I usually go to Moab, Utah every year to meet & ride with a bunch of members of KLRWorld.com, but this year I couldn't make it as I had my kids over that weekend.
So I decided to take my 2007 Avalanche LTZ and explore some of the area (that I rode on my KLR650) in the Avalanche with the kids. FYI my Avalanche has a 1 1/2 inch leveling lift in the front and Z-71 engine and transfer case skid plates.
After setting up camp we headed off for our 1st and only run of the day, north from Moab to Castle Valley and Onion Creek.
Onion Creek is a canyon road that crosses a small stream 28 times. Somewhere in Onion Creek...
I had my daughter take some pics of a high speed splash- the entry of one pass -
The splash....
Deep in Onion Creek, heading back to Castle Valley -
Some landscapes in Castle valley -
On day two I decided to Go into Canyonlands National Park from Potash Road to the Shaefer Switchbacks, to Deadhorse Point, then down Long Canyon (Pucker Pass) & back to Moab for lunch.
We left Moab and went down Potash Road past the Potash mines and stopped for a few pics -
This from one of the Colorado River overlooks -
We stopped at the junction of Potash Road and The White Rim Trail. The Avalanche is pointed west towards the Shaefer Switchbacks-
I stopped here on the switchbacks to let the tranny cool off and to take in the view. We are about 1000 feet from the valley floor -
Following the switchbacks takes you a main road near the entrance of Canyonlands National Park. We headed north and then backtracked south to Deadhorse Point NP to check out the view. The Shaefer Switchbacks are in the top right of the pic while the trail that leads to them is seen just above the Colorado River -
Here is pic of the switchbacks from the Deadhorse Point lookout (we were just there!) -
From there we went west to Long Canyon, aka Pucker Pass. This just before descending down the canyon -
Going in...
Lots of sand...
About 1/3 of the way down the canyon there is a HUGE piece of the canyon wall that fell right over the trail. We had to stop because 2 4X4s were there stopping for photos -
We stopped for pics too. The Avalanche & my 12 yr-old daughter for perspective -
The trail underneath the rock was a lot rougher that it looks in these photos. I just went easy & never scraped anything. In the photos you can see lots of black marks and scrapes showing that others didn't have the clearance that I did.
Coming through the hole -
We drove back to Moab and had lunch. After lunch we went to Arches NP and toured the arches.
If you want to go somewhere in the US that will test any level of Avalanche 4X4's (or any 4X4 for that matter) ability, Moab is the place to visit!
