2013 DWeb Utah Trip

Tugela

Well-known member
May 21, 2007
4,754
561
Seattle
I just read all 16 pages of this thread and didn't see any info about route taken, campsites, trails driven, or trails hiked. I'm contemplating a trip to south-central Utah this spring and would be glad to have this kind of detail from prior trips to help wrap my mind around planning.
 
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Howski

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Oct 19, 2009
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Alabama
This may all be further east than you’d like but last year we ran Beef Basin from the south up through the Needles district and elephant hill then to White Rim trail. Really enjoyed this route. Some great camping opportunities, not many other vehicles and great diversity of scenery. Nothing ridiculously hard on the trails but fun spots. Had planned to make our way back east via Rimrocker Trail but had to call an audible due to the snowpack on the trail. That said, our trip likely wasn’t as remote as the Dweb trips but it was a hell of a time.
 

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chris snell

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Aug 15, 2005
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Sorry, I don't typically do "trails", so I can't help you, Tugela. We drove the popular Bears Ears-to-Elephant Hill on our first trip but that was the last time that we ever did a trip that can be easily described. The rest have been on dirt roads that I scouted out with my Rain Man-like obsession with Google Earth and first hand over a decade and a half of trips out there.

Since the first trip, we've been to:

Grand Staircase-Escalante
Owyhee Desert/North-Central Nevada
Far Southern Utah
Central Nevada
Utah West Desert
Arizona Strip
Far Eastern Utah
Peninsular Ranges of Baja California
 

Tugela

Well-known member
May 21, 2007
4,754
561
Seattle
Thanks, Chris, I'm not looking for specific info on trails as such, more along the lines of guidance for trip planning. What would be useful to hear is:
  • Steer clear of this area unless you have a 5" lift and 37" tires,
  • Camping at X and Y were particularly memorable because of the sunsets and isolation,
  • The stretch between A and B had stunning scenery,
  • Hiking near ____ was awesome,
  • Stuff that shouldn't be missed, and
  • Stuff that you wouldn't go back to.
If I go I'll probably spend 2 days getting there, 2 days getting back, and 5 days there.
 

Tugela

Well-known member
May 21, 2007
4,754
561
Seattle
Thank you, Peter, these are the kinds of resources I'm looking to study. Offhand, can you point me to anything similar for the central/southern Utah vicinity? I have a guidebook on reserve at the library I need to go pick up. Until I can get over there it would be handy to have some trip reports to peruse.
 

Tugela

Well-known member
May 21, 2007
4,754
561
Seattle
Having picked up a hiking guidebook and the NatGeo paper map to the national monument, I have a better sense of the scale and the landscape. The distances can take a long time to cover. My five-day visit is woefully inadequate to extensively explore the area. I'm going to focus on two smaller locales and spend multiple nights in each: the lower reaches of Hole in the Rock Road (Coyote Gulch, Davis Gulch, Willow Gulch), then Paria Canyon area. There looks like tons to do. I will be planning my second trip by day 3 of the first trip.
 

AbnMike

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Apr 6, 2016
1,218
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Western Slope, CO
Im in Grand Junction, CO, couple hours from Moab if any Dwebers get out this way and need a garage spot to wrench or fart sack, etc.

The Colorado National Monument is worth a paved road drive through for anyone in the area.
 
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Howski

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Oct 19, 2009
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Alabama
Im in Grand Junction, CO, couple hours from Moab if any Dwebers get out this way and need a garage spot to wrench or fart sack, etc.
This would’ve been convenient for my trip last year after we had to call an audible on the last day of our trip. We ended up camping in White River NF which luckily turned out pretty great