tlflow
New member
aussy's are not regular dogs, if Jackson had a thumb he polly could drive
The 5th Gen Shakedown
- Thread starter TOPDECK
- Start date
aussy's are not regular dogs, if Jackson had a thumb he polly could drive
TOPDECK
New member
Ok I will make this quick as I am dead tired but wanted to give an update.
Made it to Point Reyes very late after a grueling day on hwy 1. Couldn't figure out the camping situation so we opted to get a very overpriced room in Olema. In the morning we drove up to Mt. Vision and the views of the coast were awesome.
The crawl up the coast on hwy 1 was really getting to us. It didn't feel like we were ever going to get anywhere. Then the reality of the weather systems moving in started to set in. We set up camp at Richardson Grove Redwoods (Humboldt County) with the possibility of rain, and we were woken up around 3am by a very steady rain. We got up and bugged out early. Got ready for our day in a gas station bathroom and made breakfast in back of the gas station.
Our camp here with my super awesome tarp awning.
Its whats for dinner
Looking at the weather, it was obvious that we were going to get pounded the whole time going North. Our gear was wet and disorganized from being thrown in the back of the car and it was time for a change.
We decided to go East and spent that night in Fallon, NV. I took all of our gear out and reorganized, dried all the tarps and the tent's rain-fly and basically repacked everything making sure everything was dried. Washed some clothes and by the time everything was done I didn't hit the sack till after 1am.
Here is the rain-fly drying with help of the AC unit's fan.
Got up and headed into the desert. We explored around in the desert for a while and ended up at the Berlin Ghost Town and the Ichthyosaurus fossils.
The Original Overland Vehicle
Then we took the forestry roads down to Tonopah. Then from there we went to Rachel, and the famous Little Alie-Inn. We drove up the road to the gate at Area 51. My wife was nervous but nothing happened of course.
Then we made a mad dash to Cedar City, Utah where I am now. Tomorrow Zion, and then to New Mexico...then??? who knows.
Made it to Point Reyes very late after a grueling day on hwy 1. Couldn't figure out the camping situation so we opted to get a very overpriced room in Olema. In the morning we drove up to Mt. Vision and the views of the coast were awesome.
The crawl up the coast on hwy 1 was really getting to us. It didn't feel like we were ever going to get anywhere. Then the reality of the weather systems moving in started to set in. We set up camp at Richardson Grove Redwoods (Humboldt County) with the possibility of rain, and we were woken up around 3am by a very steady rain. We got up and bugged out early. Got ready for our day in a gas station bathroom and made breakfast in back of the gas station.
Our camp here with my super awesome tarp awning.
Its whats for dinner
Looking at the weather, it was obvious that we were going to get pounded the whole time going North. Our gear was wet and disorganized from being thrown in the back of the car and it was time for a change.
We decided to go East and spent that night in Fallon, NV. I took all of our gear out and reorganized, dried all the tarps and the tent's rain-fly and basically repacked everything making sure everything was dried. Washed some clothes and by the time everything was done I didn't hit the sack till after 1am.
Here is the rain-fly drying with help of the AC unit's fan.
Got up and headed into the desert. We explored around in the desert for a while and ended up at the Berlin Ghost Town and the Ichthyosaurus fossils.
The Original Overland Vehicle
Then we took the forestry roads down to Tonopah. Then from there we went to Rachel, and the famous Little Alie-Inn. We drove up the road to the gate at Area 51. My wife was nervous but nothing happened of course.
Then we made a mad dash to Cedar City, Utah where I am now. Tomorrow Zion, and then to New Mexico...then??? who knows.
TOPDECK
New member
Also, I wanted to add, that we are updating Facebook a lot more often since we can do it quickly when we have service. Come on over and join the party Taylor Expeditions | Facebook
I will be posting again when I have a chance!
I will be posting again when I have a chance!
TOPDECK
New member
Zion was really great. We got a great camp spot down by the river, and the weather was perfect. Not too hot, and not cold at all even at night with a clear sky.
We did a little off roading outside of the park but the lingering snow at the higher elevations kept us from turning it into an all day off road trip. The snow itself isn't a problem, it is the wet clay underneath. The clay / mud is VERY slippery. Even the slightest grade or camber of the trail required 4-low A-Trac and the rear diff locked to keep us from sliding off the trail. A M/T tire probably would have been much better, but our BFG A/T KOs got caked up instantly and I couldn't get them cleared. But, I am not upset about it because mud is not their strong suit, and that is ok with me.
We made our first big mistake (if you want to call it that) of the trip today. We decided to go into North East Arizona to the Canyon De Chelly National Monument to see some Anasazi Ruins. The drive there started out really beautiful and the Coral Sands Park was cool, but once we got into the Navajo Reservation it got bad. I hope I don't offend anyone here, but it was just countless miles of houses made out of particle board mixed in with red cliffs. Then we got into a strange situation with a Native American kid at some dinosaur tracks roadside attraction. We found the people to not be friendly at all, and always seemed like either they wanted something from you, or wanted you gone. In addition we are having to stick to main roads out here as it is not advisable to go off road or "back roading" out here. You never know who you will run into, and you are on "their land" anything goes. I am in a real distrusting mood tonight after spending the day here. I would not ever recommend anyone coming here.
