Utah Passage Offroad

May, 2014

Nevada, Arizona & Utah, USA

The Utah Passage trip was another off-road adventure organized by Doug Lawyer, a vital force in the Arizona Land Rover Owners Club in Phoenix, AZ.

This adventure was set so we'd leave from Mormon Lake, AZ, a week or so ahead of the Overland Expo event. Of the seven trucks that would take part, two came from B.C., three from Arizona and the balance from Texas. This was the third such trip that we have participated in.

Day One

We met up with Doug as he came up from Phoenix, and we travelled north on the highway to the trailhead in Nevada. The other trucks were going to meet us at the first campsite in Beaver Dam State Park, just inside Nevada.

We set up and camped over night at the park campsite, and then got organized the next morning to start the off-road journey.

Day Two

Despite it being May, the morning temperature was very cold. So the hot breakfast we made was a good start to the day. Once everyone got all packed up from camping, we got out onto the trail. The first priority was to get the order sorted in the convoy.

There were three soft top Defenders, and these are generally put toward the front. These more primitive vehicles don't seal out dust very well, nor do they have air conditioning. So the drivers usually try to keep the windows open. Although we also drive a Defender, we have installed a fibreglass hardtop, and we do have air conditioning. As long as we are moving at a decent speed, our air conditioning works quite well. But at slow speed, it causes the engine to over heat. Even after we replaced the radiator with a new four core model, we still have problems.

The other thing was to lower the air pressure in the tires so driving off-road is more comfortable. Tire pressures are usually 15 to 25 psi depending on the tires and the load in the vehicle, and this lower pressure allows the tires to act as a secondary suspension system. It works really well at smoothing out the smaller bumps.

The morning and early afternoon was spent running the forest service roads working our way back to the town of St. George. We crossed over the Nevada/Utah state border, and even in the back country, there was good signage to let us know where that border was.

Once in St. George we all hit a gas station to fill up all the fuel tanks, including the ones up on the roof. Most of these vehicles are thirsty, so we have to carry additional fuel when off-road for any length of time.

Fueled up, and in some cases, snacked and coffee’d up as well, we were pretty much ready to go. But before we could, we had to wait for other trucks that wanted to meet us in St. George, to find us.

From St. George, we headed south east to get to the point where we were going off-road again. From there the trail was flat and open for some miles until we got to the base of a large plateau that we had to climb up onto. Camp for the night would be on that plateau.

Climbing up the track to the plateau wasn't without its difficulties. Our truck started to overheat, so we had to open the engine bonnet an brace it so the heat in the engine bay could escape. Often, the hood would be removed entirely to let the engine run cooler. But this wasn't the worst problem. One of the other trucks went off the track on the downhill side. So a vehicle recovery had to be done, which took some time to accomplish. It's the general outcome when the driver doesn't pay attention to the track, and looks at the view while moving.

Day Three

Getting up early gave us the opportunity to get a few great sunrise photographs. The height of the plateau provided a great vista.

The driving for the day was mostly off-road, but we did connect up with Highway 89 coming up from Arizona. We drove on pavement for about ten miles before we headed off-road again. Along this stretch of highway, we stopped again for a fuel fill. The terrain for the day was varied, and consisted of flatland, forested areas and some hilly sections.

One of the stops of interest was at a place called Bull Valley Gorge. It was a very deep cleft in the landscape where the more energetic individuals can hike down into the gorge and walk along its bottom for some distance. We didn't stop for long, because the area around the gorge didn't offer much in the way of parking for so many vehicles. So we didn't want to block the trail.

Unfortunately, when we went to leave one of the trucks from Texas, a Defender 90, wouldn't start. Despite the collective knowledge of the group, we couldn't get it going. So we had to have one of the other vehicles tow it with a strap until we could get back to pavement.

