Nothing Special's Moab Trip - 2024

[Nothing Special]

Another vacation is in the books, and although it was a bit star-crossed, overall it was a very good trip.

This was supposed to be a trip where Lesley and I met Gary and Janey for some 'wheeling together.  We were planning that in this thread, but life got in the way, so it was just Lesley and me.

The next downer was that a week before this trip Lesley's dog, Kirby, took a big turn for the worse.  Kirby had been diagnosed with a heart murmur over 5 years ago, and although it was progressively getting worse, it usually didn't seem to affect her too much.  But now she wouldn't eat and was quite lethargic.  With a 3-day weekend at my folk's cabin, followed by this trip we wondered if it was her time.  But we decided to bring her to the cabin where she bounced back for a couple good days.

My older son was scheduled to take both of our dogs while we were gone, and although he was still willing to take Kirby, both he and his wife were pretty stressed about the possibility of needing to have her put down while we were gone.  But then my younger son asked to take Kirby.  While Mike was away at college before we got Kirby, Dan was still home, and Kirby was almost as much his dog as Lesley's.  So after making sure he and his wife knew what they were getting into we happily let Kirby go to his house.

To avoid dragging this part of the story out, after a couple good days with them, Kirby went down hill for the next few days, and on Wednesday they decided it was time.  We didn't have very good cell coverage where we were that day and couldn't make calls (which would've been better), but we were able to talk with Dan via text and help him make the decision.  So after being stressed about Kirby for the previous week, we ended the trip mourning her loss.

Here's a picture of Kirby as we were getting ready to go on this trip:


OK, enough of the downers.  Over the past few years we've made about 6 - 8 trips through the Eisenhower Tunnel, and I've been wanting to take the scenic route over Loveland Pass.  The drive out on this trip was finally the right time to do it, with no time pressure and great weather.  The scenery didn't disappoint, and we even saw skiers at Arapaho Basin!





Our first stop on this trip was a bit of a last-minute addition, but we decided to spend one night at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado.  We weren't expecting much, but it ended up being a high point.  Here are a few pictures and a very short video.  The river isn't THAT big, and it's 2,000 feet below.  But we were impressed with how well you could hear it anyway.









That's enough for this post.  I'll try to add one day's report each day until the trip is done.

[Gary Lewis]

It is sad about Kirby.  That had to put a damper on the trip.  I'm so sorry!

As for Loveland Pass, we came over it from the other side in a snow storm while driving a '69 Super Bee.  We had our lap belts on, but when we saw the little Dodge Dart off the side of the road with the right front wheel dangling in the breeze, and 3 more levels of the highway visible below, we put the shoulder belts on as well.  So I don't have any memories of what Loveland Pass looks like, but your pictures do look good.  

But I do remember Black Canyon Of The Gunnison in a better light - literally.  When my brother and I took Big Blue to Ouray a few years ago US50 was closed just after Blue Mesa Reservoir so they diverted us on CO92, which is surely how you got to the NP.  We didn't go into the park but did get to see the canyon from the highway like you did, and it is stunning!

However, it was very dry then and Blue Mesa Reservoir was so low that boats were moored hundreds of yards away from what is normally the shore.  It had been that way for years so the river was low and we couldn't hear it.  So that video shows me what we missed.  Cool!  

[Nothing Special]

It's the worst part about owning a dog.  But Kenzie's (my dog) reaction when we went to pick her up helped us remember why it's still worth it (not that we were in danger of forgetting).  And we'll get another.  In fact, when Lesley contacted Kirby's breeder to get on the waiting list for another puppy she found out that they actually had a couple puppies that would be available soon.  So she'll be getting her next dog in just a few weeks!

CO92 runs along the north side of the park.  We came in on US50, on the south side.  We had intended to take US50 west through Gunnison, but a bridge out forced us to take I70 (but let us take Loveland Pass) to Grand Junction and then go back east on US50 to the park.

