One of my favorite videos on White Rim Trail that I've seen while doing research on it. It's nice to see people that aren't experts tackling a trail. UA-cam is full of people with crazy builds and years of experience, so it's nice to get a more grounded perspective from normal folks.
We are so happy to read this! Thank you for watching and commenting. WRT was wonderful and we’ve since been back and did it as a bike-packing trip. We hope you go and enjoy yourself.
Firstly, I love the raw intimate feel of this video. Letting us hear your conversations... Two questions: 1: as terrified as you were, would you do it again, how do you feel about it afterwards? 2: what kind of tires are you running and how did they perform? Lastly, the view at 21:27 is spectacular! Great video!
Yes, we’d do it again for sure. We loved it. We were nervous in places, but never in danger. We enjoyed it so much that we are going back in March to do it on our bikes. Our tires are Nitto Terra Grappler All Terrain. They performed well. No issues at all. The views on the whole trail are spectacular. It was breathtaking and we had the whole place to ourselves for most of the adventure. Thank you for watching and for the nice comments!
This is an absolutely fantastic video but I will NEVER be driving that rim trail. So grateful that I got to see it through your lens. Thanks for sharing!
In 1971, my Dad and I did the White Rim Trail from the top down to the river. In a 1970 Volkswagen. It was challenging, but doable. I am certain over time it has had different levels of difficulty depending on when it was last maintained and when the last gully washer came through. They told us at the time you could do it if you took it easy.
exactly....you hear all these stories from people about needing these beefed up vehicles to do all these trails, and yes to do white rim today you wouldnt want to do it in a vw, but a lot of the hype is just that, nothing but hype!
Cool video! My wife and I did this in 2007 in our Tacoma on our honeymoon. What a neat place and watching this brought make memories of our trip. Thanks for sharing. M&M in SC
Great Video! Made me laugh when you hit the running board step on the driver's side. Haha. We will be going in October, so this was helpful to watch. Thanks!
Very nice. The wife and I drove out as far as Musslemans Arch some years back. I’d love to do the entire trail some day but doubt we will get to.... Thanks for sharing..
Nice rig and a great way spend time with someone you love! As a "spotter" use the terms "passenger" and "driver" to instruct your driver which way to turn. More intuitive and much more specific. Bravo for taking on a shelf road on your first adventure. Many, many more to explore. Have fun!!
@@TechMadic The term is nearside and offside. Just so you don't sound like a noob when shouting driver passenger lol. Really enjoyed your video, thanks for sharing it. Awesome you and yours work together when wheeling. Safe travels.
Julie Ann is a champ; I could never get my wife to drive WRT w/ me-she can barely handle driving on highways that have canyon drop offs! Did WRT June 2020 w/ my 16 YO son. Watched a guy and his female companion do a pretty good 3 point turn going down Shafer Trail to come back up-she wasn't having it by the look on her face as we passed them! Stayed in Potato Bottom C night 2-good to see Kitchen Rock is still there, and bet you didn't have the mosquitos! Glad you got to mountain bike-my rack failed, and our bikes got damaged, so no riding on WRT and the rest of our trip-which was Moab/CO. Will be back again, would love to do WRT in the fall. Great video-
How awesome to do it with your 16-year old son! “Kitchen Rock” ha ha ha. No mosquitos, thank goodness. But we did see a lot of little mice-like critters while cooking dinner at Potato Bottom. Here’s to your next adventure!
Nice video. I enjoyed riding along with you. Your interactions with your husband reminded me of my wifes reactions to Shaffer Trail when we did it over Memorial weekend. After that trip i traded in my Forester and got a 4 runner. I really want to do WRT, but looks like I have to work her into it.
Thank you for watching and the nice comment. We are chomping at the bit to go out again and we LOVE Colorado. Hopefully you will get to White Rim. One of the most beautiful and remote places we’ve been so far.
