MOAB Utah 2020 our next stop on our cross country adventure.

Lisa RichartHernandez
hi friends welcome back to RView podcast. Today we have lots of exciting stuff to talk to you about on our continuation of our cross country RV trip, and all about our favorite place Moab, Utah. We’re going to talk about RV parks. We’re going to talk about tour guides, we’re going to talk about national parks, trails and even some trail etiquette if you’re a deeper, so stay tuned.

intro
Welcome to RView Podcast, where we talk about life travel and real estate. Join George and Lisa Hernandez each week as they share insights and parenting tips about their lives as a blended family with for teens, their crazy travel and adventures and get Lisa’s input about real estate as she juggles it all while still managing her Top Producing real estate brokerage View Properties.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi, welcome back to RView podcast. I’m Lisa RichartHernandez.

George
I’m George Hernandez

Lisa RichartHernandez
and today we are going to talk to you about our favorite stop on our cross country trip, which we both agreed was Moab Utah. And we’re so excited to tell you so many things about this podcast today and hopefully give you lots of good information. Also if you are planning a trip there or have been there and are planning a trip pack, the first thing I have to say is if you are planning to go to Moab in the spring or the fall plan ahead, we did not have a lot of time to plan ahead unfortunately, and had a difficult time getting a place to stay for long as we wanted to be in Moab. So the very first place that we ended up getting a spot Was that

George
okay, RV park.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. Tell us tell us a little bit more about the park. George. You’ve got your notes right there.

George
Okay. “Okay RV Park” is a small resort, but they do have a lot to offer. They offer RV rentals. They offer RV sites, the Lux tents, teepees? Yes, teepees and basic cabins. We had the chance to walk around the resort and it was actually really cool for such a small place. They’ve done a lot with it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I wouldn’t say it’s a resort, I would say it’s definitely a campground because there’s everything from tents, to RVs. And while we were there, we didn’t even have hookups. We got a couple of the last few boondocking spots for us to just sort of pull in for a couple of nights. And it was it was perfectly fine. There was a dump station there. But we weren’t i don’t i don’t believe they wanted us to run our generators at night. So we didn’t know

George
that. Yeah, they did have quiet time. So just got to make sure that you’re all charged up before quiet time. But we have a 40 foot RV, as most of you know, and we fit in there perfectly. was quite accommodating. And they have five of those boondock spots.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so we pulled in kind of late in the evening on that night. And we knew we were going to be on a Jeep Tour The next day, so we didn’t really spend a lot of time there. And it wasn’t really boiling hot either. So not having the the the generator on at night was was perfectly fine with the windows open.

George
Yeah, well, it was actually beautiful to sleep with them. I’m not sure

Lisa RichartHernandez
if in the middle of July at 100 degrees, that would be your ideal place. But there are full hookups there. We just didn’t reserve in time to get anything good.

George
Yes, so the RV sites. The regular ones include full hookups, water, sewer 30 or 50 amp free Wi Fi and cable. And they have very nice clean bathrooms with showers and also a coin operated laundry. The teepees i thought was pretty cool. They have four of them, they can sleep up to four guests an HTP. And they include a private outdoor space. So the teepees kind of surrounded by a kind of like a fence, remember, and it’s really cool. They have a includes the private outdoor space with patio, a free firepit, a gas grill, and an outdoor sink. So you can do all your cooking, cooking and cleaning outdoors.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so there’s a bunch of different kinds of units that were there, there was a Jeep club that was there that we met some people and they would did not have an RV, some of their friends had RVs, the more intense and then they were renting like the main cabin and even have like a little fenced in backyard and a kitchen in it. And so that was kind of like their whole group met up there. So if you’ve got a group that’s kind of a mix like that, that’s like a really good option to consider if some people may or may not have an RV but you want to meet up there to go ATV riding or jeeping or something like that.

George
But if you’re thinking of renting something like that, that’s the only one they have in the resort from what our friends was saying you really need to book that well in advance. So like the cabin, yeah, yeah. They also have some basic cabins. So if you have another couple and you just want to rent two little cabins, they’ve got four of those available they can sleep up to three people. They have AC and E that provide all the linens, a nice little mini fridge. I mean, it’s a really, really well run resort. The, the little area outside of the office was really cool. They had like a community fire pit, and they do all kinds of COVID a lot of times weren’t really going on. So it’s kind of hard to say what it would be like if it was I know, but we looked at their calendar. And like they typically have all kinds of events. They had

Lisa RichartHernandez
indoor roller skating.

George
Yeah. And indoor roller skating that they set up somehow.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so we only spent two nights there. boondocking. Okay. And then we got into, so Okay, is on the one end of vo, which is, I guess, is that the sub the southern end?

George
Yeah, we’re still kind of

Lisa RichartHernandez
on the south side of the city and the north side. Near Arches National Park was where we ended up staying at portal RV. And we got lucky. We got six nights there. We started with for that. And we Yeah, and somebody cancelled. So we put our name on our list. And they called and said, Do you want these extra days? We’re like, yeah, then I probably could have convinced charges day for like another three months or so. At portal RV. As a matter of fact, absolutely.

George
Utah was my favorite part of this whole trip. And I just, it is an outdoor, adult, outdoor Disney.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I got, like, if you’re really like, I’m going to be honest, I said on this cross country trip I’ve had eat crow so many times. And oh, yes. And basically things that I said I would never do or couldn’t understand what anybody liked to do. I just fell in love with and one of them is is is riding in the jeep and going on the trails. And I fought George for almost two years on getting our jeep and now I love it. And we decide, I think it does made our trip that much more fun to be able to go to places that you really would never get to see in a regular car or regular vehicle. And just so much beautiful stuff there. And then the other thing that I said I could never understand why people did was hike. Like, why would people just for no reason go walk up a mountain. And I mean, there were so many beautiful places, and I literally felt when we were in Moab like we were on a different planet. I mean, I’d never seen any kind of landscape and the change in landscape like that. It was just so cool.

George
Yeah, they have three or four national parks that surround Moab. And each one was different arches was obviously the arches

Lisa RichartHernandez
which were I was totally surprised that they are I think over 2000 documented arches in that park. Well, yeah, and it’s like all this like, desert sand landscape that looks like you’re somewhere from like Star Wars or Mars, Mars. And then Canyon lands is is is National Park is kind of on the other side of Moab. And it’s like

George
mini grant, mini grant, I

Lisa RichartHernandez
guess many Grand Canyon the few call it many, but it’s still gigantic. Yeah. And then you have the Green River and the Colorado River that run through that whole area as well. That’s just I’m just really, really cool. So we did a an all day

George
kayaking tour. That was awesome, too. Yeah, that one was a lot more work than our previous guy.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That’s true. Let’s talk about that for just a minute. As we leave booked a we had already booked a all day excursion doing kayaking when we were in the redwood forest area, and we loved that and we enjoyed it so much. And it was just George and I and kayaks and our guide and we got a tour through the redwood forest. So we’re like let’s do that again on the Colorado River. And MOA, this is gonna be amazing. And so we did so each got our little kayaks. In hindsight, I probably would have chosen to go on the whitewater raft like with the rest of people. Yes. Because it was it. It’s because it was the end of the summer and there was no current and the water was really really low. And the wind was blowing in the opposite direction. We actually ended up doing a lot of hard paddling. We were gonna wait eight hours on we got our workout for eight hours,

George
that’s for sure.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. And the people that did the whitewater rafting kind of had more of a relaxed ride like even the the guy that was in their their their whitewater raft basically controlled the whole raft and

George
Yeah, he did all the work.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Because there was no rapids really, it was very, very, very low rapids. But we also while we were on that trip and what was the name of the tour company that we did because they did a great job with that tour. I’ll put it in the show notes. So the tour company did a great job. They took us in a bus out to the

George
Green River

Lisa RichartHernandez
up to the green, known as the Colorado River. River.

