Canyonlands Maze District

[Shamu]

My brother and I spent six nights in the Maze District a couple of weeks ago. This was our third visit and brought us to the last remaining pair (Panorama Pt and Doll House 3) of the park‘s perimeter campsites. Our previous trips covered High Spur, The Neck, North Pt, Ekker, Millard, Golden Stairs, Standing Rock, and Sunset Pass. This trip took us to Panorama Pt, The Wall, Doll House 3, Doll House 2 (2 nights), and Sunset Pass. The weather was excellent with crystal clear skies both day (70’s) and night (20-40’s...burr). I drove my 2004 Jeep TJ Rubicon and my brother drove his new to him 2015 Jeep JKUR Hard Rock edition. I carried 9 gallons of extra gas (filled in Hanksville) and my brother carried 4.5 gallons. I siphoned all 9 gallons into my Jeep and reached the Hite Store gas pumps with just over a half tank. My TJ also carried 12.5 gallons of water (not including several nalgenes and a canteen) in 1 x 5 gal can and 3 x 2.5 gall cans. RTB’d with a full 2.5 after drinking, cleaning, 2 x Helio showers. This trip reinforced preparedness as we used my tire repair kit & onboard air to trail repair a tire puncture on my brother’s Jeep. The other is armor. Enroute to Doll House 3 after climbing an aggressive rock obstacle, my brother noticed a long spill trail starting 1/2 down the rock. Smells like...gear oil...sh&%, check the Jeeps! After a thorough inspection, it wasn’t either of our Jeeps as we both had installed front & rear diff armor. It must’ve been that TJ we passed parked on the side of the trail. Most likely peeled back the bottom of their rear axle cover on that rock. Weird that the oil trail was only visible on the outbound direction (their drive out from Doll House) and not while we were driving inbound. Now on to the subpar iPhone 6 pics...

Day 1: North Point Rd enroute to Panorama Pt. Cleopatra’s Chair in the distance.

Panorama Pt campsite day view, Moon rise, Sunset, same view as the sun sets with diff colors.

Day 2: Panorama Pt sunrise, crossing what I call ”the tank trap” just past Teapot on the Doll House trail (this was a good day of 4-low), The Wall campsite, moonrise.

Day 3: enroute to Doll House 3, moonrise.

Days 4 & 5: Jupiter & Saturn visible at night from Doll House 2, morning sunrise on the rocks, Doll House 2 campsite. Hoods up to deny critters nesting.

Day 6: enroute to Sunset Pass just past Chimney Rock campsite, Sunset Pass itself, the campsite, Gunsight Butte with Jupiter.

Homeplate: TJ loadout minus sleeping bag and two clothes bags.

 

[Etoimos]

It looks like that was a fun trip. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[AZ WANDERING BEAR]

Thanks for sharing your trip. We just ended a 21-day run through SE Utah with 1 night at the Wall and 2 nights at Dollhouse 2 coming in and out through Hite. Probably crossed paths somewhere along the way. Getting the 4Runner through Teapot Canyon with my very nervous spotter/wife was interesting. Your comment on armor is spot on. Bad place to tear up a diff or transfer case (or anything else).

There were 2 Jeeps and 4 guys over at DH 1 our first night. We met them and had some great conversations. The next morning one of the Jeeps had a dead battery (single battery running a fridge with no solar). When they tried to jump it off the other Jeep something went haywire and tripped a ton of computer faults and codes. Nothing would work. They came to ask for help since we had a very faint voice-only Verizon signal at their camp, but not at ours. It was a Sunday morning so no dealerships open anywhere, but the wife started phoning friends in hopes of finding someone with an idea on what we might do. In the meantime, we pulled the battery - no help since there is a small lithium battery that keeps the computers going. Finally, we began to carefully pull and replace fuzes. One fuze silenced all the beeps and faults and then we were able to start the motor. Four pretty happy guys. Bad place to break down. One of the rangers told me there is only one outfit in Moab that will come out to recover or fix you and it certainly isn't cheap.

 

[Shamu]

Thanks for sharing your trip. We just ended a 21-day run through SE Utah with 1 night at the Wall and 2 nights at Dollhouse 2 coming in and out through Hite. Probably crossed paths somewhere along the way. Getting the 4Runner through Teapot Canyon with my very nervous spotter/wife was interesting. Your comment on armor is spot on. Bad place to tear up a diff or transfer case (or anything else).

There were 2 Jeeps and 4 guys over at DH 1 our first night. We met them and had some great conversations. The next morning one of the Jeeps had a dead battery (single battery running a fridge with no solar). When they tried to jump it off the other Jeep something went haywire and tripped a ton of computer faults and codes. Nothing would work. They came to ask for help since we had a very faint voice-only Verizon signal at their camp, but not at ours. It was a Sunday morning so no dealerships open anywhere, but the wife started phoning friends in hopes of finding someone with an idea on what we might do. In the meantime, we pulled the battery - no help since there is a small lithium battery that keeps the computers going. Finally, we began to carefully pull and replace fuzes. One fuze silenced all the beeps and faults and then we were able to start the motor. Four pretty happy guys. Bad place to break down. One of the rangers told me there is only one outfit in Moab that will come out to recover or fix you and it certainly isn't cheap.

21 days, look forward to reading your trip report! We were at The Wall 12 Oct and at DH 2 14 & 15 Oct.

Yes, mission planning, prep/training, and practice is a must prior to venturing into a remote, difficult to access area. My brother installed a dual battery system with protections in his Jeep for his fridge (thankfully, or we’d be chowing down on Mountain House and MREs!). Fuzes...the first items to check but usually the last checked. I wonder if that guy was running a deep cycle or regular batt. I changed the batt in my wife’s 2015 VW Passat TDI recently (not paying the stealership $400) and it set off a bunch of dash lights. Just had to drive the car and everything reset once she got above 30ish mph.

I use a small Anker solar panel & rechargeable battery to keep phones, lights, etc charged once we reach camp. A solar panel to charge the vehicle batt sounds like a great idea, especially in the SW.

 

[Mojavewanderer]

Awesome! I’ve wanted to go to the maze ever since reading Ed Abbey years ago.

 

[Shamu]

Awesome! I’ve wanted to go to the maze ever since reading Ed Abbey years ago.

Plan & go!
You’ll need a camp toilet & doody bags (must pack out your poo in addition to standard trash). I use a Cleanwaste camp toilet and either Biffy Bags or Reliance Double Doody bags. I keep disposable latex gloves in my “shit kit” to minimize “bio“ hazards. I also keep a small bottle of water in the kit now after trying the H2O on this last trip. This activates the powder in the bags to do their thing instead of using the recommended additive...

The fragrance emanating from the spare tire bag was almost zero compared with the previous 3 trips.