Yeah we were going to do this trail last Thanksgiving break, but I had some issues with my charging system the last time we were out, and as a precaution opted out. Besides we only had one night campsite, and would have had to blow through it. One of these days! Maybe next November. I have a few Overlanding events set-up for this summer here in Colorado 4 day Miners Loop in August 4 epic trails near Buena Vista and as many smaller outings all summer long. Looking forward to your next adventure out.. Stay safe out there!
That is true, with some exceptions out here in Colorado we have some seriously tight shelve roads that it's common sense to wait at the bottom if someone has already started descending down. Pearl pass they even have it stated on the US Forestry site that down hill has the right away. I've been on that trail and there is no where to pass for a half mile, but you can see if it's clear to start your ascension/decent.
I imagine it’s like with trail running and MTB. There’s the etiquette that works most of the time, but don’t let etiquette overrule safety or common sense.
The trail was wide enough in most places for two cars to get around each other in one way or the other. Other than the last few miles, we saw maybe 8 cars over two days. So the odds of you getting stuck with another car on a tight single track are pretty small.
We exited Schafer. You can see it on this NPS map. www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/upload/IslandRoadsandTrails2022_forweb.pdf Hope that helps. Thanks for watching!
Loved this video and the interactions between you two! I so could see my wife in some of them. I did White Rim Trail for the first time about a month ago, but solo. Such a gorgeous place! I'm somewhere in the middle on experience... more than you two, less than others. Gotta say that all the crawl control made my skin crawl... there wasn't really any need for that on WRT... just learn to drive it, and perhaps most importantly learn about picking your line. No amount of crawl control will fix not picking the right line. Thanks so much for the video!
I think my (Julianne) panic inspired Scott to use crawl (and we kind of just wanted to try it). Watching the video, things look sooooo much safer than when we were in the moment. Like when I tell him to move over to the other side of he is going to fall off the ledge. He was totally fine in retrospect. Ha ha ha. We’re learning! Great advice on picking the line. Thanks for watching and for the nice comment.
@@TechMadic I frankly wasn't sure how I'd do mentally with all the cliff edges. I think it's much much easier when you are the driver. You're just focused on driving. I imagine that it was a lot worse for you when not driving! Not sure I'd want to be the passenger!
Hey guys! great vid and keep up the exploring! We're scheduled to go this year Thanksigiving week. How cold was the weather last year? We're planning to go with our 2 year old.
It actually snowed the first night and was quite cold in the tent at night. Day time was fine. I’d bring layers, gloves, hat, warm socks, etc for nighttime and first thing in the morning. Have a great time!
Should be no problem especially if it’s dry. The 4Runner is stock. Need to be careful in about 10 places to protect the undercarriage from pointy rocks. Do you have any factory skid plates? We busted a foot rail on the passenger side.
You need a day use for vehicles and bikes on White Rim Trail. Only Potash or Shafer don’t require permits. I think during May-June (flood season) you need to physically go and get a permit day of and they are issued based in road conditions. Good luck!
@@TechMadic we’re starting off with a few days of hiking in Arches NP then the White Rim Trail for 3 nights. We’re taking our time so we can hike some trails there. From Canyonlands we’re going to Capital Reef to drive through Cathedral Valley. Plans are kinda loose after that. Maybe Zion and Grand Canyon or possibly Ouray, Colorado area.
Sounds like an amazing trip! When we were in Moab, Arches would close around 9a because it was full and Canyonlands would have a long line. Hope you have good weather and traffic!
How was your trip Richard? My wife wants to go back to Arches, I want to do WRT, we just watched this video, and she said she'll stay at a hotel in Moab again.
Fairly obvious the trail is nothing to worry about on a mountain bike. So the scary part is strictly due to trying to drive the trail with a large vehicle. The trail is reasonably flat, no steep ledges to crawl over or deep ruts requiring 4wd.
A mountain bike is fun on the trail. We rode one afternoon for a couple hours and it was great. Running or fast packing it also would make a killer couple / few days. I would not do it in a Corolla but everyone has different risk tolerance. Good luck to you.
You literally never need to use four wheel drive on the WRT. if any part of this scared you, do not attempt Black Bear, Imogene or any other Colorado trails for that matter.
