The M~D~U Report: A Thousand Miles of Dirt in Utah

[Blackdawg]

ready for more, just spent two days on and off reading this thread- awesome trip

Well there ya go! Long chapter and a ton of photos. Enjoy!

Hi BD
As usual great pic's and story to go with. You must be very busy, thanks for squeezing this in.
Russ

Thanks Russ! Been crazy a work indeed the last few weeks. I think this week though i have more time and can get this thing totally wrapped up! Which is good because i have plenty of other ones to start!

Glad you're enjoying it!

 

[java]

Thanks! Cant wait for the finish.

 

[Blackdawg]

Chapter 8:


The Final Stretch​

The next morning, was a late morning. Thankfully the tall rocks sheltered us from the hot sun to allow us the chance to sleep in after a very late night.


I crawled out of the tent a bit gingerly expecting the skunk to still be there.


Thankfully, it was not.


The only evidence left was little paw prints all over,,well everything damn near.


Instead of trying to hit the road in a hurry we made a large breakfast/lunch to all eat together, thinking it was our last night together.


By the time we had actually hit the road, it was past noon. Reluctantly we left the best campsite we had stayed at in a long time.


M~D~U.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


We met two more rangers right after stopping at Chimney rock and told them about the Skunk. Doubt they did anything about it really but they appreciated the insight.


Before too long we had crossed the smoother desert roads and were back in the slickrock.


M~D~U-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

IMG_2648 by mike digirat, on Flickr

M~D~U-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Then we got to the spot where I had dinged my bed side and came upon a rather...interesting spectacle.



M~D~U-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

IMG_2649 by mike digirat, on Flickr

M~D~U-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


What the hell is this? And how did it make it back here haha


It was a full size Dodge Ram quad cab with a custom camper bed on the rear of it. This guy was running around moving rocks like crazy and spotting the driver over things inches at a time. Seemed very stressed and tired.


M~D~U-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Mike and I could do nothing really but sit back and watch.


M~D~U-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

IMG_2651 by mike digirat, on Flickr

IMG_2654 by mike digirat, on Flickr


Eventually he made it over the serise of small rises and pulled off to let us by. Felt a tad funny and almost insulting to just drive right over the same spot in less than 10 seconds when it had taken him 15minutes.


M~D~U-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


“How the hell did you get that back here?” I asked him.


“Oh, just take her slow!” He replied with a slightly nervous but large grin.


Turns out the thing is locked front and rear. They us the camper usually for hang gliding. Told us to check out their youtube channel haha


We wished them luck and motored on but not for long till we hit more oncoming traffic, a stock GMC 1500.


M~D~U-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


“That can't be fun” Mike said.


“Not fun like we are having anyways” I replied.


Soon after we passed a 2nd gen tacoma also headed into the area. The Doll House is one of the most popular camp spots in the district.


After that though we had smooth sailing and hit the soft sand parts again with glee.


IMG_2656 by mike digirat, on Flickr

M~D~U-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-18.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

At the intersection we once again turned north to head up Lands End and Flint trail to exit The Maze from the North, the original way we had entered. Despite it being our 3rd time here, I still had to take photos which was fun and I let Devin drive to Flint.


M~D~U-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-21.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


At Flint, Devin swapped back to passenger as she didn't want to drive up the steep switch backs.


But we had no problems going up the very cool road.


M~D~U-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-23.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-24.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-25.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

IMG_2663 by mike digirat, on Flickr


Hard to believe we had just driven and camped out this way a night ago.


M~D~U-26.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Back ontop of the Orange Cliffs, the road was easy to maintain decent speed. I still very much wanted to make it out to Panorama Point. But when we finally got to the turn off and realized it would be an 18 mile round trip detour. We realized time was once again not on our side..


“We will just have to come back!” Said Mike.


A worth reason to return to this ultra isolated area.


M~D~U-27.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


On our way out we stopped at the Ranger station, mostly to use the restroom, but I went in to ask if there was a way directly to Green River that didn't involve the highway.


Lo and Behold! There was.


63 more miles of glorious Utah dirt to drive on before we would have to air up and hit the long road back home.


We also met one of the Law enforcement Rangers that we had seen earlier. He quickly went and got the head ranger so we could give her a road report on Poison Springs. All the Rangers were baffled at how much ground we had covered in 3 days.


“Well, they aren't really your typical trucks” I said. Which lead to a couple of the ranger going to poke around the trucks. Wish I had had Frankenstein, would have been hilarious.


Needless to say, the daylight was fading on us again. This late in the year I wasn't used to the early setting sun yet. So we hit the long smooth road out of Hans Flat to find the road to Green River.


M~D~U-28.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr



The road was long, obviously, but it was super easy to fly over. I mean, wouldn't you drive as fast as you could on a road like this?


M~D~U-29.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-31.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


But even with our high cruising speed of 50-65mph on the road, we were no match for the sun.


M~D~U-32.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


By the time we pulled into Green River our orignal plan was gone. We realized we would be camping another night but had absoultly no idea where.


