Waking up on our second morning in Moab, Utah there was plenty of excitement to get started on a second challenging trail named Top of the World. This is another trail in the Jeep Badge of Honor off road adventures and rated more challenging than Elephant Hill which was the previous 4 x 4 trail we finished. Being a bit more challenging brought with it a little apprehension. Elephant Hill had some big challenges so an increased difficulty trail may be more than we’re prepared for. So many things can happen while off roading. A major dent in the vehicle from a rock or tree, something breaks on the Jeep, or even tipping over are all concerns and possibilities.
As was starting to feel routine, we pulled into the Top of the World trailhead and began preparing the Jeep for this off road adventure. Things such as airing down the tires to a relatively low tire pressure and unlocking the sway bar to allow those front tires to move independently over the rocks. It was a beautiful morning so removing the tops over the front seats seemed like a great idea allowing some of the outside sights and sounds to reach us. Once all of these preparations where complete we re-entered the Jeep and drove on down the beginning of the trail. The surrounds where just as amazing as the day before with new and different trail experiences such as a creek crossing and steeper and longer rock ledges to climb over.
Still we were able to climb up these ledges without a great deal of difficulty although there was one we passed that we would be going over on the way back down the trail after reaching the top that looked quite precarious and maybe even more dangerous. Not to worry about it now as there was plenty of trail ahead of us to reach the top. Working our way up and over numerous rocks while avoiding trees we continued up the path without a great deal of difficulty. There were some challenging spots along the way creating an increasingly fun adventure. Eventually we rounded a corner and there was the end.
Approaching the final few feet, the view in before us became almost unbelievable. Now we understood why this trail is named Top of the World. That’s what it feels like as you look out over grand vistas of red tinted rock sculptures with snow capped mountains behind them all the while viewing them from the top of a cliff that drops hundreds of feet below to green valleys below. Parking the Jeep near the edge we got out and just stared at this unimaginably beautiful landscape. Definitely a trail worth driving on to get to this overlook. A short time after reaching the top, a group of Jeeps rounded the bend below so we took some pictures and moved off of the edge so that others could have this experience as well.
While walking around these rock ledges we noticed just how much of a drop off it is and how abrupt the edge was and began to wonder how stable these rocks on top are. Finding out was not something of interest. It was at this point we realized just how far we climbed up during the course of this trail nearly 19 mile trail. It didn’t seem like we were increasing in altitude the over 3,000 feet it goes up. It would have been more difficult to leave this overlook but there were plenty of other vehicles and people giving us incentive to begin our decent before there was more traffic slowing down our adventure. So we turned around and took a different route, climbing down the trail back towards the trailhead.
Going down some of these rock ledges was a different experience. It’s one thing when you’re looking up at them but going down you often can’t see how deep they are. This creates a couple of choices to make before venturing down each step. Get out and survey the trail to find your best path or just chance it and begin crawling down them. We chose both of these options at times having become accustom to the characteristics of the Top of the World trail. Typically we able to maneuver over each one without a lot of difficulty. However there was this one spot that caught us by surprise.
We were climbing down and then needed to crawl up a fairly large rock. Coming down was typical of what we were experiencing without any issues. The trail leveled out briefly allowing us to get in position to get up the next large rock surface. One tire was up on the rock and we were working the second front tire when the Jeep began to slide and off the second tire came putting us at a very uncomfortable angle. It felt as though the vehicle was near the tipping point and it was a long ways down if it went. Fortunately we stopped moving buying a little time to attempt getting out of this situation. Working the foot off of the brake to see if we could gently roll backwards towards where we came from worked bringing with it a slight sigh of relief. Putting the Jeep in reverse and ever so slowly letting off of the brake once more we began to crawl back off of this rock and became leveled out once more. With hearts racing we attempted to go back up this rock in front of us with a slightly different position which worked well allowing us to more easily continue on down the trail. The picture below is from a 360 camera which was mounted on the dashboard. Looking at the horizon behind us you can see how much of an angle the Jeep was at. All ended well and we made it back to the trailhead without major incidence. Another adventure filled trail surrounded by the awing sights of Utah!
