Easter Safari

2001

     We had planned to do the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail on the Monday before Easter.  But, as usual something always goes wrong.  We camped at the portal campground on Sunday night and got up early to meet at the Spanish Trail Arena.  After waiting a while to let everyone get together the trail leader had us pull out around 9:30.  We had only gotten about 40 miles south of Moab when Eric's Cherokee puffed out a bunch of smoke and pulled off of the road.  Upon pulling over we found that he had broken a rear u-joint and the output cone on the transfer case.  I found later that this was caused from his spring perches bending allowing the pinion to point up at a severe angle.  We stayed with him to go and get parts (he's our son) and insisted that the others went without us.  Hopefully we will do it next year. 

   After getting the cherokee on the road we spent the rest of the day hanging around town.  

    Tuesday we went up to the Top of the World Trail. It was blowing snow and colder than I care to stand in but the view was amazing.  We didn't get any pictures because we forgot the camera at camp, but I would recommend the ride to everyone.

   Wednesday we got together with some friends and did the Poison Spider Trail.  We went about 2/3 of the way in so as not to interfere with the safari group, but there were loads of other vehicles there.  We decided to sit and watch people come through the Wedgie.  So we ate lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather while watching people get a little air.

   After a while we made our way back out to spend an evening trying to stay warm around the fire.

   Thursday we made our way over to watch the safari group do some of the obstacles on Behind the Rocks.  We enjoyed the show for about an hour then went on our way doing most of the trail.

  We turned off before the white knuckle obstacle since none of us had done it before, and we decided it was good to do it on our own.  On the way back to town we stopped and played at the sand dunes.  Once again, most of us spent the night freezing our hinnies off.

   Friday we had made plans to do Elephant Hill Trail.  We met at the market about 9 and headed out, its quite a long drive to where you enter the park.  Make sure and take time to see the Petroglyphs on your way to the park. Once inside the park its a short drive to the start of the trail. Going over Elephant Hill is fun and the scenery is beautiful.  I think the trail is a 31/2 but some parts require a good line to get through.  The stock vehicles in our group had little trouble. 

We made our back over Elephant Hill and made it back to town in time to go to the raffle at the Spanish Trail Arena.  TNT won a set of motor mounts.  Another great day of Jeepin'.

   Saturday our Safari trail was Flat Iron Mesa.  There was a group of over 50 vehicles to start this trail, it seemed that by the time the last jeeps started moving the front of the line was stopping for a break.    There were enough obstacles to be fun, with the tougher ones coming toward the end of the trail. The names I remember are tilt-a-wheel and Easter Egg Hill.  Both of them were pretty exciting.   We made it back to town in one piece and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and contemplating our next trip to the best place on earth.