So we hit the highway 191 North now it the pitch black and Devin poured over the GPS and APRS map to find us some BLM land.


Remarkably, we found some, in the dark on a busy two lane highway. A few miles back from the road we found a pull out and setup our official last camp spot together.


There was nothing remarkable about it though.


M~D~U-33.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-34.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Or so we thought at first.


On our way out, Mike looked down at his odometer and proclaimed it read 1198 miles! We figured we had driven about 1000 miles or close to it of all dirt on this trip.


This was reason to celebrate!

IMG_2664 by mike digirat, on Flickr


And our trusty rigs that had taken us so far with basically no hassles at all.


M~D~U-35.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Plus we both had hours and hours of driving left just to get back home in these same trucks. It is truly remarkable what these trucks are capable of. Hell mine is practically bone stock with 180k miles on it!


What an amazing trip with my good buddy Mike @Digiratus


IMG_2665 by mike digirat, on Flickr


Granted, Devin and I weren't done. Since we had an extra day to kill, sort of anyways, we decided to make one last stop on the way home.


We said our found fair ware to Mike, wished him safe travels and at the junction of high wasy 6 and 191 we parted ways.


IMG_2666 by mike digirat, on Flickr


When we got back to Flaming Gorge we decided to take the west side up to see if it was any better. While it was nice, I recommend the West side.


M~D~U-36.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-37.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


We now headed back the way we had come North of Rock Spring to Lander, but this time, took a bit of a dirt detour to go see a formation called, The Boars Tusk.


M~D~U-38.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

I've wanted to come here ever since my good friend Marc @SconnieHailer had posted photos about it a few years ago. This time I wasn't going to miss it.


M~D~U-39.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-40.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-41.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


What this is is the remains of an ancient volcano.


M~D~U-42.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


And yes, you can walk right up to it, and yes, it is much bigger than you think haha Standing at 400' tall, its no small thing.


M~D~U-44.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-45.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


It felt good to be back in Wyoming and the light plus crisp fresh cool air seemed to welcome us home.


M~D~U-46.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-47.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


We scrambled around the steep volcano for a while. But something else out here had really caught our interest we had seen signs too on the way in.


M~D~U-60.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Petroglyphs!


I love seeing these things, and with it being wyoming plus out in the middle of no where. We were sure to be pretty much alone at them.


It was even better.


A short half mile walk to the site showed a gated off area that kept animals out.


M~D~U-48.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Other than that though, we got to walk right up to them.


M~D~U-49.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-50.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-51.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-52.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


There were tons of them! Hundred along a long rock face traced back to 1,000-2,000 years ago.


M~D~U-53.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-54.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-55.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


But by far the most amazing thing to see was this.


M~D~U-56.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Hand prints scooped out of the sand stone. It was amazing.


M~D~U-57.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

M~D~U-58.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


More hands a fingers.


M~D~U-59.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


But home was calling, and I wanted to get closer to Lander for camp which meant we had to leave. But my god, what a lovely detour right off the highway basically. Shame most drive by it, I'm guilty as charged myself. Was nice to remedy that.


M~D~U-61.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


From here, we drove back to the Wind River to the wonderful welcoming sunset of Wyoming light welcoming us back home.


M~D~U-62.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Our trip was at a close. 16 Days and 17 nights made it the longest adventure I have done to date. With over 3,000 miles driven and a third of that on dirt roads alone. It was completely whole heartedly one of the best experiences of my life. And I hope that this will inspire folks to try something similar themselves. And no need to wait on your rig. One of the largest downfalls of the current mind set of “overlanding” or whatever you want to call it is that gear as suddenly become a “necessity” to do adventure.


Bull ****.


Hell my truck was 2 steps away from stock! I put on slightly taller tires, some sliders, and some used suspension components. And look where it took me.


You can do that too


Stop waiting on your bumper or wheels or fridge or whatever! Find your adventure to do in good company. Capture the moments to share. Enjoy it.


M~D~U-63.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Tread lightly folks.


Thank you for reading The M~U~D Report.

A Thousand Miles of Utah Dirt


The End. ​

 

[Blackdawg]

Credits:


Narration/Photos/Photos compiled by:


Monte, aka Blackdawg



Photos by:


Mike Digirat



Personal body warmer and expert cooke for Monte :


Devin, my girlfriend




The Trusty Steeds:


Igor




The Red Head





Thank you Bobby at CVT Tents for letting us try out the Summit series' Shasta tent. Look no further for your Roof Top tent needs folks. Bobby is the man. @Cascadia Tents


M~D~U-134.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


See you on the trail!

Other Trip Reports:
August 2014: The SOS Report

August 2015: Fires, Tires, 'n Bears. OOH YAAH!

August 2016: Alberta Bound & Beyond

March 2017: ImpromptU-ah! Back to Utah We Go!