A couple more things about the drive out.  We left on Thursday evening, getting into Iowa for the night.  That left us with either a very short drive or a very long drive on Friday.  We opted to stop just east of Denver, because our next option was well into the mountains and well after dark.  So we stopped early (around 5:00) and drove through the mountains in the daylight.  We still got to Black Canyon of the Gunnison by early afternoon.

And I forgot to get a picture of that camp site, but when we got to Moab (mid-afternoon Sunday) we set up at Sun Outdoors Moab Downtown.  This used to be Canyonlands RV Park, but apparently it was sold (Sun Outdoors has at least 4 or 5 campgrounds in Moab).  We stayed at this same park on our first visit in 2019, but were not able to get reservations there in 2021.  It's a kind of tight park with small sites (I did see a trailer back into another trailer, doing significant damage to both, when he was trying to get positioned).  But it has trees and shade (which can't be assumed in Moab!) and is within walking distance of downtown for shopping and shakes!

[mat in tn]

this sounds like a great trip overall. and it is the kind of thing that makes me want a rv also. jury is still out.
I just need to feel confident that it will get used before jumping on board.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, that is the worst part about having a dog.  We've done that many times and plan on not doing that again.  But I know many, if not most, people get another puppy pretty quickly and that seems to help.  So it makes sense and I'm glad you are able to get one you know you'll like so quickly.

As for the road, apparently US50 is needing a lot of maintenance in that area.  It was closed off and on a few years ago due to bridges and other bits failing, but we got lucky on the way out and it was open again.  Otherwise we were going to go south through Durango as the detour over CO92 is a long way out of the way.  But then you went a bit out of the way if you went through Grand Junction and back.

Your campsite looks a lot better than I'd imagined.  I saw the pics my brother sent of their trip 2 weeks ago and I didn't see a single tree.  But then they weren't taking them in Moab itself but out on the trails.

[Nothing Special]

I kind of think all trees in Utah are invasive species!

[Nothing Special]

Monday - Top of the World

Now we get to the meat-and-potatoes of the trip, the 'wheeling!  The original plan had been to run Sevenmile Rim on day 1 with Gary.  I thought about still doing that, because there are some parts of Sevenmile that we skipped in 2019 that I'd like to see.  But in the end I decided to start with the day 2 trail, Top of the World.

We had run this trail on our first Moab trip in 2019, and it was sort of a love-hate thing for me.  The first hour and a half (and then the last hour and a half) are really just rough roads that you sort of endure.  But the rest of the trail is a fun (but mostly not that difficult) challenge, and the photo op at the top is incredible!  Plus we hadn't run the back side of the loop at the top in '19, and I wanted to try that.  So Top of the World it was!

The first obstacle, or really two obstacles because there are two separate ledges close together, is where I asked Gary to keep an open mind.  I told him that I'd go first and make it look easy so he'd have confidence going up.  Gary, I still maintain that you could do this pretty easily (with a spotter), but while I did make the first ledge look easy (first picture below, and right at the start of the video), I didn't make the second ledge look easy!  I did make it (proof in the video!), but I slid off my line and started hopping, so I had to stop and restart.  Fortunately I was able to crawl right up after I got the suspension and carb to settle down.  But I'm not sure if I'd've been able to talk you into continuing at that point!





From there to the top was pretty much what I expected, some fun but actually quite easy challenges.  Gary, I'm sure you'd've enjoyed this section.  In the video at 1:10 I am taking an "extra credit" line, but really you and Big Blue could do anything I did on this stretch.

By the way, I did realize that I use the restart-with-the-clutch-engaged technique pretty frequently.  However 1:45 in the video is a place it didn't work so well.  I was in 2nd gear and the starter didn't have the torque to do it in that gear.  Then you can see why I like the technique as Pluto jumps backward when I push in the clutch to downshift.



