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Archive 2014 · Coyote Buttes South and White Pocket

  
 
uintaangler
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Coyote Buttes South and White Pocket


I made my first trip into Coyote Buttes South last year about this time
An incredible place for photography
I was with a friend from upstate NY and because neither of us had ever been back there, and because of the way Lauren Martres described the drive in his book about Arizona, we hired a guide to drive us in instead of taking my 4Runner SR5
I retrospect, I think the 4Runner is enough truck to do the job, with the addition of some recovery equipment that I don't currently own
Even still I don't relish the idea of trying it alone
Ideally I would like to team up with a fellow FM'er who owns a slightly more capable off-road vehicle ( ie: Rubicon ) and we could go in together - anybody interested?
If you are - send me a PM
Bob



Oct 30, 2014 at 12:19 AM
Darren K
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Coyote Buttes South and White Pocket


Boy, if this isn't disappointing to read! What did you get the 4Runner for if you aren't going to use it? I guess that could be said for much of the American public with their vehicle of choice. Granted, Martres makes it sound like the road of death and strongly advises going alone, both aspects make it sounds like he's never driven before and turns me off.

Incidentally, I'm also a 4Runner owner and will be going to White Pocket tomorrow for a couple of days--alone--at least the driving part (which I've done multiple times). I'm sure others will be there, and in "lesser" vehicles, as is usually the case. You can take the longer way in if you don't want as much sand; it barely qualifies as a AWD road taking the entrance further to the south. Forget any recovery gear and just put it in gear and go there if you want to go, sans Rubicon. There is hardly a way you'd get stuck. If you feel it bogging down, keep it in first (high range--low would be overkill) to keep the RPMs up.



Oct 30, 2014 at 08:13 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Coyote Buttes South and White Pocket


I've been doing a lot of backroad driving in Utah recently — about 250 miles in the past couple of weeks — and most of it isn't really that bad.

When reading descriptions of routes it is good to check more than one source and to read between the lines. Some authors (and I would be in this category) will tend to somewhat overstate the difficulty of a route for several reasons. One is to avoid encouraging people who are truly unqualified and/or in inadequate vehicles to try the route and get in over their heads. A second is simple liability — no one wants to write "there is another technically difficult about this route," only to have some newbie try it in their Prius (one of which I saw about 40 miles out on HITR road a week ago!) and get into trouble. A third has to do with not encouraging too many people to travel to places that can't stand too many visitors.

If you have a 4WD SR5 4Runner, you should be able to navigate some pretty challenging routes as long as you know what you are doing. (I drive a 4Runner Trail.) Nothing wrong with traveling with a partner, but the reason you got the 4Runner is to go to places like this.

Good luck.



Oct 30, 2014 at 09:46 PM
Dustin Gent
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Coyote Buttes South and White Pocket


We made in there with a Mazda Tribute V6 4WD (2001 model) this past spring. Tires didn't need to be deflated either.

One thing that you need to be weary of is oncoming traffic. One of the guides from Page was in his old Tahoe, and didn't even budge for us, and we were going uphill. We had to go "off road", and the dude didn't even wave.

From what I was told, the sand was a bit deeper than in the past. There were some vehicles in there that I thought would have no chance of making it, but they did.



Oct 31, 2014 at 04:36 AM





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