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Get a Jeep they said…🤦🏼‍♀️

So many of you know we bought a Jeep about a month ago to do fun Utah things with… it’s not new, just new to us. After some debate, we settled on our first Jeep excursion to Capitol Reef. They got some rain this week in Capitol Reef but the roads were still open so we decided to take them. Definitely a mistake, but you live and you learn.

Well as you probably guessed from the title, we got stuck not too far from the road (but with no cell) on a soft river bank of quicksand. Literally the stuff that sucks you down, it sucked the Jeep down also. We tried for 2 hours to get unstuck (tow straps, sticks, digging, etc) when a group came upon us and offered to take us to the next town. Since we had Dex with us, we decided to split up, Austin went to town and Andrea/Dex stayed with the sunken Jeep.

Well the next town (Kanesville) only has 24 residents. So Austin was driven onto Hanksville. The tow companies were 3 hours away so Austin walked into a diner and asked if anyone had a truck. One of the cooks said yes but he was getting off in about an hour.

During this time, 2 other people came upon me and Dex. One person from Texas who wanted to check out the road and planned to do it tomorrow. And another local person who said he had been stuck in this exact location before, and that his brother had been with him in another vehicle and pulled him out. They both offered me a ride but as there is no cell, I decided to stay. Austin wouldn’t have known where I was if he got back and I was gone. The local person mentioned that he would stop by later to make sure I was no longer there – for which I was very grateful.

Long story but Austin finally made it back to the Jeep with the local from town about 3 hours after he originally left. They initially used a portable winch which actually pulled the tree it was hooked to down. So then we hooked to this guy’s truck, he reversed and basically popped right out.

Now it doesn’t really end there. We decided that because the entry to the riverbed was also soft, that we would continue along the road. This was a good decision until we hit a very muddy hill maybe 10 miles in. We made it about 3/4 of the way up this hill before we started rolling backwards. There was a small embankment on both sides of us but it was open in one small area. I was moderately terrified that we were going to slide off the hill and roll down about 100 ft.

Instead, Austin slowly slid down the hill. I would say that he had it under control, but despite turning the Jeep wheels either way, it only slid in one direction. Eventually he made it to the bottom so we turned around. Now at this point we were nervous. We no longer had anyone there to pull us out and we had to cross the riverbank and go through the very soft bank.

We got to the riverbank only to see the other local who mentioned he would come back to check and make sure I was gone. So Austin crossed the river, put down some sticks for traction and we gunned it across the soft river bank and made it safely across.

What did we learn…

We already know how to be better prepared for the next adventure (Austin already added a portable winch to his Christmas list for starters) but wanted to share this because there is a chance for others to learn as well. We also know that while we have help, we should take it – like crossing back over with someone right there to pull us out if we need it, rather than continuing on. A few things we did correctly were having plenty of food/water/warm clothes with us to stay the night in the car if we needed to. We also had both a tow strap and a knife with us as well.

It was a stressful day but I am so grateful that it happened pretty close to the road and that there was a really nice guy with a truck who said afterward that it was “really fun to help you guys out”.

And now of course we have to go back to do this same road once it’s a little more dry.

Although it’s not my usual itinerary or travel hacking post, I figured I would share it so you could laugh at the craziness. Have you ever been stuck?

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