[URL='https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/the-detour-trip-report-as-told-by-blackdawg.196872/']September 2017: The DeTour[/URL]​

http://forum.expeditionportal.com/t...Ah!-Back-to-Utah-We-Go!?p=2355716#post2355716

 

[unkamonkey]

Thanks, I've been going out to that area for I over 30 years so the pictured brought up a lot of memories. I didn't do it in a danged Toyota, I did it a proper vehicle, a CJ3B.
Just keep going on.

 

[Aussie Iron]

A real nice finish to a great trip. Thank You again for taking us on a trip through some very amazing scenery and along the tracks in the area.

Dan.

 

[RotorHead04]

Amazing! Great pictures, great adventure, and overall great storytelling! Thanks for posting. Trip reports like this make me hate living in Texas. Time to head back west.

 

[RJ40]

What a splendid adventure! Thanks for all the inspiring pictures and the fun report. That was definitely a huge adventure right in your back yard really..
I didn't catch what time of year exactly this was, but assume fall with the lack of crowds and nice leaf colors. Who made the bed frames for the tents, they look minimal and effective!
Whose rear springs did you go with in Igor?

Cheers!

 

[Roody]

Awesome read as always. Looking forward to the next one. Got my adventure juices flowing, hoping to plan a road trip out west next year and possibly see some of these places!

 

[pyrate]

"Our trip was at a close. 16 Days and 17 nights made it the longest adventure I have done to date. With over 3,000 miles driven and a third of that on dirt roads alone. It was completely whole heartedly one of the best experiences of my life. And I hope that this will inspire folks to try something similar themselves. And no need to wait on your rig. One of the largest downfalls of the current mind set of “overlanding” or whatever you want to call it is that gear as suddenly become a “necessity” to do adventure.


Bull ****.


Hell my truck was 2 steps away from stock! I put on slightly taller tires, some sliders, and some used suspension components. And look where it took me.


You can do that too


Stop waiting on your bumper or wheels or fridge or whatever! Find your adventure to do in good company. Capture the moments to share. Enjoy it."

No truer words have been said. I do need to convert my Tacoma to 4x4 but that's it!

 

[Blackdawg]

Thanks, I've been going out to that area for I over 30 years so the pictured brought up a lot of memories. I didn't do it in a danged Toyota, I did it a proper vehicle, a CJ3B.
Just keep going on.

haha Long as it gets you there and back its a proper vehicle!

A real nice finish to a great trip. Thank You again for taking us on a trip through some very amazing scenery and along the tracks in the area.

Dan.

Thank you for reading and commenting. It was a fantastic trip.

Amazing! Great pictures, great adventure, and overall great storytelling! Thanks for posting. Trip reports like this make me hate living in Texas. Time to head back west.

Thanks!! Yes you do! Though some pretty cool stuff in Texas..

What a splendid adventure! Thanks for all the inspiring pictures and the fun report. That was definitely a huge adventure right in your back yard really..
I didn't catch what time of year exactly this was, but assume fall with the lack of crowds and nice leaf colors. Who made the bed frames for the tents, they look minimal and effective!
Whose rear springs did you go with in Igor?

Cheers!

I find it kinda funny how i watch many of the people i know go to other countries and explore far far away places. Because often i think..why? Look at all this great stuff so close by! haha

This was done in October actually, last two weeks of it.

Mikes bed rack is made by a local fab guy in Wa area, Bad Land bumpers. My bed bars are from Eric at Relentless fab and to me are basically the perfect height for a bed rack. Keeps the tent low. A jerry can fits vertically. I can stack my military medical cases perfectly as well. Really like them.

My rear leafs are Mikes olds ones actually ha! Traded me for some of my labor when i built his rear bumper for him. They are an 8 pack by Alcan and very nice, though they have been VERY abused over their life so they don't hold up Igor's heavy rear during trips very well. All in good time. Mike currently has custom Alcans on his rig and i'll follow suite...when i feel the need for it. As Igor is my DD still and really just a back up rig at this point, i don't find it ultra pressing to get new springs.

Awesome read as always. Looking forward to the next one. Got my adventure juices flowing, hoping to plan a road trip out west next year and possibly see some of these places!

"Our trip was at a close. 16 Days and 17 nights made it the longest adventure I have done to date. With over 3,000 miles driven and a third of that on dirt roads alone. It was completely whole heartedly one of the best experiences of my life. And I hope that this will inspire folks to try something similar themselves. And no need to wait on your rig. One of the largest downfalls of the current mind set of “overlanding” or whatever you want to call it is that gear as suddenly become a “necessity” to do adventure.


Bull ****.


Hell my truck was 2 steps away from stock! I put on slightly taller tires, some sliders, and some used suspension components. And look where it took me.


You can do that too


Stop waiting on your bumper or wheels or fridge or whatever! Find your adventure to do in good company. Capture the moments to share. Enjoy it."

No truer words have been said. I do need to convert my Tacoma to 4x4 but that's it!

haha yeah i think that would be important

Otherwise, get out and have fun!

 

[nswanny]

Bravo! What an amazing trip and your words at the end are oh so true! Just go...!

 

[Utah200]

Nice one. Thanks for taking so much time to share it such detail.