At 2:59 in the video we get to the top.  While it's a great photo op, we didn't get very good pictures this time.  There were some other Jeepers up there when we got there and one of them spotted me to park Pluto for the pictures, but he put me way too far to the left (the first picture below).  I decided it wasn't worth moving to get better pictures because we had good pictures from 2019 (one of those is the second picture below).





Maybe another example of the stars being against us, as we were about to head down I saw a 4" slice in the sidewall of my left rear tire.  It was still holding air, but I decided to change it before heading down to avoid flexing it too much and blowing it so I wouldn't even have a spare.  That evening I moved the spare to the left front (to keep the two tires on the Detroit-locked rear axle more similar for the road drives), and the following evening I bought a used 32/11.50-15 tire (no 33" tires for 15" rims were available in Moab) to give Lesley more confidence before our long road day on Wednesday or towing it home.  And spoiler alert, but I sliced the right rear on the last day.  I crossed my fingers and kept driving on it, but it looks like I now have my "opportunity" to get quieter tires!



From 3:11 to 12:42 in the video we're heading down the back side of the loop, so Gary, we wouldn't have been on that stretch.  And as the amount of video would indicate, this is the hardest part of the trail!  It was a lot of fun, but I did need to stop and spot my line a LOT.





At 12:42 in the video we're off the back side of the loop and back to the first obstacle.  Gary, we would've had to come down either this or the bypass (which really isn't easier or less scary).  Again I made the lower ledge look easy, but the upper ledge is where the "teaser" picture I posted last week was from! (first picture below)  As spooky as that looks in the picture, and maybe even spookier in the video, I really didn't feel at all unstable.  And a longer truck would have done it smoother.  Plus if I'd've rode the brake more it would've gone down slower, without the exciting looking bounce.  But I'm afraid that as it was it would've made Janey like me a bit less!





Well, that was Top of the World.  The entire trail took us a little over six hours.  We saw maybe four other groups of vehicles in that time, so it certainly wasn't crowded, but if we had broken anything to the point of being stranded we wouldn't still be there!

[Gary Lewis]

Cool!  I wish we'd been there.  Looks like a long, but fun day.

I'm not sure that first obstacle would have put me off.  I think the power of Big Blue would have pulled me through w/o the problem of hopping.  Maybe?  But it doesn't look that bad.

As for restarting, the EFI might have made it easier for me as it sounds like you were loading up.  But I do see that you used it several times, so I'm glad I have that feature.

And that bit at 13:25 doesn't look as bad in the video as it does stopped.  But it probably got your attention, for sure.

Janey liked the shot at the top, and I'd really love to have a shot of us with Big Blue there.  And she's just said maybe we can do it in the future.  

But it is a bummer about the tires.  Why do you think you had those problems?  Too little air?  What pressures were you running?

[Nothing Special]

Glad to hear that neither of you were too put off!  I really hope we can complete the original planned trip at some point.

As for the tires, they're almost 5 years old, so maybe the rubber is aging???  Also they aren't exactly high-buck premium tires.  I'm not saying they're poor quality by any means, but they are some of the cheaper tires out there, and you do get what you pay for some times.  I was running them at 11 psi.  I know others run a lot lower (with bead locks), but maybe that's a bit low?  I might go up a pound or two, but we'll see.

There was one other vehicle issue this day that I forgot to mention.  As I was changing the tires back at camp that night I was having an even harder time than usual closing the tailgate.  As i looked at it the rear of my tub is starting to splay out at the top.  I guess 53 years of not always gentle use (as well as some rust) can take a toll.  I dealt with it for now by pulling it back together with a ratchet strap, but that's a project waiting to be done now.

[Nothing Special]

Tuesday - Poison Spider

Poison Spider was another trail I had been thinking about originally, but it's definitely a step above the ones I was going to bring Gary on.  This is a trail I tried to do in 2019, only to be turned back be the "gatekeeper" obstacle.  I had done a lot of YouTube scouting and felt ready to conquer it this time.

