Cat Canyon, A New Trail in The West Desert

Cat Canyon
A new trail in Utah's Western Desert

by Todd Adams






Our trail leader, Craig, making his way up the "Rock Garden"
"Awesome", I heard this over and over again as the day went along, even from the drivers that were experiencing body damage. Awesome referred not only to the extreme wheeling but to the extreme beauty of the canyon. I even heard "Insane" from one experienced rock crawler. Craig, our trail leader, was surprised by the smile on the faces of those as they got told of new dents or damage to their rigs.

Cat Canyon is an old 4X4 road that can be found on maps pre dating 1984. As part of an on going project to find, identify and drive with government owned GPS equipment for documentation all existing roads within Millard County Utah, this jewel of a road has been discovered not by the locals but by the Extreme 4X4 group. Craig had been telling me of another road as challenging as Chainsaw but was a loop road and twice as long. Craig put the word out via E-mail for the first organized running of Cat Canyon and the word spread to many of Utah's Big Dogs.



EZ making it look easy
Carl flexes his Warn Coil suspended CJ/YJ


Scott kept his CJ6 shiny side up this trip

13 rigs met in Delta Utah Saturday morning October 9th to head out west along Highway 6 about an hour to drop of tow vehicles at the trails end. With a short caution from Craig about rolling, which there would be plenty of chances for, we headed for the start of Cat Canyon.

There is a small arch on the upper right wall of the canyon mouth marking the start of the trail. There is also a sign right under the arch stating this is a Wilderness Study Area.

The wheeling got intense right from the start with a section called the "Rock Garden" including a ledge at the top that gave most of us a hard time. This ledge was soon dubbed "Rocker Masher" as trail trophies were earned to the right rocker panels of more than one rig. It took over an hour to get the 13 rigs over this first obstacle!



Jeff gets a bit tippy at the start of the "Narrows"

The next hard place that had caused Craig's son Dallas to almost tip over on a pre run gave us little problems. Called the "Narrows", it did get us all tippy but that was about it. A Moab like narrow slot that is similar to one on the back side of "Elephant Hill" had plenty of traction but gave the long overhang set a bit of trouble.

Next up was "Craig's Chute". It got it's name after Craig tipped over trying to go up. So much for who should have given the over tipping speech. He then backed off and went up being the first to tip and the first to ever make it, Craig let us name it after him. Too bad I was at the back of the line and did not get any pictures of the Commando an it's side. There is a by pass to this very extreme obstacle which most of us rational people took. Even it is 4+. Craig's Chute proved to be the most difficult obstacle of the day, with more body damage than any other spot.



Shawn's "Blood Hound" gets some air on Craig's Chute
This looks tough but it is even tougher than it looks, just ask Bart. This is Craig's Chute.

The last obstacle, which is now known as "Jaw Breaker" where we not only found the jaw bones of a deer, but jars the driver as he slams down from a precarious wheel up position, is where I had a problem. I should never have tried it but thought I could make it. Putting the front of the Red YJ up into the "V" notch I lost steering control. It was pointed out to me that the drag link had a 90 degree bend in it. Linda in her infinite wisdom reminded me that I should have replaced it after putting a slight bend in it on the Rubicon.

We pulled the drag link off at one end, straightened it up and put my shortened high lift jack handle over the bent tube. I then backed up to take the easiest of the two by passes. Both are still 4+ obstacles and unnamed but EZ would like the off camber one named "Giraffe Falls". This was the end of the hard stuff and it had only taken us 7 hours to go 3 1/2 miles! It was still about 6 miles on a good two track road to get back to the tow vehicles.


Jaw Breaker, notice the Lowrance GPS antenna on the hood of Mikes rig

This is typical of the entire trail. It never lets up! Linda showing this is not just a mans sport. She drove most of the trail


If you go, make sure you do it with a group. You will need the right equipment and skills to make it through Cat Canyon. Lockers both ends and a winch. This trail is not for everybody but for the few daring hard core rock crawlers this is like I said earlier "a Jewel".

http://www.4x4now.com/trutcc.htm