We eased into our day, with Lisette getting up early to chat to her friend Kerstin in the UK as the sun was rising. We certainly miss seeing family and friends while we’ve been on the road, but fortunately we’ve had ample opportunities to have calls and send messages, as technology has made staying connected to everyone around the world so easy!
While we’d breezed through the city of Moab a couple of times, we hadn’t actually spent time in it beyond the brief grocery stop. It’s a small city of about 5,000 people, and the streets are lined with everything you’d expect for a tourist-oriented place: bars, ice cream parlors, restaurants serving everything from Thai, Mexican, American to other cuisines, art galleries, souvenir shops, and shops focused on outdoor gear and equipment. Since it’s a gateway to the popular Arches National Park (which is only 10 minutes drive away) and Canyonlands National Park, it’s always teeming with visitors.
Moab Rock Shop
We’re not big on buying souvenirs (particularly as we’d be lugging it in our already full RV), but we enjoyed checking out the Moab Rock Shop downtown, which had an extensive variety of rocks and fossils to look at and purchase, from Utah, around the US and beyond, of all different colors, shapes and textures. There were several children at the front of the store excitedly filling their baskets with selenite, malachite, sandstone, geyserite and the other types of rocks as we approached. We’d heard of rockhounding from our friend Kelly when we were in Denver, and it seemed that this family were avid rock collectors!
After yet another brief grocery shop at City Market (we need to go several times a week as we have a small fridge and pantry, and mostly eat in), we went on a short drive to see some petroglyphs and dinosaur tracks along Potash Road. The temperature was touching 30C with the sun beating and we had to climb a pretty steep incline to get a good look.
Potash Road Petroglyphs and Dinosaur Tracks
Along the way, we saw that there were several groups of people rock climbing. We used to go rock climbing regularly (we had a gym membership for a year back in 2023), but haven’t been climbing since, and Lisette has only done top rope belay. Still, as we had all of our rock climbing gear except for rope, we were very tempted to give it a go! Maybe we’ll have to do an indoor climb first as a warm up…
Another place we wanted to visit further along were the vibrant Potash Evaporation Ponds, which are dyed a vivid, electric blue to accelerate the time it takes for the potash to crystallize. Unfortunately the road to get there was very gravelly, and not suitable for our low-clearance RV. So we skipped this, briefly stopping at a processing area by the company Intrepid Potash, which had a couple of memorials to employees who had died in unfortunate mining accidents in the past.
Hells Revenge Sunset Tour with Moab Tour Company
By this time we needed to head back to Moab, where we’d booked the Hells Revenge Sunset tour with Moab Tour Company at sunset, from 5.15-8.15pm, driving a UTV (utility task vehicle). A UTV is an off-road vehicle that is usually larger and more versatile than an ATV (all-terrain vehicle), with a steering wheel and foot pedals. While a UTV is generally less nimble, it’s more stable compared to an ATV – which would turn out to be crucial to our 3-hour adventure!
Ahead of the tour, we had to sign the usual waivers (we’re guessing they were standard, although we didn’t read these in detail), before watching a brief video, which gave a very basic explanation of how to drive the UTV, with guidelines like staying close to each other, in a straight line formation, on the tour. Then we headed out with the other 4 couples who were joining us with our tour guide, Jessica, jumping into our respective windowless, 2-seater UTVs and driving out onto the road toward Hells Revenge, where Michael could demonstrate his off-road driving skills while Lisette used her best photography/videography skills, while being thrown around in a UTV.
No sooner had we arrived at Hell’s Revenge, when we were faced with driving up a vertical rock face, to then bumpily make our way down the other side, into the ravine. We were looking right up toward the sky as we ascended, and this was a small taste of the wild adventure that was to come!
The next few hours were adrenaline-packed, with the UTVs being tested on their stability and agility as we scaled sheer rocks, crashed down onto the ground from uneven heights, swerved along sandy dunes, and navigated narrow ledges with the occasional wheel or two off the ground. Michael battled blinding sunlight as we sometimes drove upwards into the sun, as well as dust kicking up into our faces from the UTV or wind blowing up at us (note: Lisette brought a neck gaiter/tube scarf, which she found very helpful to shield from all the dust! Moab Tour Company also provides goggles, although we just wore our sunglasses).
Along the way, our tour guide would have us stop and see different sights, including dinosaur fossils, and areas where we could take in the incredible landscape around us. We also checked out (but did not drive) more advanced obstacles. One of these was Hell’s Gate, a steep and narrow V-shaped sandstone chute, which has an incline of about 20-30 degrees, with some sections close to 45 degrees. Because it is narrow, it requires precise coordination to prevent the vehicle tipping onto its side. We stood at the top of the Gate to see several vehicles steadily make their way across, with only one having a slight misstep, sliding down the chute, but steadily and successfully making it on the second attempt.
Another difficult obstacle was the Devil’s Bathtub (or Devil’s Hot Tub), a natural sandstone bowl with a narrow entrance and a deep, steep-sided depression. Attempting to drive through the Hot Tub entails descending into the bowl and climbing back out, but it requires precise control, otherwise the vehicle – whether it’s a dirt bike, jeep or UTV, can easily overshoot the bathtub, slide back down to the bottom, or roll over! Several men on dirt bikes came and one attempted it a couple of times, but he wasn’t able to ascend quickly enough to the other side.
The last main obstacle we saw – but did attempt – was Dragon’s Tail, a steep and narrow slickrock descent towards the end of the trail. We started with a sharp drop, and the path has narrow rock walls, with little room for error. But everyone made it!
As we were leaving Hell’s Revenge, there was a pickup truck in front of us that was attempting to ascend a steep hill. Because it was so bottom heavy, it kept sliding down, its tiring squealing in agony as it slipped back to where it started. The driver finally gave up after a few tries to let us pass (although we did see that the vehicle made it up somehow). Once we were out of Hell’s Revenge, we looked up to see a beautiful sunset, and a fire twirler standing atop a rocky outcrop. It seemed like the perfect way to wrap up our adventure!
Michael and I couldn’t help but laugh in astonishment throughout the tour, and also on the way back. Truly, the introduction video and website do not do the trip justice! In fact, the video looks incredibly tame, depicting not even a fraction of the insane ride that we experienced. We supposed that if it did show the reality, it would not only make for a very rocky and unfocused video to watch, but also potentially deter people ahead of time who could become nervous about the experience! But it was definitely a huge highlight of our time in Moab, especially for Michael who wants a UTV now!
We drove out of Moab Tour Company after sunset, keeping our eBikes in front of the RV as we made our way back to the same campsite as the night before. Even though our headlights could not fully shine through the eBikes (which makes driving more challenging in the semi-darkness), after our UTV experience, this seemed to almost pale in comparison to the adventure we just had!
Video
Here's a raw video of our experience taken from the Insta360 camera that Lisette was holding on to for dear life. While it looks pretty epic, the real experience is far more nerve-wracking and exciting!
Route Map