Poison Spider is just out of town, and most of the challenges are near the trailhead, so it's a very popular trail.  The challenges are all as the trail climbs up away from the river, to the top of the mesa.  Then it runs across the mesa to where it makes a loop, then comes back across the mesa and back down into the canyon.  It took us about 6 hours, with about 2 hours of that being the runs across the mesa and the loop (including a stop for lunch).  There are overlooks off the loop, as well as a hike to an arch, but we didn't do any of those (it was about 95° and very few clouds ).

Alternately, rather than doing the loop you can turn onto another trail, Golden Spike, and either do some of that and turn back, or else continue to its end and then take Gold Bar Rim out to the highway north of town.  Doing those three trails is called "the Trifecta" and it makes for a very long day.  I MIGHT do that sometime!

The parking area was very crowded when we stopped to air down (did I mention it's a popular trail?).  But one cool thing about that was I saw another early Bronco (the only other one I saw on the trails all week).  I said "hi" as we started up the trail and then the other driver started running up after me, so I stopped.  He asked "are you Nothing Special?"  Lesley was a bit offended  but the point is that he had recognized Pluto from another board I'm on.  When he told me his screen name I knew him too.  So that was fun!

"Yeller" offered for me to follow him up to the gatekeeper where he could spot for me.  I gladly accepted the insurance, but as it turned out I made it up the line I had planned to take quite easily (going up is right at the start of the video, 09:58 is coming down).



After that we waited for his large group and two groups of side-by-sides to clear out before we kept going.  There are a few more unnamed obstacles as the trail climbs up out of the canyon.  This little drop was pretty off-camber, so it was a little more exciting than it might look (0:30 in the video).



Then you come to the first named obstacle, "the Waterfall," which has no bypass.  It's a little off-camber, but not really too bad (0:59 going up in the video, 8:54 coming down).  Immediately above it the trail goes up a wide ledge.  You first see the right end which is pretty intimidating!  But the left end was very doable for us.





Next follows another series of unnamed obstacles as the trail continues to climb.  This one (3:00 going up in the video, 7:55 coming down) is steep enough that there's a winch anchor attached to the rock at the top (we didn't need it).



And then this one was a rare time where Lesley rode up an obstacle (so no video going up, but at 7:11 I'm coming down).



The next one (3:38 going up in the video, 6:30 coming down) had a little more ... topography in a steep climb, so it was a little more exciting, but Pluto made easy work of it.



"The Wedgie" is the next named obstacle.  V-notches aren't my favorite.  They're very easy if you do them right, with a big cost of failure if you do them wrong.  But I wanted to run the whole trail, so I went up it (4:39 in the video, but I bypassed it on the way down).



There's just one more ledge on the way up (6:12 in the video).



We don't have any video of the 20 mph run across the mesa or the loop, but we did get a few scenery pics.



Lesley thought this looked like it should be God's throne.



And this one is actually named "Pig Rock!"



Then it was back down the same series of obstacles we went up (I'll only include a couple more pictures here)





So that was Poison Spider!  Thanks for riding along!

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, since you said "it's definitely a step above the ones I was going to bring Gary on" I was able to watch it without too much concern.  Not "too much" concern.  But there were times I was holding my breath.  (Kind of like watching a movie for the 2nd or 3rd time knowing it works out ok but still being concerned the whole time.)

Man, some of that off-camber stuff is .... wild.  And The Wedgie is way too much.  Luckily a number of the transitions are so sharp that Big Blue wouldn't make it.

But you made it!  Well done!  And it is cool that you found someone you've "met" on another board.  

I'm glad you did that one, and did it well.  But that doesn't look like me.  

[Nothing Special]

I think Big Blue could do most of this trail.  But I don't think you'd enjoy it.  And at one point Lesley asked "you weren't going to bring Gary here, were you?"  And remember, I passed on it 5 years ago!

