The next day dawned beautiful and bright. We fueled up, appreciating the fact of knowing how much we were paying in taxes, and then headed for Capitol Reef.
Up until now, 'we' had done little hiking (pretty sure all the guiding I did yesterday could qualify as 'hiking') and Mike wanted to get out and stretch his legs. So we did some exploring in Capitol Reef, checked out the mine claims, hieroglyphs, and old mines.
It really was a pleasant hike.
Having satisfied his need to stretch his legs, Mike suggested we do some more trails. On the map that they give you for Capitol Reef, there's the usual dotted line indicating "4x4 recommended" trail. We didn't think too much of it after the adventures of the day before, especially considering the name of the trail was "Pleasant Creek", so we headed out.
The rock formations in Capitol Reef are absolutely stunning in their colors.
The trail officially starts at an abandoned ranch aptly called the Sleeping Rainbow Ranch. It was pretty cool to get out and explore the different buildings and the ranch house itself.
The first trek of the trail begins by crossing Pleasant Creek. We came across a park ranger here and had to back up almost back to the ranch as both sides of the trail were covered with overgrowth taller than the truck. Once we crossed the stream, we enjoyed the view as we drove down a narrow dirt road, fairly well maintained. It wasn’t too long before we noticed the landscape changing, and it seemed like we were driving in a sunken, dried up river bed. Apparently the snows on the higher elevations are heavy enough to create a pretty deep runoff, which we were in. It was here that we came across a large rock in the middle of the path. Apparently this is where the trail “ends” and becomes “South Draw Road”, which is half on BLM land and half in Capitol Reef. However, it is not maintained in any way and is closed during the winter and spring months due to deep snows and heavy runoff.
Who knew? We certainly didn’t. All I could see from the map is that the trail ended at Boulder Mountain.
We were feeling adventurous and thought nothing of it. There were a few points the banks were above the Trailblazer, but overall the going wasn't too bad. In many places the “trail” for better lack of term branched off as the runoffs had formed small islands in the dry bed. There you had a choice of the “easy way” some rock, lots of sand, and dry rotted wood, or you could take the “hard way” big rocks, a little sand, and lots of dry rotted wood. Knowing how well the tires handled sand, we went the “easy” way.
As we continued on, we crossed some flat terrain, another creek, and then noticed we started to go up.
And up. And there was a really big drop off forming as we hugged the cliff face.
At this point we were starting to lose sight of the trail/tire tracks. A huge portion of it was in the side of the cliffs, formed and rutted by water runoff, but there was no discernable path other than the fact that there seemed to be fewer plants. The rocks were sharp and jutted out in the most random places. A few times you'd lose sight of the road entirely and I'd have to get out and scout ahead.
There was a real sense of being serious here. We were in very rough terrain, guided by a map of dotted lines, and we didn't even know how long the trail was exactly. There were a few areas that we both focused on the difficulty of the road and did not take pictures, but I actually found a person who had posted a few of the areas we didn’t take. So their photos are here as well and noted as not being our own. ***
At one point I was guiding Mike as well as recording him bringing the Trailblazer down a very steep curve. I figured we’ve already conquered a couple of difficult tracks, might as well capture this one as proof to the forum that we did it. Unfortunately, I was paying more attention to recording and where I was as opposed to where the vehicle was. Mind you, I was a half foot from the edge and an 800 foot fall, and the Trailblazer would pass me within half a foot with no room to spare.
I had guided Mike to hug the cliff face a little bit more so that the driver's side tires would be riding up the middle hump created by the runoff, giving the Trailblazer more clearance over some huge rocks that we sticking out sharply on the right side of the middle hump. Well, had I been paying attention I would have seen that just 2 feet behind me on the cliff face there was a pretty huge outcropping of dirt and rock that was hard to discern from the rest of the path from Mike's perspective. Before I know it, I'm telling him to stop, the Trailblazer is sitting at such an angle next to me that Mike is leaning halfway into the passenger seat, and we need to do something quick because we're about to flip the truck on it's side and potentially over the cliff’s edge.
I quickly suggested to Mike to turn the wheel all the way to the left and ease off the brake while I got out of the way as the truck slid sideways towards the edge of the cliff. Mike expertly turned the wheels just enough to guide the front end of the vehicle forward and down into the rut created by the runoff in order to clear the rest of the outcropping. As he did, I watched in amazement as the front Grabber AT on the driver's side pinched under the rim and then nearly disappeared as the truck continued to slide to the left. I thought for sure the driver's side front tire had been pulled off the rim! At the same time, I could hear the sound of the rock from the outcropping rubbing against the frame of the truck on the passenger side.
