Factory Butte Road

[Iceaxe]

With spring approaching the roads in the San Rafael Swell and Robbers Roost area can get "interesting". Here are a couple pictures of the Factory Butte road in less then ideal conditions.

As you can see from the pictures there is nothing for several miles in ANY direction that you can use to get un-stuck. You dig out with what is in the vehicle so go prepared.

Just for the record..... this is about 10 miles in on the Factory Butte Road. The road was in great condition and we were cruising along about 60 mph and came over a small rise just before the tee and the bottom fell out of the road. The best part about cruising at 60 mph is the car slides on the belly pan for a couple hundred yards through the mud before coming to a complete stop.

Fun, fun, fun.......

[Mtnbiker]

How on EARTH did you get out of there??

I went through a road like that a few weeks ago and after three trips to the car wash the mud is still caked 1" thick on the underside of my truck!

sure was fun while it lasted though.. fortunately we never got stuck like that

[Iceaxe]

It was ugly.... we had to dig out. It was 10" of wet concrete type mud. The mud was caused from dirt blowing over the road. The only good part was under the mud was a good all-weather dirt road used by a local mining company so we just had to dig two tracks out that were about 10" deep and 18" wide. The biggest problem with digging was our shovel consisted of a cooler with the lid ripped off.

I was pretty worried. The nearest paved road was a 15 mile hike. The nearest town (Hanksville) was an additional 15 miles after we reached the pavement. I figured it would take at least a day to hike out. Lucky we were able to dig out.

[accadacca]

Not a good place for that little Corolla. I took my Prius to the swell and it wasn't bad. But I wont take it back....it's a freakin' low rider.

[Iceaxe]

Not a good place for that little Corolla.

That was my thought..... exactly..... as we were sliding through the mud on the belly pan

[Sombeech]

so did you end up hitting the canyon?

[Iceaxe]

This was the first time I tried for Cable and didn't make it. Later in the day we were able to do Five Mile in Capitol Reef.

[marc olivares]

me and a few buddies did buckskin gultch via wire pass last spring, it had rained pretty hard a few days before we got there and the road was, as the sign says "impassible when wet".
(3) landrovers w/ 33" mud tires and lockers all buried up to the axles.
we put the winches to some good use that day. i was wiped out before we even go to the trail head...
note to self "impassible when wet" means just that...

[Sombeech]

Man, that really sucks. I have a tendancy to really get depressed when things go wrong on trips like that.

[Iceaxe]

we put the winches to some good use that day.

You would have been hosed at Factory Butte..... there was nothing to winch to. I was thinking about this after and the only thing that might have worked was some type of a deadman anchor.....

Just look at the pictures..... nothing.... of miles, not even a stick or rock.

[Scott P]

On a different note, have you ever done canyons when they are filled with that stuff? Yeck.

[Iceaxe]

I did Leprechaun once when it was filled with slimy mud.

The scary part was the section below the junctions had chest deep quicksand. I stepped into it and thought I was a goner. The really scary part was my kids were with me and the quicksand was over their heads!

This was quicksand like you see in the old African movies. I noticed it was caused by the water flowing over a chokestone and liquifying the sand below. Kind of like a giant pothole filled with a a mixture of sand and water. It was really hard to escape and I think could have been deadly for midgets.


.

[accadacca]

I think could have been deadly for midgets.

[FOX]

About 12 years ago I got my truck stuck up to the axles in the "Muddy" on our way out to the Factory Butte road. We were out of food and ill prepared for the night we spent in the mud. It's amazing how you can stretch a can of tuna and some power bars between five people.

Fortunately, we were able to hitch a ride the next morning into Goblin Valley and get some assistance. My truck never ran the same after that. From then on I learned to always expect the unexpected.

I've got some pics of that fateful weekend I'll have to dig up and post. I laugh about it now but at the time, I was really worried.

[Iceaxe]

We stuck a Jeep to the axles in the Muddy. We built a dam around the Jeep to keep the river away. We were then able to jack up the Jeep and place rocks under the tires so we could drive it out. I know a bunch of people who have stuck vehicles in the Muddy.

[marc olivares]

You would have been hosed at Factory Butte..... there was nothing to winch to. I was thinking about this after and the only thing that might have worked was some type of a deadman anchor.....

Just look at the pictures..... nothing.... of miles, not even a stick or rock.

they make this cool thing called a pullpal, does exactly what youre talking about...and yes i carry one of those w/ me too...

[FOX]

We stuck a Jeep to the axles in the Muddy. We built a dam around the Jeep to keep the river away. We were then able to jack up the Jeep and place rocks under the tires so we could drive it out.

That was our plan as well. As I remember, we hit it at sunset and the river was higher than normal due to quite a bit of rainfall a day or two earlier. We had no luck with the dam we were attempting to build. Doing it in the dark with no light and not having a jack (other than the POS that comes standard with a Toyota) was an added bonus.

The next day we secured a jack worthy of the job and were able to lift the truck out of the mud, place rocks under the wheels and eventually drive it out.

"Blondie's" never tasted so good!

[rock_ski_cowboy]

I know a bunch of people who have stuck vehicles in the Muddy.

I have never driven Factory Butte road. Is there any trick to crossing the Muddy? Should one just get a ton of speed up and hit it? Or is it usually not a big problem?

On a related note, an acquaintance of mine from New Jersey decided it would be fun to go "digging" for his first time with his new unmodified Ford Explorer in a muddy disked field out by Utah Lake last week He got about 200 feet from the road and realized what a stupid idea it was, and got half way turned away before becoming stuck. Of course, he spun his wheels until he was high-centered badly. The next day he called me because I have a truck (as if I could do anything for him!). Overnight it snowed about a foot and then it had melted so the whole field was covered with about 4 inches of water. We got out there and the Explorer had sunk down to the doors. I obviously couldn't do anything for him so he called this guy, Larry, who own's "Larry's towing and 4x4 Recovery". He pulled up with a flat bed tow truck with the coolest 4x4 mud rig on the back I've ever seen. I wish I had some pictures. It was a 1970's short bed truck with the back modified to be just a huge winch, with a winch on the front too. It had a major lift and HUGE chained mud tires on it. He didn't hesitate to pull right out in the middle of the field. The "truck" sunk a foot, no big deal, he still had another foot of clearance. Larry hooked up the winch, put some big T shaped steel blocks behind the wheels when the rig started to slide back, and had the explorer out within a few seconds, and then towed (drug) it out to the road with mud flying everywhere... Pretty good show, especially since the New Jersey guy had to pay the 110 admission for me to see it!

[Iceaxe]

Factory Butte Road is normally a really good road. CROSSING the Muddy is not usually a problem if you pick a good spot and don't stop.....

At one time it was possible to drive from the Little Wild Horse Road up the Muddy River Gorge to Hidden Splendor. The track crossed the river something like 37 times. This was one of the old mining tracks (RS2477?). Anyhoo.... everyone I know who has gotton stuck in the Muddy was using the old mining track. The cool thing about the old mining track before it was closed was that The Squeeze was a half day route :-)

Part of the agreement the BLM and ATV guys came to was if the Muddy River Gorge was closed to 4x4 then the BLM would reopen the complete Behind The Reef Road (BTRR). The BTRR is now open and anyone using Ramp Canyon will note the ATV trail joining the road at the top of Ramp.

[FOX]

Pretty good show, especially since the New Jersey guy had to pay the 110 admission for me to see it!

I would've loved to see that!