George
You’re right, Colorado River.

Lisa RichartHernandez
They took us on a bus ride up to the Colorado River. And they were very COVID friendly. Everyone have their masks on and everything but they kind of divided us up between the whitewater raft people and the individual kayak people. And then we had a lunch along the way. Halfway after part of the group left, the morning group left, and then we stopped and we had our lunch, which was nice. It was like sandwiches and chips, and then

George
Yeah! very nice

Lisa RichartHernandez
and some water and then and then went on for the other half of our day. They were talking about the the trips that this this company does that are like three to five to seven day, overnight camping trips that they do whitewater rafting. And as we were going along, through the course of the day, we would see these other people like that were camping on the side of the river. And it just looked really, really cool. And they said in the springtime when the rapids are stronger, you know, you’re whitewater rafting all day, and then they set everything up for you. I was like, okay, that’s my gotta camping. I think I can totally do this, where they set your tent up and they make your food and everything and you’re just like really enjoying the beauty and the nature. So that’s kind of on my bucket list for next time we go back. I want to try that out.

George
Yeah, I would definitely do that. Especially if they set it up and break it down. Yeah, yeah, I’m all in. Yep. Alright, so let’s go back to portal RV Resort, which is that one is truly a resort.

Lisa RichartHernandez
portal is definitely a resort. I would say that okay. It was definitely a campground

George
or resort a nice campground. I enjoyed it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Our resort to me is, you know, one of these places that has more nice pool.

George
They have a clubhouse they have workout facilities, bigger facilities, bigger, nice

George
accessories, I guess. Like,

Lisa RichartHernandez
you know, cement parking slabs, you know, not, you know, it was nice there. Yeah. So, portal is, is kind of divided into two sections, one that people own and then they they’re also in the rental pool. And then the other part is only for rentals. And we couldn’t get into the part that was by the owners, which is the more fancier part, I guess, for lack of a better term, because they’re all booked up. But they have lots there that have casinos on them. Anything from like, you know, just as a one storey little storage thing to these, literally like almost 3000 square foot, almost like a home where you park your RV next to that. Gorgeous,

George
I wouldn’t say almost like a home. It’s a home. It’s a three story home.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It’s a three story home with an RV marking pattern. Yeah.

George
And I will say they did a fantastic job with the design. Yeah, because you when you rent those sites, you get a three story home. I think it’s close to 3000 square foot house and a big space for your RV so you can park your RV right next to the house and vehicles. Yeah. So if you plan on going with if it were if your family is a huge family, that’s the place to go. I mean, you have a house, you can still use your RV is beautiful.

Lisa RichartHernandez
They’re definitely more expensive. We actually looked into purchasing while we were there. We own we own our lot in Hilton Head Island motorcoach resort and we really love that and we said oh, we should buy another lot you know on the West Coast, West Coast so we can have you know, kind of best of both worlds and so we shopped a little bit while we were there the ones with the Casitas the none of them were for sale. The most recent sale prices are around 950,000 which is more than we wanted to pay for that. But

George
I know you say casita, but it’s that’s the one of the house and a lot, right. I think what was the that one lot that?

Lisa RichartHernandez
I don’t know what that one sold for. But just a plain parking pad basically. Probably 60 by 40 was about 220,000 was their lowest priced one available.

George
Yeah. And if you take all things considered, that’s actually not bad because there’s nothing there as far as RV resorts so if you can pick up a lot for 200,000 I think that’s a great deal. Where Hilton Head there’s a lot of competition and you know, the prices are

Lisa RichartHernandez
well over 400 lots but they’re still selling so much. Yeah. And and there is the like number one ATV like destination in the world, really people go there for the trails, to ride their jeeps and to ride their rz RS and, and dirt bikes and biking and hiking.

George
Mountain climbing, skydiving, you name it. If it’s outdoors, he it’s happening there.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That’s for sure. So portal had a nice pool and it was located I think it’s the north side of uptown, which will be it’s about just five minutes from the entrance to Arches National Park.

George
And when we say north to south, as far as Moab, from north to south is probably 1015 minute drive. Yeah. So from one end to the other, it’s 10 to 15 minutes. It’s a beautiful little town. Main Street was gorgeous. It’s just like such a cool place.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It’s got it’s like a little quaint little town, I guess, is what I would call it. And there’s like a bunch of different little locally owned restaurants and breweries and a bunch of little, you know, tour shops. And

George
of course, everything is jeeps and four by fours and rz RS and dirt bikes that so if that’s not your thing, then that’s not your thing. But if you’re into Jeeps, and you’re listening to us because you’re into jeeps or our being we found a spot Don’t tell anybody.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yes, it was so cute. When we were at portal, there was a couple they were retired in their 60s. And they were actually selling their lot at the portal and buying a house in Moab. And she said, and they had a really nice rz R and D she’s that they ride drills six days a week, and they haven’t been to the same place twice. You know, it’s just

George
Yes, I did a little research. Just so we touch on what Lisa was saying about this couple has been on trails for months, years and there are 1500 82 total miles of off road trails, which I thought was unbelievable. There’s 113 trailheads six oh hv areas 73 campgrounds in those areas. 1582 miles of off road trails. That’s not highway that’s off road.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, there’s there’s, there’s a ton of trails, and all different kinds of ratings and rankings for them. Many of them have special minimal requirements that you need to have on your vehicles to go. And once we got to Moab, we I’m not gonna lie, we were a little intimidated by the idea of trying out some of these trails on our own. So I want to say that the probably one of the best things that we did the first day is we hired a guide from

George
outlaw Jeep rental outlaw Jeep rental.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we didn’t rent a jeep. They do do Jeep rentals, and then they do also like Jeep tours. But we have what we had is we drove our own Jeep and follow the guide. And I want to say with about $350 and we had them all morning long. On our very first day we met him at eight o’clock. His name was stash. He called him stash because he had like a I don’t know well to describe it, but a big porn mustache in a mullet. He was so so funny. But a great really nice guy. He’s

George
quite the character.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And so he gave us a walkie talkie, he helped us take the air down out of our tires, gave us advice. I was shocked to learn as a brand new Jeep jeeper that you take the air down to what was it like 20. Now we went lower than that. I

George
think we at one point, we may have gone down to like 15 or 16 pounds.

Lisa RichartHernandez
psi,

George
which made such a difference. Yeah, it

Lisa RichartHernandez
was so much less bouncy and great providing anyways, so we follow him to the trailhead, and he has his walkie talkie. And, you know, basically starts guiding us through these trails. And we learned so much.

