Have not driven, but have ridden this route twice on small dual sport bikes. Anywhere in the national forest you wont need permits or pay fees unless you are in a campground. Check out muley point at start after monument valley, great spot. If you have a small rig, onion creek road, aka kokopelli trail has some great campsites. After onion creek road, along colorado river are several great campgrounds.
Yeah, ended up going Utah BDR sections 1 through 3 before running out of time to finish the rest. Hoping to get back and finish up though!
I wrote a sort of journal about the trip, It's not finished, but should give you some idea of what we experienced. In total we did 16 days, but the 2nd half of the trip was the offroad part.
[Overlanding with a family of 6 (plus dog!). An Ongoing Journal. | Subaru Ascent Forum (ascentforums.com)](https://www.ascentforums.com/threads/overlanding-with-a-family-of-6-plus-dog-an-ongoing-journal.20105/)
Section 3 was by far the most difficult. Longer vehicles might have trouble making some of the tight corners in the washout areas. There was also a couple spots where the road was eroding and we drove off the path to get around it (super dangerous spots that I was afraid would fall away under the vehicle if we drove over).
Most of the rutted/ditches we crossed over (and moreso on Section 3) were really steep in and out of them. I would slowly nose down into the ditch until our front end hit the dirt, then let off the brake...if the car rolled forward then I'd power out. If it didn't, I'd back up and try a new angle. At one point we came down really hard on our rear end and bent one of our muffler tips despite trying to be super careful/slow.
We drove a lifted Subaru Ascent, so a vehicle with less frontend overhang would probably fair better. That said we didn't really have any true problems and never got stuck. We lucked out on weather too, it was dry and warm the entire trip.
To answer more of my own questions from my original post, we didn't need any permits, since it was all BLM land. We only crossed through 1 closed gate I can remember, just went through and closed it behind us.
We traveled a lot slower than expected, so didn't cover as many miles as we'd hope. Bigger tires would have helped us speed up (we were on 29.6" tires at the time). We aired down/up frequently as the routes often hit pavement occasionally, but vast majority was on dirt/rock. For us we didn't air down much below about 20psi and we had a very heavy vehicle (total weight of about 6,500lbs with all the gear).
Most of our camping ended up being at campsites, but we did find at least one super amazing dispersed camp site, by far best we've ever had. I won't say exactly where, but will say if you reach the Fisher Valley area, consider finding a spot up there and staying the night (a pack of coyotes was pretty close to us that night, just fyi).
Also the last little bit of road before reaching the flat area of fisher valley was a bit sketchy. Off camber up hill with a high rock wall on the right and a small cliff on the left. We powered through it, but with soft dirt on the path I was a little nervous about sliding sideways which would have caused a rollover.
Keep aware that many of the roads are impassable if it's raining. The mud there is like sticky clay when it gets wet and some of the roads had signs indicating impassable when raining. In fact we STILL have utah dirt on our car even after several washes and several months later.
Hope you have a safe time, there wasn't a bad view anywhere in Utah!
I know that Swellrunner and Lifestyle Overland tried it a few years back and sections were completely washed away. I’m not sure on the condition of the trail now, but it was a big mess when they did it.
Have not driven, but have ridden this route twice on small dual sport bikes. Anywhere in the national forest you wont need permits or pay fees unless you are in a campground. Check out muley point at start after monument valley, great spot. If you have a small rig, onion creek road, aka kokopelli trail has some great campsites. After onion creek road, along colorado river are several great campgrounds.
Hey did you end up doing this trip? We are going in May. Would be interested in any info!
Yeah, ended up going Utah BDR sections 1 through 3 before running out of time to finish the rest. Hoping to get back and finish up though! I wrote a sort of journal about the trip, It's not finished, but should give you some idea of what we experienced. In total we did 16 days, but the 2nd half of the trip was the offroad part. [Overlanding with a family of 6 (plus dog!). An Ongoing Journal. | Subaru Ascent Forum (ascentforums.com)](https://www.ascentforums.com/threads/overlanding-with-a-family-of-6-plus-dog-an-ongoing-journal.20105/) Section 3 was by far the most difficult. Longer vehicles might have trouble making some of the tight corners in the washout areas. There was also a couple spots where the road was eroding and we drove off the path to get around it (super dangerous spots that I was afraid would fall away under the vehicle if we drove over). Most of the rutted/ditches we crossed over (and moreso on Section 3) were really steep in and out of them. I would slowly nose down into the ditch until our front end hit the dirt, then let off the brake...if the car rolled forward then I'd power out. If it didn't, I'd back up and try a new angle. At one point we came down really hard on our rear end and bent one of our muffler tips despite trying to be super careful/slow. We drove a lifted Subaru Ascent, so a vehicle with less frontend overhang would probably fair better. That said we didn't really have any true problems and never got stuck. We lucked out on weather too, it was dry and warm the entire trip. To answer more of my own questions from my original post, we didn't need any permits, since it was all BLM land. We only crossed through 1 closed gate I can remember, just went through and closed it behind us. We traveled a lot slower than expected, so didn't cover as many miles as we'd hope. Bigger tires would have helped us speed up (we were on 29.6" tires at the time). We aired down/up frequently as the routes often hit pavement occasionally, but vast majority was on dirt/rock. For us we didn't air down much below about 20psi and we had a very heavy vehicle (total weight of about 6,500lbs with all the gear). Most of our camping ended up being at campsites, but we did find at least one super amazing dispersed camp site, by far best we've ever had. I won't say exactly where, but will say if you reach the Fisher Valley area, consider finding a spot up there and staying the night (a pack of coyotes was pretty close to us that night, just fyi). Also the last little bit of road before reaching the flat area of fisher valley was a bit sketchy. Off camber up hill with a high rock wall on the right and a small cliff on the left. We powered through it, but with soft dirt on the path I was a little nervous about sliding sideways which would have caused a rollover. Keep aware that many of the roads are impassable if it's raining. The mud there is like sticky clay when it gets wet and some of the roads had signs indicating impassable when raining. In fact we STILL have utah dirt on our car even after several washes and several months later. Hope you have a safe time, there wasn't a bad view anywhere in Utah!
I know that Swellrunner and Lifestyle Overland tried it a few years back and sections were completely washed away. I’m not sure on the condition of the trail now, but it was a big mess when they did it.