Overlanding Utah's Black Dragon Wash

Check out how beautiful this desert scene is at our campsite behind us. It is so incredible over here Really excited Mike's crew joined us late last night We had a wonderful evening around the fire and we're gonna continue our journey today Checking out a couple of pictograph panels in the San Rafael Swell that we've never been to Really looking forward to heading down to Black Dragon Wash and checking out the panels there Supposedly the trail in is really really cool as well. Should be a great place to just be out adventuring right now We're just getting ready to wake up working on breakfast things like that And from there, we'll start heading out on the trail. I have to admit I'm jealous of Mike sleeping inside the forerunner He has this awesome platform that he built We have a cool video about if you want to check it out But basically makes it so that nice little shelving store some gear in underneath here And sleep comfortably in the back of the forerunner. I miss sleeping in the Jeep Tent works, but I think I like sleeping in the rig best Finishing up frying an egg for my sandwich Back on the trail. I've got Mike behind me in his forerunner and we have an awesome day planned ahead We're headed down to Black Dragon Wash, which has a really cool pictograph panel that I've never been to We are the original plan was to get quite a bit further down closer to it to camp and the trails just took longer yesterday Then I was anticipating so I'd Mike join me somewhere else. So we've got a pretty little good jaunt of Off-road trail miles to head to get down. There should be an excellent day out on the trail Hopefully some really beautiful scenery and some incredible Native American history. Let's go this big whole wash trail It's quite cool It definitely for a long portion of it follows the power lines which kind of obstructs the view a little bit But it's a really cool desert winding track. I've really had a good time on it That surrounding area is just absolutely stunning. We're like in this big kind of Canyon there's wilderness on one side wilderness on the other side and Just absolutely beautiful This is why you check out the spur trails if we would have just bypassed this and not come over here That would have been a massive mistake. This is so rad Awesome little shelf row that drops down into this bowl Absolutely incredible. I just saw it on the map mapped it out. This is where we were supposed to camp actually last night No idea what this would be like It's absolutely incredible. You can see Mike's crew down there Wow Go driver a little Straight driver a little more Okay, just follow that line down real slow Looking good. You can have your first little drop There you go. I don't think you're gonna hit bumper slow There you go looking good Nice and slow back tires about to go down We made it to the end of this little spur where we were planning on camping last night It's not super flat there We probably could have pulled it off, but it wouldn't have been the best campsite But this trail down is incredible You went up along this ridgeline dropped into this huge bowl and then you come right down here next to the river And it is so beautiful. You've got running water kids are loving just throwing rocks in there The view of this Canyon is so stunning. Check this out Spot was absolutely incredible. I don't know that would have made a great camp spot for us It would have if you probably had one rig But I think three would have been pushing it Brent ended up not being able to come Mike and I probably could have made it work But that area is so beautiful with the river running through and that's a little spur trail that honestly I just was like, hey, there's a little spur trail not too far from the highway. Let's go check it out and Maybe camp there if I hadn't met that we probably just driven by and Missed one of my favorite parts of the trip. So that's why it's so important. Don't forget about those spur trails So we just ran into a dead-end sign on the route that we were supposed to take It looks like there's a little bit of backtracking we can do head back up and kind of curl around and get back where we were So working on that right now So the boys have just kind of been doing some exploring while I was checking out that other mining equipment over there and there's totally Like a big hole here. It looks like maybe they've collapsed it but it still goes down maybe 30 feet or so Incredible check this out Well, like many of my adventures not gonna make it to my final destination Just it's just taking too much time to get there and we are back. I'm actually back out with the family the entire family We're just doing a day trip to finish up what we didn't get to on that last trip with my brother and his family So we're right at black dragon wash. We're gonna be going through black dragon wash Check out the pictographs there and just really soak in how beautiful this amazing red rock country is I'm so excited. I was really disappointed that we didn't make it to here on that trip. Can't wait. I've never been here This is all new. Let's hit the trail the pictographs in black dragon wash are incredible a Showpiece for the beautiful canyon and an archetype of what the many pictographs in the San Rafael swell are like They are a glimpse into a time long past I can't help but think that the Native Americans that painted them were just as mesmerized by the desert as I am The desert is magic it draws you and no matter how much time I spend in it, I keep being pulled back I'm so glad I quickly returned to check out black dragon wash because it was better than I even imagined Best of all, I got to share it with my entire family If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe if you want to follow me on the day-to-day you can do so on instagram at backroad exploration Thanks for watching