Moab Jeep Safari 2003, or Why are we hanging from our
seatbelts?
We drove up to Moab on Thursday April 17th, to join our friends Phil and Patty Bender from Reno, and spend a couple of days running some Safari trails, then 4-wheel at leisure when everyone else had gone home. Phil’s brand new Jeep Rubicon attracted a lot of comment and admiring glances. On Friday we ran Fins & Things, which is always a fun trail and has some good steep climbs and descents, plus great views of the slickrock area around Sand Flats. Next day we started out on the Big Saturday Parade through town, and headed out to the Tiptoe Behind the Rocks trail. This trail avoids the major suicidal obstacles of Behind the Rocks, but still has several major obstacles of its own that demand giving your complete and undivided attention and trust to the spotter. After a somewhat white-knuckle experience you still have a long, long trail to get back to the highway, quite a way South of Moab. The only problem with the Safari is that you are likely to be in a party of up to 40 vehicles, and when everyone has to be spotted through a difficult part, you do a lot of waiting around. A couple of days later we ran 7-Mile Rim, and for most of the day we were the only two vehicles on the trail. We also took a leisurely trip along the Shafer trail, to see just where that Potash road went. It proved to run along the edge of the bright blue potash evaporation ponds, and eventually merged with the White Rim trail to ascend the incredible Shafer switchbacks up to Island in the Sky, not far from Dead Horse Point. Our downfall was Elephant Hill in Canyonlands National Park. We had a good run in over the hill, toured the Devils Kitchen and Silver Stairs, and went out to the Confluence Overlook to see the place where the Colorado and Green Rivers merge. On the way back, with Sandy driving, on the last major descent before Elephant Hill, I had just remarked “ we seem to be getting a bit high on the right” when suddenly the Jeep began to tip over and clunked onto the left side, then fell further over leaving us rubber-side-up and hanging from our seatbelts. Fortunately it was such a low-speed crash that we had no momentum to carry us any further. After a few minutes thinking that this can’t possibly be happening to us, I managed to crawl out through an open window, turn around and get back in to help release Sandy’s seatbelt while Phil and I helped to lower her down so she could get out. Neither of us had so much as a scratch, so at least we had that to be thankful for. Phil took charge, and rigged a wide towstrap around the Jeep, attached it to his winch cable and pulled the jeep up on its side. He than rigged a sheave to a tree on the side of the trail to get a more direct pull, and a little more winching had us right-side up again. Some other Jeepers who came up behind us helped to gather up our possessions, pick up pieces of broken glass and plastic, and shovel sand onto the spilled engine fluids. After a little time upright to drain oil, etc., down to where it should be, I started up the engine and drove down the rest of the hill to get the Jeep off the trail. Just as I reached a flat spot the warning lights came on, and I had just enough time to pull off the road before there was a loud bang!, and clouds of steam and radiator fluids poured out from under the hood. That ended any hope of driving out that evening, so after reporting the incident to the Visitor Center staff we gratefully accepted rides from the other 4-wheelers, who also helped us get most of the contents of the Jeep back to Moab. Next day, armed with engine oil, transmission fluid, water, brake fluid, upper and lower radiator hoses, and duct tape, Phil drove us back into the Park and we managed to get the Jeep functioning again. Fortunately the radiator core was undamaged, but the lower hose was totally shredded. We replaced the hose, filled up with oil, ATF, and water, and I managed to drive the Jeep over Elephant Hill, peering through a windshield that was still in place but cracked a thousand different ways. We drove it out to the Needles Outpost where the owners treated us like heroes, even to the extent of free beer and Elephant Hill teeshirts, while we waited for a flatbed wrecker to come from Moab. We were told that if we couldn’t get over the hill by ourselves and they had to send a 4-wheel wrecker to haul us out, the cost would be $150 an hour and would probably total $1200. If we got it over the hill and they only had to send a flatbed, then they just charged by the mile, which came to a whole lot less. A local body shop estimated the damage, and stopped counting at $10,500, so they decided it was effectively totaled. We salvaged what could be easily removed (winch, Optima battery, spare wheel, etc.,) but still had to get these things, plus whatever we had brought with us to Moab, back to Phoenix. The only rental agency in town had a Suburban and a Dodge Ram truck, but they wanted $750 for a drop-charge on a one-way trip. None of the rental agencies in Grand Junction would even consider renting a vehicle for a one-way trip. A U-Haul agency in Grand Junction offered to rent us a 14-foot truck for $670, but we managed to find one in Moab for $440. It was somewhat bigger than we needed but it was all we could get, and we had to wait until Monday 28th for it. That meant we had a few leisurely days in Moab, where there happened to be a major Classic Car & Roadster show going on. Except for a couple of cloudy days at the beginning, the weather was great for our stay in Moab, and all things considered, things could have been a lot worse.