Fortunately, we were mostly downhill from the gorge, and the small town of Cannonville was ahead. The problem with the Defender appeared to be the coil, so while we were making our way to the town, guys were on the cell phone looking for parts. Cannonville had a nice KOA campground, so we elected to stay there in a group site. It was a great place with hot showers and a laundry room for anyone who needed it. While there, the search for Defender parts continued.

 Day Four

Locating parts for the Defender turned out to be a bit of a problem because of the area being dotted with small towns. Since the group was on a fairly tight schedule, it couldn't wait around while a repair solution was found. So one of the trucks stayed behind with the broken Defender, and the rest moved on. It was hoped the part could be found quickly, and then the two trucks would drive ahead via the highway, and meet up with the group at the next stop where they came back out onto pavement.

Quite a lot of ground was covered this day in order to get to the campsite above Lake Powell before dark. And although the day started out sunny, the weather became more unsettled as the day progressed. The topography changed dramatically over the course of the day ranging from mountaintop forest to valley bottom rocks and gravel.

Day Five

The morning couldn't come fast enough for all of us. The wind came up around 10pm, and boy did it blow. We spent most of the night trying to stabilize the fabric sides to our roof tent as the flapping of the fabric was so violent we were afraid it might rip. Others had the same problem, and some with ground tents gave up on them and crawled into their vehicles to try and sleep there.

Everyone survived the night, but we were all pretty tired in the morning. Making things worse was the weather. The clouds were rolling in, and it started to rain. The wet conditions made running on some of the trails difficult.

We travelled east along a gravel covered track, but as we got closer to the mountain we had to climb over, the wet intensified. When we got up on to the top of the mountain we were met with snow. What made this worse was that the gravel track had turned into red dirt, which when wet is slick as goose grease. Of course by this point we were headed down the other side of the mountain. Snow, slick red mud, and we were going downhill pulling a trailer. Ya, lots of fun.

When we got down to the bottom of the mountain, there was a long straight stretch of red mud track to move along in order to get to the next junction where we would turn right and head back down to the plateau over another section of Lake Powell. This red mud was really slippery, and we had to be careful not to stop. Doing so would make it very difficult to get going again because of how deep and slippery the mud was.

Once we got to the T-intersection where we were to turn right, several of the more capable vehicles made the turn and travelled ahead to scout out how the road was. It was less than ten minutes when we heard over the HAM radio from them that the route was just too dangerous because of the red mud. And if it was bad for them, it would be disastrous for us towing a trailer. We all waited for the scouts to return, and we all turned left and headed out to the pavement, and the little town of Escalante. There we filled up the fuel tanks and had a conference regarding what we would do next.

For Wendy and me the decision of what to do was pretty clear. With the wet, cold weather we couldn't carry on. Aside from the danger of pulling a trailer off-road on slippery tracks, we just weren't interested in carrying on in mud and cold.

The others decided to hold up in a motel close by overnight, and then see what the morning brought. The next day they decided to carry on with the trip. But we had already headed back to Flagstaff, and Mormon Lake where we started our journey. Before we left, though, we took advantage of the self car wash that was attached to the gas station. They had the high pressure wands necessary to blast the mud off the truck and trailer. Everyone else did the same thing.

It was just after lunch when we hit the road back to home base. The route we chose would take us past Bryce Canyon National Park, so we thought we would check it out if the time and weather allowed it. We came up Route 12 and past the north end of Bryce Canyon. There was a pull off there, so we stopped to make a cup of coffee. It was still very cold, but the sky was mostly blue. We thought of going into the park, but the weather report on the HAM weather station was saying a bad storm was coming into our area. So erring on the side of caution, we decided to press on.

It was a good thing we kept on moving because we just rounded up over the top of Bryce Canyon main entrance and we could see what was coming at us. And it came in fast. In very short order we were in a winter blizzard with heavy blowing snow that caused drifts to move across the road. Fortunately we were able to keep going through the worst of it, and came out the other side of the storm. A few more hours of driving and we got back to Mormon Lake well after dark.