Photos from Arches Nat'l Park Utah Park Avenue and Monument Valley Mittens.

Monument Valley sites requires a 17 mile unpaved drive route, Element did just fine.

Also went to Mesa Verde, CO and Canyonlands, UT on this trip.

2003 Galapagos Green Element. :lol:

wow. Incredible pics. ( speechless )

Did you go to Mesa Verde with the Anasazi sites? That would be kinda cool, seeing an Element in front of a 4000 year old pseudo-city...

Unbelieveable pics.

Did Monument Valley require you to take along a guide? Or is it Canyon de Chelly that requires that?

http://www.hondaelement.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5848 (Moab area)
http://www.hondaelement.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5851 (S Utah)
http://www.hondaelement.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5849 (canyon near Dead Horse)
These threads have pictures from my travels in that area last fall. In the Moab area we stayed at Deadhorse Pt and the La Sal Mtns. You may have passed through Mexican Hat on the way to Monument Valley. Mokee Dugway is just north of there.

I haven't been to Mesa Verde myself, but I think it would be hard to get a picture of the car with the ruins in the background. I believe the ruins are all in the mesa cliffs, below the top where you can drive and park. At Chaco Canyon the ruins are on the canyon floor as are the roads and parking, but I don't recall how close they are.

paulj

Gorgeous pictures, thanks for sharing. :)

Great photos. The Element looks happy there!

I'm with S3 on the speechless part.

That looks like fun!

was there any part of that 17 mile route that you HAD to have a 4WD? Would a 2WD do fine?

Thanks for all the kind replies!

Mesa Verde has cliff dwellings (Balcony House, Cliff Palace, & Spruce Tree House) so no car pix there but I'll try and post a cliff dwelling photo on another thread. Someday will check out other Anasazi regions in Southwest too, this is just one of them. Chaco in New Mexico looks cool.

Thanks for the great links to other photos in Utah while off-road, I'll have to try that Dead Horse route next time I'm there!

Monument Valley the "Valley Drive" doesn't require a guide, other remote sites in the Valley do though, and you prob get some unique photos. The route would be ok for 2WD. There were other conventional cars were on the road too, just going very slow, higher clearance on E helps. Takes about 2 hours to do 17 mile route (speed limit is 15mph) depending on how many stops you make.[/FONT]

I'll try and post some more photos, since the lighting was so great on this trip.

:)

I think I got a shot of Monument Valley - in the distance across the Goosenecks of the San Juan - from Muley Pt.

Breathtaking..........

Breathtaking..........

I'll second that

Cool shot. I didn't get to go down to canyon in Canyonlands

Paulj, your Deadhorse road looks rough and tough, would you recommend other E's to try?

Is there camping in the canyon?

Nice to see pix from area off the beaten path... :)

Dead Horse Pt is in a Utah state park, with a good paved road - it's a branch off the road to the Island in the Sky part of Canyon Lands NP. The campground there is quite nice, with sun shelters at each site, complete with a power outlet. In fact I downloaded my first set of pictures to my laptop at the table there. It can be busy. There is also good hiking - both directly from the campground, and a short distance away at the tip of the point.

I left the area via the Long Canyon Road (that's the 5849 thread). While steep and exposed, the surface isn't too bad except for the slot near the top which can accumulate sand and rock. I drove through it without scraping bottom by keeping the front wheels on high spots, while the rear ones insisted on staying in the ruts. I had my doubts, though, whether I could have driven up hill through this sand and rock. I gather that the amount of dirt in this slot can vary, depending on rock fall off the nearby walls, and any stream outwash.

At the bottom of this road is Utah 279, a paved road that runs from Moab downriver to the potash plant. It then climbs above the river on a 'industrial' quality gravel road past some evaporation ponds to the start of the Shafer Rd. This continues on a shelf above the Colorado, and then makes a series of switchbacks up a steep bowl to the Island in the Sky.

I drove all the way to Island this way some years ago without much need for 4wd, but this trip I didn't have time to go beyond a point directly below Dead Horse Pt.

I found that along Shafer Road, I was comfortable driving faster than people in rental jeeps, but not as fast people in their own. On some roads you may be more limited by your passenger's tolerance for bouncing around, than by the car's traction.

I suspect that if a road is described as 'easy 4wd' or 'high clearance 2wd', the Element probably can do it. It helps to develop a sense of how the Element's suspension responds to bumps. Where possible I try to keep the high spots and rocks under the tires, rather between.

paulj

Thanks Paulj for all the info, very helpful for planning on next trip!

Below is info/map on the Monument Valley route for those interested.

;-)

Picture Post Card shots. Awesome. Great job....