Thanks for watching and for expressing your opinion. We’re learning. It was our first off-road experience. I think a better approach is do more, learn more, try more. Keep practicing and getting better.
Bear in mind that in 4WD your front wheels are more properly pulling you in the desired direction. That can give a big peace of mind to the driver and passenger.
I rewatched just last night and noticed that too in a few places. Also, trying to get better at where the camera focuses so it’s not the windshield. Thanks for watching.
Also, 4runner not ForeRunner haha. Looks like you did it comfortably! About to do this on my dualsport, unfortunately couldn't get a backcountry permit, so I'll be doing the 100 miles in one day :)
@@TechMadic Great question! We'll have a "support vehicle" or two (Jeep and a Tacoma) to carry tools/spare fuel and food, which direction would be easier for Trucks/SUVs? I'm leaning toward Counter-clockwise, since I plan on setting up camp near the "Fruit Bowl Access" BLM area off of BLM 129 and starting the White Rim by Mineral Bottom
Found this on Reddit. “Several years ago I did it in a '19 Ram 3500 single rear wheel crew cab long box (I know, crazy but that's all I have, need it for work). The hardscrabble end was tight along the cliffs on corners. Murphy's ridge in the middle was intimidating but not actually that hard. Otherwise totally fine. We scraped underneath here and there but nothing bad, no rock stacking or messing around. The long wheelbase made for a lot of backing up and some center clearance issues but really nothing bad. Truck was completely stock, open diffs and junk AT tires they come with. We started at Shafers switchbacks and did almost the entire thing in a day.”
One of my favorite videos on White Rim Trail that I've seen while doing research on it. It's nice to see people that aren't experts tackling a trail. UA-cam is full of people with crazy builds and years of experience, so it's nice to get a more grounded perspective from normal folks.
We are so happy to read this! Thank you for watching and commenting. WRT was wonderful and we’ve since been back and did it as a bike-packing trip. We hope you go and enjoy yourself.
Firstly, I love the raw intimate feel of this video. Letting us hear your conversations...
Two questions:
1: as terrified as you were, would you do it again, how do you feel about it afterwards?
2: what kind of tires are you running and how did they perform?
Lastly, the view at 21:27 is spectacular!
Great video!
Yes, we’d do it again for sure. We loved it. We were nervous in places, but never in danger. We enjoyed it so much that we are going back in March to do it on our bikes. Our tires are Nitto Terra Grappler All Terrain. They performed well. No issues at all. The views on the whole trail are spectacular. It was breathtaking and we had the whole place to ourselves for most of the adventure. Thank you for watching and for the nice comments!
This is an absolutely fantastic video but I will NEVER be driving that rim trail. So grateful that I got to see it through your lens. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for watching and for the nice comment!
In 1971, my Dad and I did the White Rim Trail from the top down to the river. In a 1970 Volkswagen. It was challenging, but doable. I am certain over time it has had different levels of difficulty depending on when it was last maintained and when the last gully washer came through. They told us at the time you could do it if you took it easy.
Thank you for watching and sharing that memory! I wonder how different it is now from 1971.
exactly....you hear all these stories from people about needing these beefed up vehicles to do all these trails, and yes to do white rim today you wouldnt want to do it in a vw, but a lot of the hype is just that, nothing but hype!
Cool video! My wife and I did this in 2007 in our Tacoma on our honeymoon. What a neat place and watching this brought make memories of our trip. Thanks for sharing. M&M in SC
Thanks for watching and commenting. Such an amazing experience to do together.
M J, Columbia SC here. Planning a two week trip in April/May. I wonder how much is changed in 15 years.
It’s so remote with only a few campsites, we’d be curious if anything has changed too.
Great Video! Made me laugh when you hit the running board step on the driver's side. Haha. We will be going in October, so this was helpful to watch. Thanks!
So happy you enjoyed it and found it helpful. Have an awesome time in October. It's a fun, beautiful adventure.
Looks like yous had a blast.