George
And as the driver, it was awesome to play follow the leader. Because if he can make it, I can make it. It was my mentality. And it was awesome for him to tell me what gear he was in what to do. You know, a lot of the climbs are the obstacles. It’s all about throttle control, don’t panic, to stay on the throttle, be in third gear, put it in low. And it was awesome. And I said to Lisa, after we did the guide guided tour, had we not done that I think we would have gotten to the maybe the third obstacle and we were probably turned around because it was like you come up to this wall. And you can see that there’s marks on the wall, but it’s like, okay, those must be like really big jeeps that go up there. There’s no way our Jeep is going to go up there no way. You know, but when you’re playing follow the leader and the guy in front of you basically has the same Jeep that you have. If he can make it you can make it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And so that was that was I think a big huge recommendation on that for people. are, you know inexperienced that jeeping or, or even if you’ve just been like muddying and different types of terrain, having the guide, I think is what made the rest of our trip. So, so much more enjoyable, and gave us the confidence to do a lot of the other trails. And as a matter of fact, when we were writing, there was another really nice Rubicon that came up and he was like, hey, do you mind if I follow along with you guys? And, you know, our guide was like, you know, all these people paid for this, or whatever we’re like, we don’t mind he can just follow along, which he did, which was nice. But, I mean, we got to the, like, Georgia, this giant rock. And after the end of that day, George had confidence. We kind of laughed at ourselves and chuckled at all the places that we had been previous to that

George
day that we were

Lisa RichartHernandez
in Hawthorne, Nevada, and all these other trails that we thought we were gonna like, Oh, my gosh, are we gonna make it through there? And then once we saw what our deep is actually capable of, it’s almost like embarrassing to even say that we

George
were scared of the other one. You know, the difference between our initial pictures, and our Moab pictures are about 40 degrees of angle attack.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I guess it would be like the difference between driving your Jeep over a brick to driving your Jeep over a curb, to driving your Jeep

George
over a 10 foot wall,

Lisa RichartHernandez
a tiny house? What’s like, Oh, my God, we just got over that house. How are we so worried about that one little brick.

George
And I will say I know these jeeps are quite capable. But it was, for me it was eye opening. To see exactly what you what your Jeep can do. Our Jeep is very nice. It’s it’s trail rated, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff that is a 2012

Lisa RichartHernandez
Jeep Wrangler limited edition, more and more for limited edition JK, four door.

George
Such a long name.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And so what kind of it has a lift on it and what size tires?

George
We have already 30 fives. We have the I don’t know what size lift kit. I hate to say that because it already came set up. And it wasn’t lifted. That’s just the way it was produced. They only made 3500 of these vehicles. We have one of them. I really we just got it. So I really need to do my homework and because I know eventually I’m going to get into some Jeep crowd and I’m going to look like an idiot when they go. What’s your lift? What kind of axle do you have? What’s your gear ratio? And I’m gonna be like, I don’t know, this is what it came with.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Alright, well, okay, we’ve already admitted that we’re new. Yeah, you’ve watched every YouTube video there is I think on jeeping. So anyways, we made it through and just about any kind of Jeep. We saw everything out there and not even just jeeps. I mean, there was a Wasn’t that a Toyota four runner, that means level six scores and like it was nothing. We saw

George
Toyota four runner we saw a Lexus. What was that SUV? Remember that they got like an older Lexus SUV name. It had a lift kit. It had some work done to it. But every time we went over an obstacle, we would just kind of laugh and wait to see if the likes this would come up and come right up behind us. And we’re like, Okay, this guy’s no joke. And I mean, he tried everything. And he did everything. Yeah, yeah. But you’ll see everything from souped up like super monster truck jeeps to right off the showroom floor. And that tells you a lot. It tells you that you can go on these trails. You have to do your homework, because some of them those trails you won’t be able to do. But there’s a lot of trails that you can still enjoy with a stock Jeep.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. One of the coolest things that we learned when we were with our guide is about the Jeep trail app. And so Jeep has an app, you download it to your phone, download this before you get to the trails that you’re going because most of the time, when you get out there, there is no internet and there’s very limited phone service, we’ve learned this. So download the Jeep app if you own a Jeep, and we’ll pick up your GPS where you are and you check in. At so for example, we went to the this area called the sand flats, or a couple of famous trails. One is called fins and things. The other one is called house revenge. Both of them are on the Jeep app, you go to the trail, you check in through the Jeep app after you sign up and everything and how much longer Three weeks later, they sent us little completion badges to put on your Jeep that shows that you completed those trails.

George
So called badge of honor that is run through Jeep. And they have 1000s of trails. So you just chide, like Lisa said, you check in at the trailhead. And when you’re done, you check out and they initially said, like, eight or nine weeks to get your badge. And I was like, Okay, well, whatever. And then it did come in really quick.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It was free, right? The badges

George
as long as you want a jeep and you do your Yeah, I’m pretty sure you have to own a jeep. Well, we own a jeep. So I don’t know if they’ll send it to you if you own a Toyota. But I guess they’re not gonna check.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I think it’s a Jeep trail badge or something. Right. So it has all the different trails. It’s pretty cool. So check that out if you’re jeeper. Definitely. Cool thing to look into.

George
Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So the very first trail he took us on was fins and things. And it’s like a level six rated. Course. Right, George,

George
around there. Yes, fins and things is a four.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, it’s only a four of four out of

George
10. Oh, okay. And we were like, Oh my god, this is crazy. And it’s a four out of 10. It’s rated to take so that. So here’s a cool app. It’s called on x off road. And we’ll put that all on the links, all these websites and everything. That’s where I got the the amount of trail miles and everything. But I pulled up Fenton things and they’re rated for at a time duration is four hours to complete the trail,

Lisa RichartHernandez
you got to remember, like, it’s like, oh, it’s 12 miles, and you’re like, Oh, that’s like, you know, an hour at the most? No, you forget that, like, you’re only going you’re not going 12 miles an hour or something like that. So it takes it takes quite a quite a long time to get through a lot of these obstacles. And especially if you’re with a group, or if you go on the weekends, I think we were there during sort of a busy time. And we were there for six days. So when we went on Saturday, there were actually some lines, there’s a line to get into the sand flats area. And there were you know, some kind of backup on some of the different obstacles. Because you know, each, each vehicle has to go through whatever the obstacle is. And, you know, if you’re a new person or whatever, there’s someone out there guiding you. Now, the hours, the hours, they usually just fly right by.

George
And this is not a high speed sport. For anybody out there. This is all about fun, and just getting over the obstacles and hanging out with people and meeting people. And we did just that it was awesome. The thing that the website also said was that the most popular time to go to do these trails is from spring to fall.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Right. So we were there on the fall. Right. And that was one. That’s why we had a hard time getting in there. Because it gets super hot in the summer in Moab Utah.

George
It’s the super cold in the winter. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah. So they don’t get a ton of snow there. But it’s it’s um, it’s like a desert type of atmosphere. So very dry. But it was actually just just beautiful when we were there in the end of September.

George
Yes. And going back to that app, if you download that app, I would suggest the same thing. Lisa said just a little while ago, when you’re in your hotel room or in your RV, resort, wherever you have good Wi Fi, download the maps for the area, you’ll you’ll see it on the on the website, how to do it, download it so that when you get off on the trail, even if you lose Wi Fi, you’ll still have the map, it’ll work off the GPS.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I learned on this whole trip that the hardware GPS works with when your phone doesn’t work. GPS works all the time, you don’t need it. And that was like the national parks app that we use just ahead app that we really, really recommend and loved. When you’re doing a self guided tour of any of the national parks. We I think we bought the full package for all of those those parks, which we’ll talk about in a little bit the national parks when we visited them. Let’s talk about So after we did our fins and things and he took us on his revenge and then George and I kind of went back and we did some more trails. And George got a message on our Facebook from a buddy that is in the Lowcountry Wranglers group that on Facebook that he had joined it said hey, I’m in the area and I see you’re in Moab you know, would you mind if I caught up with you guys and we went riding on some trails together so on was that like day two or whatever Jordan now? Cuz he’s the trainer the day before?