[Nothing Special]

Here's another short video from our day on Poison Spider.  This is "Yeller" spotting a couple rigs from his group up an extra credit line at the gatekeeper.

And I should mention that while this is a popular trail, and there were a couple of times (like this one) where we had to wait for traffic, generally the trail wasn't crowded at all.  We often went 15 - 30 minutes without seeing anyone else.  It certainly wasn't deserted, but it didn't feel like we were in an amusement park either.

[Nothing Special]

Wednesday - Capitol Reef National Park

No 'wheeling on Wednesday, this was a day to be tourists.  Utah has the "big five": Arches, Zion, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks.  We'd visited the first four, so this was the trip to collect the last one.

It's about 150 miles from Moab to Capitol Reef, so we got up pretty early and drove Pluto there.  Pluto is really good on the highway for a good trail rig.  But that doesn't mean he's really good on the highway, especially when the temps are in the mid- to upper 90s.

Part of the drive included road construction where we had to wait 15 - 20 minutes until the flagman let us take our turn on the one-lane section of road.  With no AC and no shade you really don't want to stop moving in Utah!

So we were a little worn out by the time we got there.  Then we found that a lot of the things we thought we'd do or see were closed for construction.  We did a 2-mile round-trip hike to see Hickman Bridge (a lot of us would call it an arch).  So that was kind of fun, but very hot.

I wouldn't say it was a mistake to go to Capitol Reef.  It's an interesting place, and if you go to Utah a few times (this is our fourth trip in 5 years) you sort of need to go to all five parks.  But this one was the least bang for the buck in our experience.  The long drive (over 6 hours round trip) in an open vehicle (we did keep the top up for shade) is just draining.

On the way back we stopped at a place Lesley had found out about called Moon Overlook.  It was a really cool vista over a big area that really looks like the surface of the moon.  That was fun to see, but it did involve an hour-long 17-mile round trip over a rough dirt road, so that was draining too.  And it was while we were there that we got the text from our son saying that he thought they needed to put Kirby down.

So this was a really tough day in a lot of ways.  It was still good in a number of ways, but it was tough on both of us.

Oh well, enough of my therapy session here, we did get a lot of good pictures.

Here's a view right from the highway through the park



We hiked a very short way up a trail for this picture



Chimney Rock is right off the highway



This was a short walk down a dry wash close to the visitor center



Here we are at Hickman Bridge (the bridge/arch is above me and to the right)



This flowering cactus was along the road to Moon Overlook



And here we are looking over the moon





So that was our day at Capitol Reef.  We're glad we did it, but while we may well go back to the other four Utah National Parks, I doubt we'll go back there.  The other parks are just easier to get to while definitely not being any less good to see.

[Gary Lewis]

Wow, that sounds like quite a day!  Temps in the mid- to upper 90s with all of the intense sun there is out there and having to stop for 15 - 20 minutes at a time is brutal.  Even just the hot air flowing through it is exhausting, much less the baking when stopped.

And then to have that news come in about Kirby had to make it a really long and tough day.

But the pictures look great!  That is stunning country and there's something interesting to see everywhere you look.  

[Nothing Special]

Thursday - Hell's Revenge

Sorry for what sort of sounded like me unloading to my therapist there, but understanding Wednesday is important for understanding Thursday.  Hell's Revenge is a trail I wanted Gary to experience, so it had been on the original list (if he and Janey thought they were up to it when we got here).  And the only other time I had run this trail was on the first day of our first trip to Moab.  I had taken a lot of bypasses and I wanted to try some of the harder obstacles.  So I kept Hell's Revenge on the revised trip plan.

But it turned out that neither Lesley nor I was in the right head-space for this trail today.  It was still a pretty good day, but I backed off a lot from my original plan, and still made at least one pretty bad decision.  And I'm afraid I burned any real chance of Lesley being willing to run the entire trail again.  More on all of that as it comes up in the report.

