I travelled with a few friends and decided to try guided UTV tour in Moab. The description was exciting and none of us ever done anything like this before. We were met by David, who was a principal of the business and also a tour guide. All of us were able to fit into 1 UTV and after short instructions that lasted a couple of minutes and which included explanation of how to use gear shifter and directions to follow the leader at 6 ft or less and aim our left front wheel to the leader’s left rear wheel, we started the tour.
The tour consisted of driving through the town of Moab and then going through the rough and rugged terrain in the mountains. We were the only UTV in the group of 2 UTVs, no other tourists were there. As soon as we started our off-road adventure, we had to climb a very steep hill, probably 200+ feet uphill. Since we never experienced anything like this before, I couldn’t keep up with the tour guide, and the distance between our UTVs was 10-20 feet in some places. The additional issue was how crowded the path was – you have to share a path with motorcycle riders and other UTVs and trucks. I got a 1st warning by David to keep up at 6 feet at all times. The instructions were as follows – if I can keep the speed, so do you. I couldn’t go as fast as David did simply because I lacked experience and David clearly was in a hurry and driving aggressively and fast. When we stopped again, David told me that “…you’ve done driving and somebody else must drive”. Rather than arguing with David, I let my friend drive and he drove faster than me trying to keep up with the leader and making the trip unnecessarily dangerous.
My observations are as follows: a) The off-road trip is very interesting and unique experience. It’s definitely worth taking it, but with a different operator; b) David should have slowed down and adjusted his speed to the speed of unexperienced tourists drivers, especially since we were the only other UTV in the tour. However, he was in a hurry and wanted to complete the entire trip in 2 hours; c) rushing and speeding through the terrain with inexperienced drivers at the wheel, makes it unsafe experience.
In conclusion, I would not recommend anybody without good off-road experience taking the tour with Guided Hell’s Revenge UTV Tour. The principal lacks any patience working with inexperienced off-road drivers and makes the tour unsafe in my opinion. Look for another operator and with proper tour guide, it could be a wonderful experience.
Ответ от хоста
May 2022
Thanks for the feedback it is much appreciated! I am sorry your experience was not as good as the thousand’s before you, which have all loved what we do. In reviewing your tour and talking with your guide about the situation, it was brought to my attention that you were the individual that he warned twice to stay on the trail as our land use permits depend on this. If you leave the trail it hurts the environment and reflects poorly towards the tour industry in general. It's under my instructions to my staff that if an individual is abusing our machine or not staying on the trail we will give them a warning, but if they don't comply we pull the key and you can get a ride out or change drivers and see if they can follow the rules. In reviewing the GPS of your tour your top speed was 23MPH on the pavement to the trail head and never went over 11 MPH on the trail, with a trail average of 6 MPH. We have a perfect track record of being safe and for you to suggest otherwise is just plain ignorant. You are correct about one thing, this tour is not for everyone.