George
I’m an expert now I’ve already had a day of training. Yes. So the man coach I’m reading everybody

Lisa RichartHernandez
else shows up and we just meet him that day and we take them on the fins and things which is the level of way

George
way way we ended up. We met people at the RV. resort. So they came with us, their friends can’t so we had a group of like, say six or eight cars and a motorcycle. Oh, that motorcycle. We’ll touch base on that. So Harold shows up. We all have fins and things. And we start having a blast. Yeah. And Harold was like, you know,

Lisa RichartHernandez
he was you could just tell he was like us a little bit nervous, you know, going over some of the first obstacles and stuff like that we got all the way through fins and things. And I said, we weren’t gonna like, go hit Hell’s revenge after that, because he’d only only had one day there. He had driven and

George
yeah, and he was determined he really

Lisa RichartHernandez
wanted to go on hills revenge. What is his revenge rated? Is that the six?

George
Hell’s revenge is a six? Yes.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay. And so it’s, it’s a, it’s a definitely a lot higher level of difficulty than fins and things. And so we, we, I said, we were all hungry. And we had packed a lunch. And we said, well, let’s just run back into town, because it’s really close to town where these where these drills are, I suppose. I said, Well, you know, what, why don’t we just take like 20 minutes and just do a little bit of a little bit of Hell’s revenge. Before we go into town in case you know, we get held up or whatever I want you to get on the other trail for about 15 minutes into helzer. event. girl was like I’ve done

George
no way. I don’t know anymore. I mean, it was his first day. And Hell’s revenge is quite intimidating, is hence the name,

Lisa RichartHernandez
you start driving this, this course like up what they call a fin, like it’s, it’s like a Sand Mountain that’s like really narrow. Like a fin. Basically, it

George
looks like

Lisa RichartHernandez
two tracks. And you know, the tracks like are black from tires going over them so much. So you can see the tracks going up this like tiny like fin. If you look to the left, and you look to the right, and you could just see straight down like,

George
so I kind of describe it as when you go on a roller coaster, your first climb that little tidbit? Well, you’re driving up and I swear the fin is it. I know it’s wider than the jeep. But when you’re in the jeep, it feels like it’s just as wide as the Jeep because you look out your window, and you’re seeing straight down. And of course, Lisa is sitting there going oh my god, you should see how high we are looking over there. And there’s nothing to my right. How about you save the commentary over the fan? I’m not a big fan of heights.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, he’s a little nervous on that one. And then there was a couple obstacles, we got him up the big stone wall. And then

George
there was a dinosaur tracks, and we were doing great. And then we hit that that one climb. And it’s it is super steep. And I mean,

Lisa RichartHernandez
especially when you’re in your Jeep yourself, like we were we had him on the CB. But when you’re driving alone, and you don’t have a passenger that’s saying, you know, kind of helping you like navigate. And you really literally can only see basically out of your windshield, and you don’t even really almost see where you’re driving practically. No, you don’t.

George
I mean, you’re looking at the sky

Lisa RichartHernandez
straight up. And so he got down to the bottom of that one. He’s like, Okay, I’m done.

George
I literally turned around. And it was done. I don’t I don’t blame him at all. Yeah, but it’s, I will say that. It’s such a weird experience. Because you’re sitting in the car. And you know, your car typically never gets at that angle. And it doesn’t look that steep. When you’re watching the guy in front of you. You’re like, Oh, that’s not that bad. And then all sudden you start climbing. You’re like, I’m going to flip backwards. I’m totally going to flip back. And no, you’re not because nobody in front of you has. But it totally feels like you’re going to flip backwards. And then you start thinking oh my god, I hope my brakes work. I hope my transmission will stall. I don’t want to be that idiot that rolls back. There’s just so much stuff going through your head. And I know that Tony was going through his head. And he was also probably thinking if this is the beginning what’s waiting for me? Yeah, you know, so I don’t blame him and Okay, so we turned around with Harold because he wanted to get out. But I want to add this just for anybody who hasn’t done it feels like they’re unexperienced. What they did that’s really cool with with all the trails are is there’s a bunch of obstacles, a bunch of really hard obstacles. But they’ve also put in bypasses. So for most of Hell’s revenge, which is the tougher one of the two, there’s bypasses. So if you can try the opposite go on. If you don’t do it, you can go around that. Now there are, I think, two spots that you have to go through the obstacles. And obviously you can do it, but it’s nice that they give you the option to go around. They also have I think in health events, they have two spots where you can exit early. You don’t have to do the full course. And also keep in mind that held event is weird because it’s a two way trail. So you’ll be going over this massive hill that we went over with Harold. And when you get to the top, there’s cars coming up the other side, we’re going to touch on trail etiquette. I’m going to give you some trail etiquette at the end of this segment, which was, we didn’t know about it. So it would have been very helpful for us. We learned a lot while we were on the trails and on this trip, but I just want to share that with you for anybody who’s new into riding the trails, because I think it’ll be useful. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
definitely good information. Um, while we’re talking about trails, and I just got to talk about my favorite trail, which was when we went through Canyon lands on the switchbacks vapor trail, safer trail. Yeah. And this is only like a one or two level. I mean, you could really if you wanted to just take a regular four wheel drive vehicle or regular truck

George
on actually, it actually says on the website somewhere that you can take any vehicle on there. Yeah, I mean, I

Lisa RichartHernandez
could,

George
you could, but man, I would not want to be on that trail, my Cadillac.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Well, it’s a dirt road. It’s a dirt road, but it’s wide and it’s smooth. And it’s groomed. And it is I mean, it’s like actual giant trucks go up and down it and construction trucks and things like that. But it is a one way not a one way but it’s a two lane traffic, but one lane so you have to pull over for each other. We’ve watched some pretty sketchy YouTubes of people come running into other trucks and trying to get around each other backing up and forth. But we went to the canyon lands, which is a beautiful National Park. And right when you go inside it, if you go to the left, you’ll see a sign that says Shaffer trail. It’s about 100 mile trail, I

George
think No, no, no Shaffer trail is 19.6 miles. White Rim Trail is 100 miles. Okay. But Shaffer takes you to white room. If you want to go that way. Yes. And that they they both start on Shaffer trail. And then when you get near the canyon where we did, then they split off.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. So if you go to Canyon lamps, first the National Park and you go to the overlook the scenic overlook, and you look down, you’re like, Oh, my gosh, look at that road all the way down there that goes back and forth, back and forth down the canyon. That’s what we wrote on. That’s what tracks the switchbacks. And you know, it’s just incredibly beautiful, and incredibly beautiful. It was a little bit scary because you’re on a ledge, and you’re so high up and there’s no guardrail or anything. But it wasn’t scary. And like, Oh my god, am I going to get over that hill?

George
Right. And I mean, it was it was fun. It was a fun, adrenaline and drive. Yes. Right. Yeah, that would be a good description. Yes. And it was, to me it was super cool. Because it was like driving a Jeep in the Grand Canyon. Right? Yes. Or into the Grand Canyon.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And I mean, there was really basically we ran into like maybe one other Jeep while we were they were coming the opposite way. And it takes you right back into Moab. Yeah. So it’s, it’s pretty cool. And I highly recommend it for anybody. What better to take us to three hours. Yeah, about that.

