Ride Spot: Rock Crawling on Where Eagles Dare in Moab Utah

By Jon Crowley

I absolutely love to visit Moab, Utah. The combination of incredible scenery and challenging off-road trails make it a place I come to at least once a year. Rally on the Rocks is typically the driving force to get me there each year, and this year was no exception.  

This year, I brought my newest build with me. I took the base Polaris RZR XP4 Turbo S and put my spin on it to create a vehicle that excels in the desert, dunes, rocks or just exploring. With the long travel suspension, long wheelbase, big 35-inch ITP Coyote tires and lower transmission gears, it absolutely killed the trails in Moab.  While we could make it even more capable in the rocks with a few other changes, I didn’t want to limit the scope of terrain I could tackle. In my opinion, this is the perfect blend of products that make it very capable in a variety of terrains.  Take a look at the article below for all the details.

Polaris RZR XP4 Turbo S Buildup

While at Rally on the Rocks this year, we teamed up with Reid Nordin from Walker Evans Racing and decided to try one of the newer trails in Moab called Where Eagles Dare.  This trail is a loop off of Golden Spike Trail so you can run it in a variety of ways. The most traditional route is to start at the trailhead for Poison Spider (GPS 38.532681, -109.609040).

From the trailhead at Poison Spider, you tackle pretty much all the hard obstacles of Poison Spider before taking a left onto Golden Spike.

Golden Spike Trail connects Poison Spider through the Golden Crack and onto Gold Bar Rim and out through Gemini Bridges Rd. 

The video above is the “Launch Pad” on Golden Spike Trail.

The slickrock domes are tall and steep both going up and down. They make the climbs on Hell’s Revenge look tame by comparison, so make sure your brakes are in good working order!

We decided to come in and out of the same location at Poison Spider Trailhead, so when Where Eagles Dare connected back with Golden Spike trail, me made a right to head back out.

To make things more interesting, you could absolutely run Poison Spider, Golden Spike, Where Eagles Dare, back onto Golden Spike, through the Golden Crack, onto Gold Bar Rim and back out. Lots of options and directions to keep it interesting!