Like Poison Spider, Hell's revenge is a very popular trail.  It's only a mile and a half from town, it has lot's of great obstacles, and as I keep saying, it's THE must-do trail in Moab.  But also like Poison Spider, on this non-Easter Jeep Safari day it wasn't crowded.  We saw people often, but we'd go a while between seeing people too.

The trail started out good for us, but with just a little foreboding, as Lesley found the fin at the start freakier than she remembered.  But then we got to a ledge with a couple big groups of side-by-sides.  The first group all went up the easy line, and then I went up an extra credit line with Lesley and two others getting video!  (the very start of the video)  And Lesley heard one of the kids in the first group as "why couldn't we go up that way?"





Then we got to another place were I was able to take a harder line with a big audience and I didn't embarrass myself! (0:29 in the video)



Then it's when it became clear that Lesley wasn't really ready for this trail on this day.  In my guidebook it's waypoint 3, "huge steep fin."  Lesley's comment as we approached it was "No!  My dog just died!"  She then immediately laughed and said that she couldn't believe that she played that card, but this was a fin we had driven over on our first trip and she enjoyed the trail.  We bypassed it on this day.

From there to Hell's Gate there were numerous fun challenges (from 1:00 to 3:30 in the video).





Hell's Gate was one of the optional obstacles I had hoped to run, but I knew it was a bit of a long shot before we even left on the trip.  I knew I wouldn't do it unless there were other people there willing and able to help me.  There weren't so I didn't.  But I did walk it!



We did do the optional climb to the river overlook (I had passed in 2019).  But I probably should have passed this time too.  Nothing bad happened, but it was crowded before I went up, and then another big group tried to pack in, so it was a little challenging getting back off.



From there we went back to the main loop and continued to follow it counter-clockwise (from 3:30 to the end of the video).  This is some of the most iconic part of the trail, but it also includes some of the spookier stuff.  On this day Lesley ended up walking much of the next mile and a half.  And it was 103° this day   She was a trooper, but when we got to the Dragon's Tail (the end of this section) she had to ride (it's too steep for most people to walk down).  She kept her eyes closed the whole time down Dragon's Tail.  And when we got to the bottom we realized that there's a "cut-across route" from the front side of the loop and we could have bypassed this entire stretch.  And I think in the future we probably will.  Which is a bit of a shame, but it might be OK too.  I wasn't really in the right head space either on this day, and this stretch just felt relentless to me.  It's not that hard, but it just wears on you, especially when you started the day worn out.

It was also on this stretch that I made a bad choice.  It was one of the rare times the trail was wide enough to offer optional lines (and one of the rare times Lesley was riding).  I chose a line that had a pretty big ledge to drop off.  I didn't realize that as I started on the line, but I did stop and take a quick look.  It looked like a little more than I wanted to drop off, and there was a better line.  But I didn't want to take the time to back up and reposition.  When I dropped off the ledge I landed on my spare tire.  Hard.  Surprisingly it doesn't seem like I damaged the fender (where the carrier mounts) or the tailgate (where the latch mounts).  But the latch and carrier were both bent up a lot.  The carrier doesn't come close to staying latched now.  So it's tied shut until I can fix it.

A lot of whining there, but it was still very photogenic!







We didn't get any video of Dragon's Tail, but here's a picture looking back up at it.  It's so steep that you are hanging from your shoulder harness as you go down.  And then it gets steeper.  And then it gets steeper again!  It is incredible that vehicles can drive this as easily as they do, and it's actually pretty fun, at least to have DONE it if not to actually DO it!  But I'm not sure Lesley will do it again.



From there we went to the next named obstacle I had wanted to do, Tip-Over Challenge.  But I decided this wasn't the day for it.  There was some shade there, so we stopped for lunch.