Suddenly this trail had become a nightmare.
After what seemed like an eternity, the truck leveled into the "middle" on the trail, the underside of the truck almost scraping on the rocks. Mike continued to ease the truck down, and I walked behind since the trail was too narrow for me to get back in the truck.
Some 500 feet later the trail itself leveled out and the cliff disappeared. We had reached the bottom of a small valley. We inspected the front tire, and I was amazed to see the thing still on the rim and still at 18psi. Unreal in my opinion. I thought the tire had come off for sure. Never had I been so happy to have a husband who does his homework on everything that goes on our rigg.
So, here we are in the bottom of a small valley, on a trail we knew nothing about, wondering what else lay ahead for us. We took a few minutes to get some water and food, and then we pressed on.
At this point this section of the trail turned right into the valley and we continued on over some very uneven terrain.
The valley seemed to widen out and the trail turned back into a dirt road. Our next problem presented itself as the road split in two directions, both running parallel to the mountain in front of us. We took a gamble and went left, only to discover the way was blocked and rusted private property signs were posted. So we turned around and went back the other way.
Up until today’s adventures, we had understood the fire restrictions due to drought conditions. However, there was certainly no sign of drought where we were. The trail itself was covered with deep water holes in several places and we had to skirt around a few lest we get stuck in the muck, much of which we were already driving through.
At this point, I was ready for this adventure to be over. We had been on this trail for 3 ½ hours, faced more challenges than we expected, and we still had no indication of how much further we had to go.
Finally we hit an “oasis” with a wide creek running through extremely tail grass. For a moment I felt like we were on an African Safari, except greener.....Anyways, the creek was definitely swollen from some recent rains, and the banks on either side were rutted where a few vehicles had gotten stuck before. I jumped out of the Trailblazer and walked ahead, sinking with each step I took, deeper and deeper the closer I got to the creek.
Mike radioed, asking how it looked, and I advised him of the situation. Well, I guess he was getting a little impatient with this trail and decided to just go for it. I wish I had been recording. It was a regular old scene out of the Dukes of Hazzard the way the Trailblazer bounced up out of the creek, front tires catching some air.....epic to say the least. I know Mike had fun with it.
It would have been even better if I was on the other side of the creek too......Much like the creek we crossed earlier in the day, I played the dutiful wife and waded through the icy waters (which actually felt really great in the heat) and got back in the truck. (Noticed, I’ve not complained once about not having driven, at all, in the last day and a half. That’s gotta be a record.)
After crossing the creek, we looked ahead and realized that the trail seemed to suddenly end, which made absolutely no sense! Sure we were surrouded on 3 sides by grass that came up to my window and redrock that soared above us, but there had to be a way out of there! It turns out that the trail, just past a large tree, disappeared into the grass by making a near 180 degree turn right and taking a steep climb up the cliff face for a few hundred feet. And this was one of those points that you prayed no one was coming the other way because with dense grass all around you and the tracks barely visible, there was no way to let anyone pass.
Finally we made it to the top, curved left and were back in a field again. We could see a dirt road some several hundred feet away, and between us lay more mud and boggy swamp than we had seen before. There was no way around this time, so Mike just said “F*** it and went.
This is the point I pause and say THANK YOU!!!!! to MDB Fab for getting us the radiator skid plate 5 days before our trip. It saved our hides here. I’d also like to thank my mom for always making me drink my milk and get lots of calcium for healthy teeth and bones.
Apparently the tail grass was also hiding some really deep ruts, ruts big enough that when the truck came down, it landed on that skid plate and it was only forward momentum and the read traction that pushed us up out. We continued rocking and bouncing, tossing mud and water every which way, until we finally came to the dirt road. I was really over this trail now after that bone-jarring, teeth-clanking jolt we received.
And this actually was the end of the worst parts of the trail in the sense of unpredictability. A few more miles down it turned into a graded road. A really graded road. As in rumble strip graded. As in I felt like the truck was going to rattle apart. The fact that we were now out of the water fold and red rock and climbing up the gray granite of Boulder mountain was lost on us. We didn’t care that we were suddenly seeing pine trees and mountainous-type terrain (such a far cry different from the red rock canyons. Nope, all we cared about was the fact that we had seen our first sign! Six more miles until a paved road and smooth driving!
Once lifted 03 Trailblazer on 35's, gave it up to travel the USA with my family.