George
Yeah. It was a really nice scenic route

Lisa RichartHernandez
right by the Green River and all the changes in landscape. We happen to be going there during kind of close to sunset. I don’t recommend going when sun’s going down. Because it gets super dark in the middle of nowhere.

George
Yeah, once the sun goes down, it is pitch dark unless it happens to be a full moon. But we got caught in the dark, right, just as we read Moab. And we actually stopped to look at the stars. But it was dark.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And I will let’s just talk about that stargazing for a minute. Because this is another one of the moments where I was like, first off if we didn’t have this Jeep, we would never ever have been able to experience the approval. Beautiful, like just landscape in general and in like on our own and then the lights there’s like no light pollution there. So aside from the moon, which was I don’t know like half moon that night so it wasn’t as dark as would have been at optimal. Like stargazing time.

George
Yes, planning your trip people don’t go there. The

Lisa RichartHernandez
main things that we had on this trip what was great to see stars when we’re at the vineyard and this time, it was like, who turned on the porch lights. Oh, it’s the moon. Dang the month too bright to see all this. Yeah, unbelievable. But it was just incredibly beautiful. We saw so many shooting stars we parked out next to the Colorado River on the way back and sat in the jeep and we You made sandwiches and drinks and had our chairs and, and just relax after a long

George
day, how many satellites that we see go by? I mean, we lost we’d, I don’t know about hundreds but I mean, last count, there was so many shooting stars. Yeah, shooting stars. stuff that you just don’t see normally.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So that was another one of my I had to eat a little bit of crow because I said, I’m not a camper, like, you know, like in a tent, like quote unquote, roughing it. But I was like, watch these overlanding like YouTube videos now. And I’m thinking, Okay, yeah, I could do this for like, two nights, maybe go out and attend and just sleep under these incredible stars. And there’s a bunch of campgrounds down there. Um, I want to say they’re first come first serve, but you got to get there really early. It’s really difficult to get them they’re highly

George
cold after Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
tent camping sites down there. Down there by the river.

George
Yes. And there’s also. So on the white Rim Trail, which is 100 mile trail, there’s several campsites that you can reserve through the National Park Service’s, obviously you got to reserve way in advance, I think you can only do one night per campground. Maybe too limited, yet very limited, difficult to get them but they will give you a pass, you cannot camp there without a pass. You have to get the past. But when you get it, you get this campsite to yourself. And we’ve watched many videos of all these people and you’re on the rim of this canyon. by yourself. It’s so cool. So that’s one of the things that we want to try on our next trip, maybe two days.

Lisa RichartHernandez
One thing too, as a side note, when you’re not by the water, when you’re just like out in the desert area. There’s no bugs. Like when you’re camping. And sometimes there’s like bugs, that’s another thing I always say like getting eaten by mosquitoes or whatever. People did say that when you camp down by the river or whatever. Sometimes there’s more mosquitoes and bugs because that’s where the

George
Yeah. Yeah, there’s no bugs, just scorpions, rattlesnakes, coyotes. Well,

Lisa RichartHernandez
those things are fine. As long as mosquitoes in my ear.

George
I know. I don’t know about the mosquitoes. We’d live in South Carolina mosquitoes just eat us up. And yeah, so that’s part of the away from them is fantastic. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So part of the thing is like, I don’t like camping, because I don’t like being out there and the bugs and all that. And now I’m like, God, this is so beautiful. Just being out here. And there’s just incredible, natural beauty that is just in our United States that you just I just had never experienced before. And I can’t wait to go back.

George
Absolutely. And just to touch base on canyonlands. National Park, they charge you $30 fee to go in. And I think that covers the trail fee. I’m not positive.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I think it does also. And speaking of the fees for the National Parks as a side note, we went to a whole bunch of national parks on this trip. And in hindsight, we should have bought the there’s a national park pass and I want to stay it’s about $80 I don’t know what it’ll prices will be you know each year, but check into that we would have saved we would have saved probably $100 if we had gone with that. And we because arches and canyonlands We also went to arches while we were there. And that was $30 we paid to get in couldn’t find her receipt for that, unfortunately. But we did have a receipt from another one of our parks. And so the Ranger when he checked us in did give us a little bit of a discount. But if you buy that national park pass, you can go to all of the national parks for that one fee to get in. And that’s a good good bargain if you’re especially if you’re in that Moab area because there’s three or four national parks.

George
And if you’re going just to Moab so this is the price breakdown. It’s $30 per vehicle up to a 15 passenger van, and then you only pay $30 you don’t pay per person. If you’re on a motorcycle, it’s $25 if you’re walking hiking on a bicycle, it’s $15 but you can buy the South East us Utah pass which is $55 and it’s good for them for a year. From the day you buy. It’s good for a year and it’s good at any one of the four parts, you know $30 times for parks 120 bucks. You’re getting it for more than half price.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. Um, arches. We also did a little bit of off roading there but it started to get dark so we really didn’t get to spend as much time as we would have liked to in arches but we drove through there. It’s a beautiful drive. There’s plenty, plenty of opportunities for Gorgeous hikes and stuff like that. So when we plan our next trip back, we’ll definitely explore a lot more of the hiking trails and get out of the Jeep and get some more walking in.

George
Yeah, I mean, we had six days, but it’s still, even with six days, I felt like we were limited. We just rushed through ever. Yeah, just especially arches. That was the first thing we hit. And I think we kind of rushed through it, because we weren’t sure how

Lisa RichartHernandez
we thought we were gonna go back. And then we just got so busy with everything else.

George
But there’s definitely a lot of beautiful hikes. And to see the real iconic arches, you actually have to hike out to them

Lisa RichartHernandez
is about a mile round trip. One thing that’s nice is they tell you so that you get that just ahead app, and you’re listening to it in your vehicle, it’ll say just a head on the right, there’s a trail, it’s a mile and a half round trip trip, it’s light to moderate walking, and you’re gonna see this at the end or go ahead up at this trail, you can have a mosquito driven, walk down, like whatever it is, it explains to you and gives you good information on whether or not you want to try some of those hikes or challenges that that are in all these different parts. So that’s part of why we recommend that just a heads up.

George
Yeah. And it’s awesome. They also give you information history, it was really that was really worth it. Just

Lisa RichartHernandez
the whole app was like 30 bucks for all of the marks. Yeah, I know. We will put a link in the show notes. But I think we’ve, we’ve we’ve touched on that. At every time we’ve gone to the National Park.

George
Yep. The National Parks also have visitor centers that are open all year round, from 9am to 4pm. But because of COVID right now, all they’re doing is they have the Rangers, basically on the front porch, literally with a six foot pole. I mean, literally with a six foot pole, and you cannot get any closer. And they’ll answer any questions you have. They’ll slide you a little pamphlet, they’ll slide your map, but you’re not getting within six feet of them. Yeah. But they’re still there. And it’s awesome to have somebody to ask questions and whatever you need. So I’m reading the national parks website regarding Utah. They recommend The Best Times is between March and October to go. And they recommend entering the park before 8am or after 3pm

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, yeah, I totally agree. Yeah. I mean, if we could have motivated ourselves to get up and go at six o’clock in the morning, or honestly, before the sun comes up. Because the ways the sun shines on these like, mountains or, or or I guess their mountains is what you call Nice. Yeah, it’s like these rock, orange rock where the sun when it sort of rises up or, or sets on them. It’s just incredibly beautiful. All the different colors and the photographer’s that for professional photographers are always out there to catch the sunrise of these rock formations. And I’m sure at different times of year the sun comes up in different ways or whatever.