Only thing was, It couldn't believe you didn't take those side steps off. I gives you sooooo much better breakover.
We took one off on a nice rock.. ha ha. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Very nice. The wife and I drove out as far as Musslemans Arch some years back. I’d love to do the entire trail some day but doubt we will get to.... Thanks for sharing..
Thanks for watching and commenting. Hopefully one day you’ll get to go back.
Nice rig and a great way spend time with someone you love! As a "spotter" use the terms "passenger" and "driver" to instruct your driver which way to turn. More intuitive and much more specific. Bravo for taking on a shelf road on your first adventure. Many, many more to explore. Have fun!!
Thanks for the tip and for watching! We love doing all these adventures together.
@@TechMadic The term is nearside and offside. Just so you don't sound like a noob when shouting driver passenger lol. Really enjoyed your video, thanks for sharing it. Awesome you and yours work together when wheeling. Safe travels.
Thank you for protecting us from being noobs!!
@@TechMadic hehe my pleasure sir.
Julie Ann you are too cute! You probably know by now, but when spotting yell "driver or passenger" to indicate direction to the driver. Enjoy!
Got it! Thanks!
Julie Ann is a champ; I could never get my wife to drive WRT w/ me-she can barely handle driving on highways that have canyon drop offs! Did WRT June 2020 w/ my 16 YO son. Watched a guy and his female companion do a pretty good 3 point turn going down Shafer Trail to come back up-she wasn't having it by the look on her face as we passed them! Stayed in Potato Bottom C night 2-good to see Kitchen Rock is still there, and bet you didn't have the mosquitos! Glad you got to mountain bike-my rack failed, and our bikes got damaged, so no riding on WRT and the rest of our trip-which was Moab/CO. Will be back again, would love to do WRT in the fall. Great video-
How awesome to do it with your 16-year old son! “Kitchen Rock” ha ha ha. No mosquitos, thank goodness. But we did see a lot of little mice-like critters while cooking dinner at Potato Bottom. Here’s to your next adventure!
Did you air down? 18-20psi is where I run mine. Good video for a first off road experience.
Thank you for the advice. We didn’t because we didn’t have an air compressor at the time but now we do! Next time.
White Rim Trail is on my and my wife’s bucket-list. Great video.👍
Glad you liked it and thanks for the comment! Are you planning to drive or bike? We want to go back and do it on our mountain bikes.
Coming to visit all 5 national park next month for the 1st time.
You will need to share which are your favorites and why. Have fun!
@@TechMadic cool will do.
Thanks for doing one of the more complete videos
Nice video. I enjoyed riding along with you.
Your interactions with your husband reminded me of my wifes reactions to Shaffer Trail when we did it over Memorial weekend.
After that trip i traded in my Forester and got a 4 runner.
I really want to do WRT, but looks like I have to work her into it.
It was so fun! I hope you guys do it. Thank you for watching and commenting.
Wonderful video, I hope to enjoy this trail/camping some day. Well now you're ready for Black Bear pass and other great trails in Colorado. 👍
Thank you for watching and the nice comment. We are chomping at the bit to go out again and we LOVE Colorado. Hopefully you will get to White Rim. One of the most beautiful and remote places we’ve been so far.
Yeah we were going to do this trail last Thanksgiving break, but I had some issues with my charging system the last time we were out, and as a precaution opted out. Besides we only had one night campsite, and would have had to blow through it. One of these days! Maybe next November. I have a few Overlanding events set-up for this summer here in Colorado 4 day Miners Loop in August 4 epic trails near Buena Vista and as many smaller outings all summer long. Looking forward to your next adventure out.. Stay safe out there!
You too! Enjoy those next events.
Welcome to off roading! Also, general role of thumb is up hill traffic has the right of way.
Thank you for watching and for the tip! We have a lot to learn.
That is true, with some exceptions out here in Colorado we have some seriously tight shelve roads that it's common sense to wait at the bottom if someone has already started descending down. Pearl pass they even have it stated on the US Forestry site that down hill has the right away. I've been on that trail and there is no where to pass for a half mile, but you can see if it's clear to start your ascension/decent.
