4WDrive contributor Rich Walker, his wife Kelly, and their two-year-old twin daughters, Canadian Ultra4 driver Matt Nieman and friends Josh England and Eric Cresswell.
Walker drove his 1998 Toyota 4Runner, almost stock with nothing more than a rear locker, a bit of body armour including front and rear bumpers, a winch and some 32” Duratracs. Nieman drove his 2006 Toyota FJ Cruiser, equipped with a winch, lockers and some body armour (which we quickly learned it needed as the FJ is a lot lower and a lot wider than the 4Runners). And Cresswell drove his 2002 Toyota 4Runner with only a winch bumper, stock e-locker (which we fought with all week) and 32” Duratracs. We got settled in to Moab Rim Village, our home base for the week located approximately a five-minute drive south of Moab, and with our handy Guide to Moab UT Backroads & 4-Wheel-Drive Trails 3rd Edition, we set to work planning some appropriate trails.
First day of the trip was an easy trip through Strike Ravine to see how the rigs would run, how the ever important ARB 12v cooler worked, and how the toddlers would manage spending all day in their car seats off-road. Day two and we decided to go for the classic Moab trail, Hell’s Revenge. One of the best parts of Hell’s Revenge is its close proximity to town, less than a five kilometre drive from the main strip but connecting you with the cliffs behind town. With some of the most iconic Moab landmarks like Hells Gate, Mickey’s Hottub and Escalator, this trail is a Moab rite of passage. With our mild rigs we bypassed the above trails, getting a chance to watch other more built rigs go up the tough sections, but still do the entire trail. The majority of this trail is on slickrock, large sandstone ledges that rise out of the soft sand. With views of the Colorado River and Arches National Park, this trail is a great introduction to what Moab wheeling is all about.
The next day was more ambitious as we gave Kane Creek Canyon a try. Check out this ride-along video that I shot during the drive: Kane Creek Canyon Ride-Along Video. We drove 15km across Moab from Hell’s Revenge to the staging area for Kane Creek Trail. At the trailhead we passed a group of ATVs and they told us “plan to cross the river about 78 times.” We laughed and continued on our way. The canyon itself starts out a kilometre and a half across, with walls more than 300 metres tall, which slowly draw closer together as you get further into the trail. Though you start off in desert scrub, the high walls start casting shadows over the depths of the canyon. The trail winds along the river with shallow crossings back and forth as the river snakes down the canyon, proving the ATV drivers correct. The trail starts to climb one of the canyon walls to some very exciting roads cut high above the river. Ample width makes the trail feel safe, though excitement is high as the cliff drops hundreds of feet beside the driver’s door to the river below. Our crew’s skilled spotting got our 4Runners up the trail, and also a group of Ford Explorers that were in a bad spot on Hamburger Hill. The trail continues for a few more kilometers eventually leading you back to the highway about 15km south of town.
For day three, we decided to try 7 Mile Rim. It’s a slightly less difficult trail but with unbelievable scenery. Check out this ride-along that I shot on the trail: 7 Mile Rim Ride-Along Video. The trail starts out about 10km north of town and we quickly climbed off the highway and onto some shale rock ledges. We climbed for a few kilometres to the 400 metre cliffs overlooking the highway and the desert north of Arches National Park. The trail turns from the cliff edge and winds south towards Canyonlands National Park, passing by Uranium Arch. Taking the short detour was worth the effort and we could walk right underneath the soaring rock arch and have lunch in the shade. Back on the trail, we headed towards some massive red rock spires in the distance. The trail winds through the spires and back onto slickrock, letting us choose a few different paths of varying difficultly to push the Toyotas a little bit harder. Fantastic photo opportunities were everywhere as the trail heads off the slickrock and turns to winding dirt roads. Soft sand and huge banked corners greeted us on this section of the trail letting us pick up some speed as the cliffs whizzed by. The trail eventually turns to gravel and we hit the highway only a few kilometers north of the trailhead.
For our final wheeling day in Moab, we tried the Flat Iron Mesa Trail starting right off the highway near the exit of the Kane Creek Canyon. Flat Iron Mesa is more desert terrain than our previous days with rock ledges and scrubby trees and bushes to navigate through, with views of canyons in the distance. After a few kilometers of picking our way through the scrub, we came out along the top edge of some huge canyons, reminding us of Kane Creek Canyon, but this time from the top. The trail continues along the canyon side with lots of alternative lines and ledges, giving us a chance to really test the limits of the rigs’ capabilities. Deciding to take a trip over the Intimidator, Rich Walker lined up his 4Runner along the section of trail (after Kelly and the kids got out!) and squeezed it around a very tight corner with inches to spare before an 250 metre drop on one side. Though not a very difficult obstacle, it still lives up to its name and the rest of us took the bypass around. Back on the trail we found the guide book and our VHF radios very useful – as multiple trails crisscross the landscape, and we had to backtrack a few times as we made our return trek to the highway.
That was the end of a much more relaxed and scenic trip through Moab. Low dollar rigs and the urge to see some of the backcountry that can only be accessed via four-wheel drive dictated the trails we chose. But by no means did we have a boring wheeling adventure. Moab is like nowhere else on earth and getting an opportunity to see huge amounts of backcountry is well worth the trip!
Brady Melville of Pathmaker Productions made a fantasy a reality by leaving corporate construction to pursue a career as off-road photographer and videographer. Share in his adventures off-road at www.pathmakerproductions.com and www.youtube.com/pathmakerproductions for a front row seat on his next journey.