George
Yeah, I don’t but it’s just I don’t think you can take a bad picture there.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I know. I

George
mean, unless it’s cloudy and raining. But it’s just there’s so much scenery. It’s so beautiful. And it’s been haulers are amazing. It’s

Lisa RichartHernandez
less crowded in the morning and it’s less hot and you’re not in the heat of the sun. And one thing I will say whether you’re taking your Jeep or you’re taking a car or anything you’re taking pack a ton of water. more water than you could really imagine yourself drinking. Really, you should have at least a bottle per person per hour of water.

George
I think we could do a podcast just on the mistakes we made. Yes. And you know we laugh about it now but we really need to take it serious. I mean you’re out in the desert.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And and we were very lucky in a lot of situations that had something gone wrong. We were completely unprepared. Nobody knew where we were right we didn’t even know where we were right that well not in Moab. We were better off in Moab Moab is the cool thing I also liked about Mio is I felt like no matter what someone was gonna come by, we were not going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere, because it’s such a big gap gay TV plays but when we were in Hawthorne, Nevada, like somebody were at a ghost town because nobody lives here anymore.

George
So yeah, I totally agree with you because I think Hell’s revenge is a nine mile trail. And I want to see if I can get this out right. It’s a nine mile trail in a A three mile area. Does that make sense? Because you’re here that like zigzags and you’re doing loops and you’re not going straight nine miles. So the what I’m trying to get out as worst case scenario, you’re going to walk three miles to a gate or road or campground. Yeah, you’re not. When we weren’t Hawthorne Nevada, we were 15 miles away from anything anything. So we would have had to walk at least 15 miles. So Moab is, is awesome. It’s set up user friendly. And we just can’t say enough good things about it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so here’s, here’s my my tips in your in your trunk or in the back of your car, you should have a cooler full of waters, you should definitely have snacks and granola bars because you don’t know when you’re going to see something that you’re just like we’re right here we have to go look at this. So have things like at least granola bars and snacks that you can just kind of keep in there in case of emergency in case you’re out for more hours than you thought you were going to be. definitely bring weather clothes and wear layers because we ran into boiling hot days. And as soon as the sun went down or be a 40% 40 degree temperature drop. And we would be wanting to have a sweatshirt on from when we had on. We’re boiling hot and a tank top during the day and dropped. Yes, it’s very, you know, dry desert weather. So the sun goes away and you’re cold. I would also say I loved my hiking boots, I got some before we left and had no idea that I was gonna really love that I had those and me to definitely have proper footwear. We were accidentally on a trail one day and I just had flip flops on and I had to get out and try to navigate ahead of time and that was not good.

George
You actually fall over twice,

Lisa RichartHernandez
you know just from not having proper, proper footwear. So I would definitely put your hiking boots on. And I got some great ones from Merrill and love them. Super comfortable.

George
Nice first aid kit. Yep,

Lisa RichartHernandez
we had our see our walkie CB radio or walkie talkies definitely were important. And I just bought for George for Christmas. A little. It’s like a folds down into almost the size of your palm. And I’ll put these we’ll put these on our RV podcast page with links to how you can buy these things, but like a blanket that you can like, say you wanting to stargaze but you don’t want to you know, you may want to carry a regular blanket if you want to keep warm, but you may also want to just set out and stargaze or even throw a couple chairs in the back. You may end up wanting to have lunch by the river and sit down and relax. And there’s so many opportunities to just have a great picnic. And so I would always if you can plan ahead and pack a picnic lunch, you can’t find any more beautiful places to do that. And then

George
you just never know when you’re going to want to pull over and just chill out and enjoy the scenery. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
and that’s why I just really was not prepared for that. I really wasn’t. I was like, Oh my god, I wish I wish I had you know, even at the end of the day, I wish I would have had like, you know, a bottle of wires need to sit and We’re almost home and let’s just go even even our

George
bowl as we just recently added a fold down table to the to our hatch in the back of the Jeep. But when we weren’t in Moab, we had nothing and just trying to cut a sandwich or trying to cut a tomato with nothing is

Lisa RichartHernandez
way harder without a little table. Yeah, I packed like a Ziploc bag with some plates and napkins and wet wipes and some plastic silverware that I just kept in in the back of the Jeep because I just sort of didn’t know when we were going to be wanting a packed lunch and then if we didn’t happen to eat our lunch that day, so I had kind of like a Ziploc bag of that went inside the cooler that was like our food like some lunch me sandwiches. some bread, cheese, you know, ketchup, mustard, and you go to the little stores little side secret get the little mustard mayonnaise packets come in. So you can just throw in your little Ziploc bag and and so we kind of made sandwiches and stuff. So just something to make on the fly was really good to have.

George
Yeah, now that turned out to be awesome. And it was just a simple sandwich but it turned out to be like the most

Lisa RichartHernandez
perfect dinner watching stars after

George
going through. Totally unplanned. And it was just it was incredible. Yeah, really cool. Another thing you may want to pack as earplugs if you run out of Gas on the trail. You’re gonna want those earplugs because you’re never gonna hear the end of it. Oh, and I say that because I almost ran out of gas. But just keep in mind like we started panicking. But a lot of these trails are most trails are under 20 miles most trails are under 10 miles, your Jeep will easily do 10 miles even your reserve tank has more than 10 miles in it but when we saw low gas light come on, now all sudden there was no more conversation that was when we were in Nevada that wasn’t even in Moab. We were experts. Now we

Lisa RichartHernandez
fill your truck up before you go. By the regardless of whether or not you think you’re just going to be gone an hour, definitely fill your car up, fill your truck, fill your Jeep, whatever before you take your trip. And even if you’re just going to the even if you’re not cheaper and you’re not going to go on these crazy trails like we did, when you’re in the the national parks, there’s no phones, there’s no Wi Fi. And there’s no really well, at least with COVID. Most of them have no restaurants or anything. So packing a picnic lunch was really cool. And especially if you’re on a limited time. You don’t want to spend like two hours in line getting a sandwich or even 30 minutes. You don’t want to spend me Yeah, like we were in Yellowstone. You know, I was like there’s so much to see. We don’t want to spend an hour and a half just trying to get a crappy sandwich from the, you know, cafeteria basically. It’s not like it’s a it’s a it’s a culinary experience at these places are pretty basic food there.

George
Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So pack your lunch. Big, big

George
pack and incredible meal in a picnic basket. Yeah, yeah. And I would suggest a cooler but if you’re going to bring a cooler make sure that it it’s like Yeti where you can lock it down just in case you start hitting some bumps. last thing you want is water and ice flying

Lisa RichartHernandez
everywhere. Yeah, that’s fair, too. And you just need something that’s because it gets really really hot out. So yeah, absolutely not really hold the cold for you. But I think

George
we should do a podcast on setting up a Jeep for drought writing.

Lisa RichartHernandez
You know, we’ll do that after we get some more experience on the next or next year.

George
We’ll see what we can do.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so if you if you are like an expert jeeper and I guess it’s called Jeepers, that’s when I call people. overlanders Overlander overlanding is completely is different than troll writing, I think those are the people that have like the tents on their roof. And I really really dig that and one of the we watch trail recon is that on?