I imagine it’s like with trail running and MTB. There’s the etiquette that works most of the time, but don’t let etiquette overrule safety or common sense.
The trail was wide enough in most places for two cars to get around each other in one way or the other. Other than the last few miles, we saw maybe 8 cars over two days. So the odds of you getting stuck with another car on a tight single track are pretty small.
Well done!
Thank you!
Would you do this trail in a full size pickup crew cab?
I think it’s possible. There are only a couple tight turns. May need to do a little 3-point turn action but it should be doable.
What brand of cell phone holder is that in the video. If you recomend it, can you reply with the make/model? Thanks!
It's an iOttie. Honestly, I never use it. It's too big and annoying. I just keep forgetting to take it down.
Question: What road did you guys exit from at the end of the trail?
We exited Schafer. You can see it on this NPS map. www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/upload/IslandRoadsandTrails2022_forweb.pdf Hope that helps. Thanks for watching!
Loved this video and the interactions between you two! I so could see my wife in some of them. I did White Rim Trail for the first time about a month ago, but solo. Such a gorgeous place! I'm somewhere in the middle on experience... more than you two, less than others. Gotta say that all the crawl control made my skin crawl... there wasn't really any need for that on WRT... just learn to drive it, and perhaps most importantly learn about picking your line. No amount of crawl control will fix not picking the right line. Thanks so much for the video!
I think my (Julianne) panic inspired Scott to use crawl (and we kind of just wanted to try it). Watching the video, things look sooooo much safer than when we were in the moment. Like when I tell him to move over to the other side of he is going to fall off the ledge. He was totally fine in retrospect. Ha ha ha. We’re learning! Great advice on picking the line. Thanks for watching and for the nice comment.
@@TechMadic I frankly wasn't sure how I'd do mentally with all the cliff edges. I think it's much much easier when you are the driver. You're just focused on driving. I imagine that it was a lot worse for you when not driving! Not sure I'd want to be the passenger!
100%. It’s better when you’re the one in control.
Hey guys! great vid and keep up the exploring! We're scheduled to go this year Thanksigiving week. How cold was the weather last year? We're planning to go with our 2 year old.
It actually snowed the first night and was quite cold in the tent at night. Day time was fine. I’d bring layers, gloves, hat, warm socks, etc for nighttime and first thing in the morning. Have a great time!
Sweet! I can't wait to go.
This is amazing
Thanks for watching!
Just did the Shafer Trail a month ago in my '19 Cherokee Trailhawk, how doable is White Rim in my stock rig ?
Should be no problem especially if it’s dry. The 4Runner is stock. Need to be careful in about 10 places to protect the undercarriage from pointy rocks. Do you have any factory skid plates? We busted a foot rail on the passenger side.
@@TechMadic Yes there are factory skid plates underneath- Thanks
I'm planning on doing this trip are the permits required just for the campsites or do you need a permit for the trails?
You need a day use for vehicles and bikes on White Rim Trail. Only Potash or Shafer don’t require permits. I think during May-June (flood season) you need to physically go and get a permit day of and they are issued based in road conditions. Good luck!
That's a great little video.
Thank you so much for the nice comment. Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks guys that was pretty neat and and lots of tips not showing this to my wife she won't let us take it. Lol looking for the easiest..
It was so fun and only a little stressful :-). Thanks for watching and commenting!
Hubby is too afraid of a few small rocks.
I’ve totaled a Jeep CJ7 and crashed a Grand Cherokee off-roading in my youth. Twice bitten, twice shy.
Oh Black Bear Pass will make your wife say "Ahhh!" and cringe the whole time!
Then it’s a must do!
Why did you do it in the reverse direction?
Our campsite reservations dictated our direction. Thanks for watching!
We are doing this in June. Just got our permit. Thanks for sharing.
June is a nice time! Do you have any plans of what else you are going to see and do?
