Six State Adventure: Part 1 | Overland And See

Day 1: OC to St. George Utah

The goal for day one was to take our time and make sure we had everything packed and then make the 400 mile drive to St. George UT. We ended up leaving around 1 pm Friday afternoon and started making our way to Las Vegas for dinner and a few slots.

Before the trip we had all serviced our vehicles and checked all of the standard components to try and eliminate any possibilities of mechanical failures on the trip. Even with all of our preparations, some unforeseen problems didn't take long to show themselves. The first problem to rear its head Cherokee running uncomfortably hot on the baker grade (albeit it was 106 degrees out when we were ascending).

We ended up pulling over and letting the Jeep cool down a bit and pressed on to Vegas. Unfortunately that was not the only problem the Jeep had that day. About 10 miles before state-line my speedometer started oscillating up and down and settled at 0 mph where it would sit for the remainder of the trip. I ended up pulling the speedometer sensor at the next gas station in Vegas and discovered the problem appeared to be a shredded speedometer drive gear but none of the auto parts stores had any replacements in stock so I put it all back together and we pressed on to Utah using the GPS as my odometer and speedometer. We arrived at our campsite just short of St. George Utah at about 11 pm and crawled into the tents.

Day 2: Off to Moab

After a sleepless night because of the 100 degree ambient temperature all night we decided to pack up and get moving early. We had another 340 miles to cover on our way to Moab and would meet up with the last member of our trip Nic along the way.

As we entered Utah in the daylight we were awestruck, the whole state seemed full to the brim of massive valleys, cliffs and mesas which made the long driving day very memorabe. As we were driving along Interstate 70 we kept seeing a dirt road that paralleled the highway and after a few miles of looking, we finally found a way onto the dirt.

Unfortunately the dirt road hit a dead end after a few miles so we ended up back-tracking and getting back on the 70. We met up with Nic not long after returning to the 70 and pressed onto Moab where we ran into some interesting wildlife and had to pull over to take some photos.

With the photography session out of the way it was time to roll into Moab for night two. We ended up camping in the only established campground of the trip near the start of the famous Fins and Things trail.

With the trip aligning with a new moon, the stars were epic on the few nights that we could actually see the sky without any cloud cover.

Day 3: Dirt from Moab to Gateway

In our map scouring stage when planning this trip we noticed that there were dirt roads that connect the Onion Creek trail which starts just north east of Moab to Gateway Colorado so we decided to take the fun way. Before we set out on our long dirt day we did a little bit if rig maintenance. The day before we noticed that the Tacoma had broken a rear shock on the way out of our first campsite.

We called around all of the 4x4 shops in St. George and in Moab and none of them had a replacement that would fit in stock so we decided to remove the shock completely so it wouldn't get caught and rip out the brake lines. One of the 4x4 shops in St. George did end up having a speedometer gear for the Cherokee that was removed from one of their other build projects so I threw that into the transfer case but the sensor turned out to be broken as well leaving me without a speedometer and odometer for the remainder of the trip. With our dammage assesment out of the way we topped up our water and fuel tanks in town and headed off to Onion Creek Trail.

The Onion Creek Trail was going to be the first real offroading that anyone of us had experienced in Utah so needless to say we were pretty darn excited. With a long dirt day ahead of us we pulled over and let some air out of our tires while taking in the amazing view.

The Onion Creek trail was one of the most interesting and beautiful trails that any of us had run and it is has absolutely made its way onto the list of trails to run again. The trail was not particularly difficult and could be run in 2wd but it was so cool be driving down the bottom of such massive canyons and crossing back and forth over the water at the bottom. The trail spat us out at the other end of the canyon where we connected with the Kokopelli Trail that would take us to Colorado.

The Kokopelli ended up being one of the best unplanned trails we took over the whole trip. The original plan was to head down Fisher Valley after finishing the Onion Creek Trail but the road we were going to take ended up being gated within ranch land. After checking the map and talking to the rancher we found a route up the other side of the valley and across to the Kokopelli. Before too long we rejoined the back roads between Moab and Gateway. After about another hour of driving and chasing the sunset we found a campsite a few miles south of Gateway along the Rim Rocker Trail.

With our camp set up for our first night in Colorado and rainclouds on the horizon, the desert chapter chapter of our trip was concluded and it was now time for some muddy, rainy and high elevation camping near the Alpine Loop.