George
Yes, you so if anybody has any connections with trail recon, or if you’re happen to be listening, we would love to talk to you. We love YouTube channel. We watch it all the time. And

Lisa RichartHernandez
I want to cook with Marco

George
Yeah, Marco is awesome. If any of you that are listening, go to YouTube and pull up trail recon. And they put out a great video on everything. Overland landscapes, and one of the guys with them. His name is Marco, and he’s their chef, and you will be shocked at what he is that he creates. I think

Lisa RichartHernandez
he has his own like clicking YouTube

George
their second cookbook, yeah. Yeah. So really cool. kudos to them.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So those that’s what I aspire to be is another Marco, the female version.

George
I don’t want to be Polo.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay. What else about Moab besides that it was our favorite place and the people were friendly, and we can’t wait to go back. And he loved it.

George
As far as Moab itself. It’s a beautiful little town. Everybody was awesome. There’s a bunch of restaurants. There’s every kind of budget restaurant also. I wouldn’t say that. Or maybe we didn’t see any but there’s not like really big Fufu restaurants. It’s it’s a lot of

Lisa RichartHernandez
like breweries and

George
it’s all about good food. Yeah. Coming in your dirty clothes and let’s have some food and drinks and let’s hang out.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, and I think if it wasn’t COVID it would just be even that much more

George
times better.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. So like we said, we can’t wait to go back. This year. We’ll do another episode of that. As experienced people we literally said when we go back this time we want to go for at least three weeks. Although

George
George’s are driving right now, if I would let him he level I think what the plan should be is that I’ll take the RV out there and then you fly out, you know, because I don’t want you to do all that driving. And we’ll spend like a month out there.

Lisa RichartHernandez
He’s gonna eat that’s, you know, somebody’s still gonna work around here. So that’s how he got a dish. That’s how he negotiates that I’ll stay home. Work and then I can fly out there later and his work will be driving. So that’s right, that’s probably a fair trade off. From here, South Carolina to Moab Utah is about 32 hour drive. And it takes about three to five days. Five days is five long days of driving.

George
No five days is good three days is three, that’s 10 hour days,

Lisa RichartHernandez
at least 12 hours.

George
I’m not a big fan of those 10 hour drives

Lisa RichartHernandez
now. But as far as location wise, it’s from Denver is about five hours driving south west. And then to Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s about five hours driving south east. And Grand Junction is two hours away, the closest big city and it is an option to fly into Grand Junction, that’s

George
the closest airport closest

Lisa RichartHernandez
airport, closest Walmart is two hours away. So that’s where our guide told us that she went for when they needed to go to Walmart and buy like actual clothes that didn’t say like

George
Moab

Lisa RichartHernandez
for regular stuff, but they do have grocery stores and things like that in the town. And I did spend a little bit of time looking up some real estate while we were there. And the average house sale was probably about 450 to that’s probably their entry price range. Yeah,

George
I mean, it’s it’s very limited. It’s a very small town. So it

Lisa RichartHernandez
looks like it’s definitely growing, though, and can’t wait to come back. We saw a lot of construction outside of town. Remember all those houses? Yeah. And they’re expanding. So we have so much more to find out about that place. And if you have any more information or suggestions, we would love to hear them. Please look us up at RView podcast.com. And you can send us a message right there our website. And we’ll also on our website, we have a little shopping place that you can look for some of the things that we’ve talked about in our podcast, you can find those there. If you shop through our site on Amazon, we get a little bit of credit for that. We’d love to love to see that happen. And maybe someday we’ll be able to just live off of this podcast and I can retire and then you can spend all the months you want in my lab, George.

George
All right, people helped me out here.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Or let’s do this. We need people to buy some like $10 million homes.

George
Either or it happens. Let’s make it happen, people. Alright, everybody have a great night. And we can’t wait to tell you about our next stories. And by the way, if anybody that’s listening to us lives in Utah, lives in Moab, we are your new best friends. please reach out to us. Let us know about your beautiful town. We love it. We can’t talk enough about it. And we cannot wait to come visit again.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so hey, this pretty much wraps up our our year and of RV podcast, we’ll probably have one more just to kind of finalize everything for the year. And then we’ll be starting in next year in January. And we’re starting in January going to the Tampa RV show. RV Super Show 2021. It’ll be our first experience there. We’re going to be there with the aim group, which is the all inclusive motorcoach group, we just joined. And so I should be meeting some great people there. And we’re excited for January and to get our new travel started for the beginning of the year. So we’ll have one more podcast before the end of the year. And look forward to seeing you then.

George
Alright, as promised earlier, just want to give you a little trail etiquette, trail common sense. A lot of these places are national parks, they’re beautiful. And we want to be able to continue using them. So let’s all just follow some simple rules. Common Sense. Oh, it’s

Lisa RichartHernandez
common sense rules by George. Yes.

George
We don’t fortunately internet or of course. Oh, I thought maybe you mean made this up on your home? No, but they’re like common sense. But like anything else in this world, there’s a sign because somebody doesn’t have common sense. Okay. And, you know,

Lisa RichartHernandez
you mean like the sign over the toilets in the Grand Canyon that said not potable water, meaning. Don’t drink the water out of the toilets?

George
Yes.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That would have for example, somebody may have actually tried to drink the toilet water,

George
or actually did drink the toilet water? Yes.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I would like to know what foreign country they serve toilet. just

George
seems like common sense, right. But here we go. All right, our top 10. All right, number one. Know Before You Go. Kind of what we were talking about earlier today. Be prepared. Know where you’re going, how long your trail is, how long it’s going to take you and be prepared. Common Sense.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay. So Well, those are some things that we sort of touched on. Yeah, we didn’t do that. We did this list. When we were going George

George
there was no sign. That’s why I’m putting it out there. Oh, public safety information. Okay. All right. Number two read the signs.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That kind of makes sense. It doesn’t that go back to number one where we just said they made a sign for that.

George
Right? So read the signs. Oh, okay. So what they’re saying is and a lot of trails, there’ll be little signs posted. And you should read them because you might have to turn at that trail and if you continue straight, you might go 100 miles, instead of your 19.6 miles to Moab. Then you end up on 100 mile trail with 20 Gallon 20 miles worth a gallon of fuel. Alright, number three. tread lightly take care of the trails, don’t be out there doing donuts. Don’t be out there trying to take it off some cool jumps, does enjoy the trails, trying to dig up extra manholes or anything like that I don’t going

Lisa RichartHernandez
off the road. So that was just a quick little aside when we were in Moab. There is um, you’re not even supposed to walk off of the trails because there is a some sort of organism that grows on the top of the soil It almost looks like like dry sand, but

George
it’s dry mud, like crusty.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. But it’s it’s it’s it’s a living organism. And it protects the dunes. And so it’s very important to them and, and out there in Moab and Utah in the desert that they protect this. wildlife. And so that’s why they say tread light tread lightly.

George
Leave No Trace.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, like don’t litter. Don’t leave your beer cans on the trail in the middle of nowhere. It’d be so sad when we’d go no nowhere and be like, yeah, literally, there’s a beer camera,

George
we picked up a gallon plastic gallon water jug on the trail. And my favorite line is that and I was gonna say that, that that could have fallen off. But again, your stuff, be responsible for a tie down, make

Lisa RichartHernandez
sure it’s not gonna fly off. Yeah, carry your trash in and out.