@@TechMadic we’re starting off with a few days of hiking in Arches NP then the White Rim Trail for 3 nights. We’re taking our time so we can hike some trails there. From Canyonlands we’re going to Capital Reef to drive through Cathedral Valley. Plans are kinda loose after that. Maybe Zion and Grand Canyon or possibly Ouray, Colorado area.
Sounds like an amazing trip! When we were in Moab, Arches would close around 9a because it was full and Canyonlands would have a long line. Hope you have good weather and traffic!
How was your trip Richard? My wife wants to go back to Arches, I want to do WRT, we just watched this video, and she said she'll stay at a hotel in Moab again.
Tell your wife it was really fun! We were nervous but not in danger. The views were out of this world. So worth it.
Nothing feels more free than driving around the American West in a Japanese truck 😂
It was more convenient than driving around the Japanese West in an American truck.
@@TechMadic
Ohhhhh yeah! You busted his ass goooood! Best reply ever!
Nice video though! Thanks!
14:11 WhyTF are you even in 4WD? Whoops never mind, just read the description 🤦♂
Everyone has got to start somewhere! Thanks for watching and commenting.
Everyone has got to start somewhere! Thanks for watching and commenting.
I can do that in my Corolla. It's only scary because you're driving the typical huge suv.
Great that you have such a capable Corolla. That’s impressive. Thanks for watching!
Fairly obvious the trail is nothing to worry about on a mountain bike. So the scary part is strictly due to trying to drive the trail with a large vehicle. The trail is reasonably flat, no steep ledges to crawl over or deep ruts requiring 4wd.
A mountain bike is fun on the trail. We rode one afternoon for a couple hours and it was great. Running or fast packing it also would make a killer couple / few days. I would not do it in a Corolla but everyone has different risk tolerance. Good luck to you.
You literally never need to use four wheel drive on the WRT. if any part of this scared you, do not attempt Black Bear, Imogene or any other Colorado trails for that matter.
Thanks for watching and for expressing your opinion. We’re learning. It was our first off-road experience. I think a better approach is do more, learn more, try more. Keep practicing and getting better.
Bear in mind that in 4WD your front wheels are more properly pulling you in the desired direction. That can give a big peace of mind to the driver and passenger.
Thanks for watching and commenting! It was a great experience and good way to get some practice in at a place that wasn’t too challenging.
Clean your windshield next time so we can see what your filming.
I rewatched just last night and noticed that too in a few places. Also, trying to get better at where the camera focuses so it’s not the windshield. Thanks for watching.
Hard Scramble
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Hardscrabble, not hard scramble.
Thanks!
Also, 4runner not ForeRunner haha. Looks like you did it comfortably! About to do this on my dualsport, unfortunately couldn't get a backcountry permit, so I'll be doing the 100 miles in one day :)
Oh wow. That’s a long day. Hope you have good lights!
Fixed "4Runner". Duh. Thank you! By the way, which direction are you planning?
@@TechMadic Great question! We'll have a "support vehicle" or two (Jeep and a Tacoma) to carry tools/spare fuel and food, which direction would be easier for Trucks/SUVs? I'm leaning toward Counter-clockwise, since I plan on setting up camp near the "Fruit Bowl Access" BLM area off of BLM 129 and starting the White Rim by Mineral Bottom
Yes, they totally can, but they should go east instead.
It was dictated by the available camping permits and dates unfortunately.
People advise me! Can I do this trail with my Chevy Silverado 2500 long bed? I worry about the size of my truck! Thanks
Found this on Reddit. “Several years ago I did it in a '19 Ram 3500 single rear wheel crew cab long box (I know, crazy but that's all I have, need it for work). The hardscrabble end was tight along the cliffs on corners. Murphy's ridge in the middle was intimidating but not actually that hard. Otherwise totally fine. We scraped underneath here and there but nothing bad, no rock stacking or messing around. The long wheelbase made for a lot of backing up and some center clearance issues but really nothing bad. Truck was completely stock, open diffs and junk AT tires they come with. We started at Shafers switchbacks and did almost the entire thing in a day.”