Off-Roading Heaven: Hell’s Revenge, Lion’s Back

Probably every American, who has ever tried to get into extreme 4×4 off-roading, heard of a small town of Moab in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. The surrounding area has nothing but rocks, cliffs, canyons and other 4×4-worthy terrain obstacles. In fact, these monoliths are ridden with hundreds of trails for mountain bikes and, of course, the 4×4’s. One of the most popular extreme attractions in this area is the Hell’s Revenge trail. Now, Hell’s Revenge wasn’t named so because of its fluffy clouds and rainbows shooting out of the rocks, no, for an unprepared rookie this trail can be deadly!

The said trial is an 8-mile-long rollercoaster with quite a few tricky parts along the way. People even named some of the obstacles, the most prominent being the “Black Hole”, the “Tip-Over Challenge”, the “Escalator” and the “Lion’s Back”. That last one is by far the most popular, since it’s somewhat easier to beat but not easy enough to make it a quick challenge. Plus, the scenic view from the top of the Lion’s Back is breathtaking (or so I’ve heard). It takes time, patience and skills to beat The Lion’s Back and only experienced drivers should be allowed to undertake this challenge, unless you REALLY want to test your luck and your rig.

The way up is a pretty steep few hundred feet-tall slope (up to head-spinning 65 degrees in some places) but if you think you’re done after beating that obstacle – think again! Here comes the world’s riskiest 3-point turn before the 30-feet descent that looks more like a drop. You can see from all these tire tracks that countless off-road daredevils tried to beat Mother Nature.

This sandstone ridge became famous after an off-road truck lost its breaks and plummeted to the ground. Luckily nobody died but the “attraction” still got closed in 2006 due to becoming a private property, leaving all the 4×4 buffs out in the cold till this very day.

Would you like to try and climb that slope yourself one day? Or, if you already have done it, share your impressions in the comments!