For the last year and a half my friend Jackson, aka Chief, and I have planned going on a trip to Moab. We wanted to run the “Rim Rocker Trail” from Montrose, CO to Moab, UT and planned to hit the trail 3 to 4 weeks after the trail opened. The idea of so many miles and the obvious draw of off-roading in Moab made this dream seem larger than life. Other than running the Rim Rocker and doing “something” in Moab, there wasn’t a lot of planning put into this adventure. Just a sort of rough idea and it kind of looked like this:

We decided to break the trip up into chunks that seemed somewhat manageable. Here’s what we decide on for a schedule:
– Saturday: Little Rock, AR to Apache, OK
– Sunday: Apache, OK to Montrose, CO
– Monday: Rim Rocker Trail “Part One”
– Tuesday: Rim Rocker Trail “Part Two”
– Wednesday: Arrive in Moab and find a camp site
– Thursday: “Fins & Things” Trail ride and cruise around Moab trails
– Friday: Reverse Rim Rocker back to Montrose
– Saturday: Montrose, CO to Apache, OK
– Sunday: Back to Little Rock, AR

Day 1 – Sunday: Apache, OK to Montrose, CO

That seems like a pretty daunting schedule in retrospect, but that’s how we sliced it out in our naive planning phase. On paper we accepted two days of 15 hours of drive time, but I can tell you that after one day of 15 hour drive time, in an old Jeep TJ, that’s just not reasonable for this older getting dude. So the first Sunday was our 15 hour drive and it covered Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. The landscapes, outside of Texas (no offense Texas!), were awesome and really helped keep the spirits high over the first full day.

For the most part, the landscape changes and frequent gas stops made the initial day flow pretty smoothly. Aside from the close call with a driver, who was freaked out by a semi-truck turning on their flashers as it merged from the on-ramp, it was a really mellow day. That is, until we made it to Colorado and began the ascend into the Rockies. Turns out that Grace, which is the name of Chief’s JKU, doesn’t really like steep inclines after driving 13 hours or so. So, we needed to take a break and who would complain about the views in Colorado for taking a break?

At the end of the day the trailer check from the nervous driver breaking out of no where, stopping to cool down, and the various gas stops along the way (these were the big ones) all added up to us getting to Montrose, CO a little later than we planned. Not really a big deal, but it did limit our dinner options. The original plan had us staying at a motel the first night so we could better recover from the 15 hour drive. We were set to tackle Day 2 after a good night’s sleep and that’s exactly what we did!

Day 2 – Monday: Rim Rocker Trail “Part One”

We started Day 2 at the local car parts store so we could top off coolant levels in Grace as well as have backup water incase we faced the overheating issue again. From there we made our way out of town to the start of the Rim Rocker Trail. We were probably 45 minutes into the trail when we came across an accident. Luckily, no one was hurt and we arrived 10 to 15 minutes after the incident occurred. A side by sid elost control and flipped over on it’s side, in the ditch. We were able to help with some water, bandages, and a winch to get eh side by side upright. They were able to reach friends for help as well and an hour and a half later we parted ways. The rest of the day just felt different after that encounter, but I’m glad we came along when we did and that we were able to offer aid.

We’d driven for several hours on the Rim Rocker when we decided to stop to camp at Ball Park Campground! The campground was a welcome oasis after the day’s travel and I was especially grateful for a stream/river to be close by. While I was aware that the amenity of water would likely bring on bugs, they weren’t too bad. That or I was just really tired from a long day on the trail.

We set up camp and relaxed for the day. The sun took a long time to set and the campground was mostly empty. While the temperature was still mid-90’s the cool water near by helped a lot! We eventually made a small campfire, but that was for no reason other than to get rid of the gnats that were swarming as the sun set. This was a great place to camp and with a little lower water level, I’d imagine a wonderful place to fish!

Day 3 – Tuesday: This is Where Everything Changed

Ok, so you can throw the rest of the original plan right out the window. How can I describe this… Here goes: The previous mentioned incident with the incoming semi, nervous vehicle driver, and Jackson, well that ended in Jackson’s defensive driving skills saving the day. However, his trailer made some pretty gnarly skips back & forth, which resulted in his roof top tent being forced about a foot to the passenger side of the mount. We fixed it on the side of the road back on Day 1.

Now, back to Day 3 where through some strange portal we hit on the Rim Rocker Trail the trailer separated. I’m not sure how it happened, but it did and by separated I mean that the top lid came off with the roof top tent and solar panels, did a 180 degree turn in mid air and landed smack on the trail. This happened around 9am Mountain Time. This is how we kicked off Day 3. However, we had that trailer back together in little more than an hour and we we’re backtracking the Rim Rocker Trail.

With a lot of unknown terrain ahead of us we decided to forego finishing the trail and to take pavement into Moab, UT. This was really a pretty easy decision since the crash avoidance and the trail bounce had pretty well pushed the latches and hinges well past their limit for abuse. So, we cruised into Moab and found a camp site. And I’ll be the first to say that the scenery in Moab is amazing!

Day 4: Moab to Pecos via Santa Fe

Our time in Moab was amazing and I’ll get around to another post about the off roading here, because it just deserves it’s own. We camped out for two nights and the heat started to get the better of us, so we decided to pack up and head south for New Mexico. The idea was to head out mid-morning and just cruise south to Santa Fe, NM for a late lunch. From there we would get gas and head over to Pecos, NM to camp for the evening. The entire drive south was met with 20 to 30 mile per hour winds from what felt like all directions at once.

The overheating issues with Grace persisted on this drive as well, but only really seemed to flair up when we hit a section of road that had some elevation to it. Aside from that, the drive wore both of us out completely, so we cancelled the idea of camping and just grabbed a hotel room. After some time checking the vehicles and topping off fluids we called it a night.

Day 5: The Trek Home

I’ll be up front that driving a 2006 Jeep Wrangler 2,700 miles was a draining task! There isn’t much else to report on from this trip as day 5 was back to Apache, OK and then day 6 was back to Little Rock, AR. Lots of paved miles to round out the trip and I felt an underwhelming sense of accomplishment. I was tired. Not the tired you get from a weekend trip or a really long day out on the trails, but the tired you get from driving a brick half way across the country and back.

I took several days to start to understand the magnitude of this trip. The lack of a formal plan left us open to all the challenges that the adventure brought and let me tell you that they popped up all over the place! There are things that you will never think of on a trip this big and now that I’m back home, I’m not really sure that I learned anything I can use on the small trips I make around Arkansas. The memories are incredible and I’m so thankful for the support to make a trip like this. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world!

There’s more to come on this tale, but for now I’m calling this adventure: Done!