George
Yep, get the gate. Alright, that one is there’s some trails that you’ll have to go in a gate and pass the gate. If the gate closed when you go through it. Get out of your car and close the gate when you go through it. There’s a reason for gate, we passed the gate when we were in Hawthorne, however, the gate was open. But as we pass the gate, and we were a little bit down the trail, we saw some cows. So if you come across a closed gate, and you go through it, get out and close the gate. Number six yield the right of way. Okay, so that one we also experienced,

Lisa RichartHernandez
we weren’t sure what the right away was

George
yes.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And the person coming up the hill has the right away. So if you get to the top of the hill, you look down and see if anybody’s coming. If they are then you wait. And if you

George
or find the nearest turnout.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, there’s a lot of turnouts on most of the trails.

George
Yeah. So last thing you want to do is and that happened to us and the switchback. And luckily, we saw the car coming in, and we were able to back up just a little bit and get on the turn and get out of their way. And they were very happy that we got out of their way. But it’s a lot easier to back up the hill than to back down a hill. Believe it or not. So that’s why we advocate let yourself be known.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That’s like when we were in the sand dunes, the need to have your flags and your things so that when you’re coming over hills and bumps and mountains and stuff, people can see you

George
or if you’re coming over a hill, and there’s two vehicles coming over a hill and you don’t have flags flying, you’re going to see each other when you hit each other. Right. The other thing that that means is when you’re on a trail, for example, Hell’s revenge, and that’s a two way trail like I told you, and if you’re on the trail on a sketchy obstacle, like the big hill where we turned around as you’re passing each other, you if there’s four people to your group, you flash four fingers to the whoever’s coming the opposite direction. So that if you crest the hill, he knows that there’s four other cars behind you or three other cars behind you.

Lisa RichartHernandez
A lot of times people would even stop and be like, Hey, man, yeah, I got four people behind me got two hours, the hours and this and that and then we would just sit and wait for them to come by. So their whole group had passed.

George
And that’s exactly what that means.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Number seven.

George
know who’s king of the hill?

Lisa RichartHernandez
That must be the same as going up and going down.

George
Oh yeah. That’s kind of a If you’re at the top of the hill, you own the hill until you get up. It’s kind of common sense. If you’re at the top of the hill, and you’re at the bottom of the hill, don’t start climbing until the guy comes down the hill. You know, if he’s taken a long time, maybe yell up at him get the heck off the hill. But he’s the king of the hill at the moment. So I gotcha. And then space is a good thing. But that is obstacles that are very challenging. And there’s somebody in front of you on the obstacle, don’t crawl up behind them in Star riding is bumper.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I tried to be nice. Yeah, I mean, you got a little bit, let them

George
have some common courtesy, that it’s some of these obstacles are hard enough without somebody riding your bumper, right? Not to mention that if they stall or anything happens, they’re gonna roll right into you. And then you’re going to be pissed off that they rolled into you. And then the last one is, Oh, no, there’s more. Oh, we’ve got more. Oh, don’t stop stupid. So I mean, that’s kind of common sense goes with the last one. If somebody’s climbing up an obstacle, and you’re riding their bumper, the last thing they need to do is stop. Because if you stop, it’s really hard to get going up a big hill. And now you got a guy behind you. You got to worry about all that. So don’t stop, just get to the top of the obstacle or get past the obstacle.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Or don’t stop in the middle of the trail, when to pull out, pull over to a pull out, you know, just stop in the middle of the trail.

George
Right? Number 11. Watch your back. And it’s not in like you’re going to get mugged or whatever. Just know who’s behind you. You’re riding the trail. Don’t be that guy that’s going two miles an hour when there’s people behind you that are more than willing to pass you and want to go fast. For example, rz ours, they fly through these trails because they can dirt bikes, believe it or not. They love to fly through these trails because they can. The only time they slow down is when they come to an obstacle. So just take a quick peek in your rearview mirror and see who’s behind you. And if there’s somebody that is ready to pass, you just let them pass you. No big deal. Alright, I think this one is almost common sense really should be but don’t drink and drive. These trails are no joke. And the last thing you need to do is be out on a trail drunk. It’s just not gonna end well. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Save your drinking for after.

George
Yes. Have a big celebration after you accomplish that you went through

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hell’s revenge. Hey, that was pretty cool about the sand flats is they have campgrounds right inside where Hell’s revenge and bins and things are in all those other trails and you can camp like, be done with your day the sun sun starts going down and you just

George
pop a cold one. I’ve been known to do that every once in a while. But even if you’re not staying at the sand dunes, the furthest plays from the trails is 10 minutes. Everything’s 10 minutes. You can wait 10 minutes. All right. Mine your dust.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So slow when it’s super dusty.

George
These trails are super dusty. If it doesn’t rain, I mean, even when you’re going five miles an hour, you create a dust storm. So just be courteous. Like Lisa said, a lot of these trails have campsites either on the trail or right next to the trail. So if you can imagine 100 jeeps going by maybe 200 all day long. By the end of the day, your stuff is going to be covered in dust if they don’t

Lisa RichartHernandez
kind of like a no wake zone for boaters.

George
But for Oh, that’s a good analogy. Except we all know nobody listens to no wake zone so nobody listens to notice them. keep it PG. I kind of like that one because we noticed when we were out on the trail, there’s a lot of kids is a family event, family thing somewhat somewhat. So just use common sense. If it’s a bunch of adults have fun. There’s kids use your head keep it PG it’s all good. Drink later calculator. Know your limits. I think that’s a great one. I think some people overestimate their abilities. For example, the two jeeps that are still stuck in the side of Moab that fell off the fence. They’ve never been recovered. I don’t think they’ll ever get them out of there. So just know your limits. And I think Fear. I’ll help you do that to leave your ego at the door. Don’t get stupid. Don’t get mad at people. Everybody’s out there to have fun. Enjoy yourselves. There’s no reason to get mad. There’s no reason to think that you’re Mr. Tough guy.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, some of those like big monster trucks, they get a power through there and show what they can do in the Newseum flip over.

George
Right? Too much YouTube video do you buy brings us right to the next one? Stop and help others. Yeah, if that knucklehead showing off, flip says Jeep, as much as you want to drive by him. Be a good human and stop and make sure that they’re okay. And help them as much as you can.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Well, like when we were in the sand dunes, we tried to pull that RCR Oh, yeah, was

George
ours the art stock and we tried to get them out. But

Lisa RichartHernandez
we couldn’t. We kept we started digging down. We’re like started man, we didn’t we didn’t have those boards

George
now. And he was grateful that we even stopped to help them. So I mean, we kind of tried to help. And then the last one is leave no man behind. So if somebody breaks down, don’t just leave them there. At least offer them a ride back to civilization so that they can get a tow truck or at least to cell phone signal range. Something just don’t don’t leave somebody in the middle of the desert with a broken down Jeep.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That seems pretty obvious.

George
I think all of these are pretty obvious. Well, it’s sad that we have to even talk about this,

Lisa RichartHernandez
you know, but somebody drink out of the toilets at some point at the Grand Canyon. So I guess everything must be said.

George
And on that note, remember all the tips. We just gave you the etiquette and most of all, don’t drink out of the toilet.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I wouldn’t add that as number 12.

George
I think that should be number one. By the way, if you’re drinking out of the toilet, just sell your Jeep, your Jeep or your RV, whatever it is, yeah, sell it all and just I don’t even know what else to say.

Lisa RichartHernandez
All right. Those are great tips. Thanks, Dave.

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