Then we went to the last obstacle I had wanted to do, the Staircase.  I could have done that pretty easily I'm sure, but Lesley wasn't going to ride up it, I wasn't going to make her walk up it in that heat, it's a one-way trail so I couldn't go back down to get her, and I didn't see a quick way to get back around to the bottom if she was waiting for me there.  So I passed.  And we didn't take any pictures or video at either of these places.

We did stop for some pictures at Abyss Canyon, but otherwise we just motored out, taking the easiest lines I could.



So that was Hell's Revenge, 8 miles in about 4.5 hours.  It was still a fun day, but in hind sight we should have done something easier given where we were emotionally after Wednesday.  We had been planning on running another trail on Friday, but with Friday forecast to be 104° and how Thursday had gone, I decided we should pack up and head home early.  I'll probably add a post about the end of the trip, but this was the end of the 'wheeling.

Thanks for bearing with me!

 

[BigBrother-84]

Nothing Special wrote

Then we got to another place were I was able to take a harder line with a big audience and I didn't embarrass myself! (0:29 in the video)

This country is just… gorgeous.
Breathtaking views everywhere you look, I have no word.

And what to say about this pict of Pluto!  Wow!

But if someday I go back there, it will be in late summer…  Much too hot for a polar bear like me!

Thanks so much (and special thanks to Lesley!) for sharing this trip with us!

[Nothing Special]

That picture is...  I'm not sure what the right word is.  Good?  Deceiving?  Most of the time video and pictures can't capture how steep something really is.  This time it even exaggerated it.  This is really steep, don't get me wrong!  But this picture is really... good!

The guy I met on Poison Spider on Tuesday has been coming out to Moab 2 - 3 times a year for the last 20+ years.  He said this week was a rare one for him because he almost never comes out between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  It's hot out there in the summer!  That said, the average highs for the week we were there (1-2 weeks after Memorial Day) are ~85°.  We had highs from ~95° to 103°, so it was a hot week for the time of year.

[Gary Lewis]

Jeff - You are right, thanks to both of them for sharing the trip with us!  It has been fantastic to follow along - especially since we were planning to be there with them.

Bob - It is a shame that the things conspired against you such that you left early.  However, I can see that.  Obviously Lesley was hurting, and I'm sure you were as well.  Then the heat.  Yikes!  

As for Hell's Revenge, that looks STEEP in so many places!  But you make it look easy.    However, I can see many places I'd have been spooked, and know Janey would have been in so many more.

That's an interesting thing about us.  When doing "carnival" rides, like at Silver Dollar City, she trusts the people that designed it and those that put it together w/o concern, and she'll get on the scariest of the rides.  But get in a vehicle and she gets squeamish very quickly.  I'm the other way 'round and don't trust the rides but do trust the vehicle - to some extent.

But I think you hit the nail on the head: "it's actually pretty fun, at least to have DONE it if not to actually DO it!"  I'm chagrined that I can't say I took Big Blue down Black Bear.  And I'd really love to have a picture of him @ Top Of The World.  But getting there is spooky!

And those temps sound brutal.  My brother said two weeks earlier it wasn't that bad, but over 100F and all of that sun would be tough.

Again, I'm sorry that things went the way that they did.  I hope you get a chance to do it again.  

[Nothing Special]

In a way it's good that we experienced it the way we did.  It showed me that it's possible to do "Hell's Revenge Lite"  (Heck's Revenge???) if you want to experience it but not be completely worn down.  You could take the bypass we took around the "huge steep fin", and then come back south from Hell's Gate to the "cut-across route" to the bottom of Dragon's Tail.  Don't get me wrong, there'd still be plenty of steep, scary spots.  Just not nearly as many.  You'd miss the "hot tubs", but other than getting to see them it's no loss, they aren't something most of us would ever do.

It gets back to, but slightly revises what I said 5 years ago, if you can only do one trail in Moab, do Hell's Revenge.  If you aren't quite up to doing that, do this "Hell's Revenge Lite.'  And if you aren't quite up to doing THAT, do Fins 'n Things.