Warm Up on Fins and Things, Then Climb Hell's Revenge
Epic 4x4 Adventures sends this ride out twice a day from a lot on South Main. The nine o'clock departure never moves. The second one is pinned to sunset, so the time you need depends on the month you book.
Hell's Revenge is rated a difficult trail, and Epic 4x4 Adventures says so on its own page. This ride puts you on it anyway, with the worst of it left out.
It opens somewhere gentler. Fins & Things is a nine mile run of sandstone humps and sandy two track in the Sand Flats Recreation Area, and the operator uses it as a warm up: time to learn the machine, the guide and the radio before the rock gets serious. On Hell's Revenge the group stays on the scenic sections and bypasses the trail's hardest obstacles, Hell's Gate and Mickey's Hot Tub, entirely.
You drive. The guide drives in front and calls each line over the radio.
What you book is a machine. One reservation covers a single two seat UTV, priced per vehicle with a two rider minimum, so a second booking is what gets you a second machine. Solo riders are welcome and pay the two rider rate anyway.
Who may drive it is the one thing to read twice. The listing here says licensed sixteen and seventeen year olds may drive with a parent riding along. Epic 4x4's own page for this tour says drivers must be twenty one and licensed, while the company's site wide FAQ says eighteen. Three numbers, none of them ours. Twenty one is the figure that will not get anyone turned away at the counter, so call the shop before you count on a teenager behind the wheel.
Passengers are a clearer question. Children ride from age five, and every rider signs a waiver before the machines leave the lot.
You-Drive 4x4 UTV Adventure–Hell's Revenge & Fins N' Things, MoabEpic 4X4 Adventures. One two-seat UTV per reservation, guide-led across Fins & Things and Hell's Revenge. Departs 1041 S. Main Street, Moab.www.viator.comThe Second Departure Moves All Season
Two departures go out each day and only one of them stays put.
The morning ride leaves at nine in June and at nine in October. The second is pinned to the sunset, so on the booking calendar it walks backwards through the season: quarter past six in midsummer, half past four at the end of September, four o'clock through late October, quarter to three once November arrives. The operator runs March through November, closing around Thanksgiving weekend and reopening in March.
The practical version. Want the light, book the afternoon slot and read the departure time printed for your own date. Last season's time will be wrong. Want the heat off the rock, take the nine o'clock.
What the Rock Actually Does
Hell's Revenge covers about six and a half miles of bare sandstone east of downtown Moab, on BLM managed land between Arches National Park and the Colorado River. The operator puts the trailhead roughly ten minutes from town.
The ground rolls in long curves. Epic 4x4 describes climbing, dipping and carving along the rock's natural contours, across technical ledges and stretches wide enough for the group to spread out. The listing for this ride names steep petrified sand dunes, Echo Canyon and a Colorado River overlook.
Photo stops are built into the route. The afternoon group gets them with the light going off the La Sal Mountains.
Before You Pay
Two cancellation windows apply to the same ride and they are not the same length. Booked through this listing, a full refund needs twenty four hours' notice; Epic 4x4's own published policy asks for forty eight. Forty eight is the line to plan around.
Bookings close four hours before departure, so this is not a walk up.
Arrive fifteen minutes early. The operator asks for it and there is gear to fit.
The company operates rain or shine and offers a reschedule or refund only when weather is extreme enough to cancel outright. A departure can also be called off if too few travellers book it.
What to Wear and Bring
Closed toe shoes are required. The operator prints it with an exclamation mark, which usually means people keep turning up in sandals.
- Sunglasses, sunscreen and a hat
- Layers, because slickrock heats fast in the sun and drops as soon as the light goes
- A camera and a way to keep it attached to you
- A valid driver's licence for whoever is driving
Helmets, goggles, bottled water and snacks come with the ride.
One more line from the listing worth taking literally: the terrain is rugged enough that riders must be able to understand the guide's instructions in English.
📍 Departures leave from 1041 South Main Street, the operator's lot on the highway through town, and the ride finishes back at the same spot.
Morning riders are down off the rock with the afternoon still ahead of them. The sunset group comes back as the last light leaves the La Sals, which is roughly the right time to go looking for dinner on Main Street.