Utah 4x4 advice

After doing a lot of research and traveling a lot of the back country around Moab, Utah, I have a few pieces of advice to share.

1. We rented a 2010 Ford Explorer with low range 4WD and about 8.3 inches of ground clearance. We drove it down from Salt Lake City for use in 9 mile Canyon and a few other stops on the way. The SUV was very solid on the road, felt great even at 90 MPG and had so-so passing power. It was the 4.0L SOHC V6. We totally had enough power for rock crawling AND we averaged 21.3 MPG the whole trip. Not bad.

2. We first went to the south off-road trail in Moab and traveled it from South to North (not recommended.) The road was perfect for the Explorer and we put on the low range a few times with no problems. There was one spot that said it was impassable during the summer due to deep sand, but with some speed it was a lot of fun! The reason why they recommend North to South is the final .75 miles at Tower Arch between Salt Valley road. We got up the first two features (quite a challenge) and then saw the huge stair case. 16 inches of ground clearance IS needed for this section. I was told that a stock Wrangler and Tahoe did it, but scraped along the way. The drive is worth it for the tower arch and for the Eye of the Whale arch. Make sure and walk around or through Eye of the Whale. Looks way awesome!

3. We then drove the first few miles of the Colorado over look road in Canyonlands. It was raining very hard, so I had to go through a few deep pools (up to the doors) but otherwise the road was very easy. The rest of the road has 1 second to stairs that any stock 4x4 should be able to do with some good lines.

4. I drove to looking glass arch (worth the 4 miles total out of the way) and ran into deep sand after a heavy rain. This was a blast to do with the 4wd off, but I had to stick it on to get through a wash.

5. We drove up Onion creek for a while after a rain storm and the road was closed. This was a fun trail that I hope to complete at some point!

Moral of the story: If you want to do some light offroading, don't rent a Wrangler in Moab. There, they are $150 for a half day and there is a 150mile limit meaning no needles district for canyonlands. Our entire bill for the 4 days at Enterprise was $300 with unlimited miles. We were not stressed with trying to pack in a huge day of 4x4ing and the Explorer has very similar capabilities as a stock Wrangler.