The campground at the monument is horrible. There are no campfires allowed, and there is no cover. Very little trees and no space between campsites. Did I mention all the broken glass? Yeah, there is a lot of that too. Not to mention it is filled with feral dogs who follow you around. As we have our dog with us, we could not stay there. There is a campground 10 miles down the road, but I pulled in about 5 feet and turned around. It just gave me the creeps. "Think Deliverance in the desert".
So now I am at a Holiday Inn where we had to sneak our dog into because no pets are allowed at any of the hotels around, a reservation thing I was told. Don't know if that is right or not. Plus, you have to pay Arizona sales tax and Navajo tax which adds up to 19.05% sales tax!
We are getting out of here first thing in the morning and heading down south.
Wish us luck...
We did a little off roading outside of the park but the lingering snow at the higher elevations kept us from turning it into an all day off road trip. The snow itself isn't a problem, it is the wet clay underneath. The clay / mud is VERY slippery. Even the slightest grade or camber of the trail required 4-low A-Trac and the rear diff locked to keep us from sliding off the trail. A M/T tire probably would have been much better, but our BFG A/T KOs got caked up instantly and I couldn't get them cleared. But, I am not upset about it because mud is not their strong suit, and that is ok with me.
We made our first big mistake (if you want to call it that) of the trip today. We decided to go into North East Arizona to the Canyon De Chelly National Monument to see some Anasazi Ruins. The drive there started out really beautiful and the Coral Sands Park was cool, but once we got into the Navajo Reservation it got bad. I hope I don't offend anyone here, but it was just countless miles of houses made out of particle board mixed in with red cliffs. Then we got into a strange situation with a Native American kid at some dinosaur tracks roadside attraction. We found the people to not be friendly at all, and always seemed like either they wanted something from you, or wanted you gone. In addition we are having to stick to main roads out here as it is not advisable to go off road or "back roading" out here. You never know who you will run into, and you are on "their land" anything goes. I am in a real distrusting mood tonight after spending the day here. I would not ever recommend anyone coming here.
The campground at the monument is horrible. There are no campfires allowed, and there is no cover. Very little trees and no space between campsites. Did I mention all the broken glass? Yeah, there is a lot of that too. Not to mention it is filled with feral dogs who follow you around. As we have our dog with us, we could not stay there. There is a campground 10 miles down the road, but I pulled in about 5 feet and turned around. It just gave me the creeps. "Think Deliverance in the desert".
So now I am at a Holiday Inn where we had to sneak our dog into because no pets are allowed at any of the hotels around, a reservation thing I was told. Don't know if that is right or not. Plus, you have to pay Arizona sales tax and Navajo tax which adds up to 19.05% sales tax!
We are getting out of here first thing in the morning and heading down south.
Wish us luck...
brockeverly
New member
Ya, I always steer clear of the Reservations. Nothing good to come out there.
What case do you have, Pelican Storm?
What case do you have, Pelican Storm?
harper7
Senior Member
Great trip report so far!
I've been close to where your at as I cut across from Flagstaff on 160 then heading north on 191 to Canyonlands and them Moab.
You say your heading south in the morning? I would go north...Monument Valley, Canyonlands , Arches NP and Moab or head NE to Durango and the San Juan Mountains. Your only a couple of hours south of them.
South is pretty much more of the same desolate indian flatlands as where your at. I like the ones that get a trailer and they drag it as far off the road as they can ,surround it with a bunch of junk cars and dogs and then for some reason take the front doors off the trailers. Go over into Northern New Mexico and they like them old school buses to live in. I think they are just old hippy squatters and people hiding from the law over there though.I know they don't take kindly to strangers!
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4RunnerTrail
New member
are these 285s on stock suspension. Looks very good. Do they rub?
TOPDECK
New member
First some pictures:
Mud is fun. Here is the base layer of red mud in Zion. We added slightly more orange mud in Arizona. Now that the car has been cleaned the mud has sucked the oils out of the paint and you can really tell where it was before. Oh well, if you read any of my thread about the "Teflon" coating you already know the paint is shot anyway.
Here is an example of the dinosaur tracks we risked our lives and equipment for:
On our way to the Grand Canyon:
So we got the hell out of the reservation and headed to the Grand Canyon. We cut off on forestry roads most of the way there through the desert and mountains. It was a ton of fun, but at the very end we had a big scare as we came to a closed Forestry Service gate, but after we checked...it wasn't locked!
The weather on the first day was absolutely phenomenal. We got there with plenty of time to have a look around and set up camp and enjoy ourselves.
Local fare:
Elk in the camp:
The next morning we checked the weather and headed to the ranger station to talk to the rangers and see what they thought about the weather. They advised us that we would be good for one more night before the snow hit as the snow (2+ ft) would be coming in that afternoon. De decided to take the gamble and spend another night. That bought us plenty of time to do some exploring outside of the park.
We headed of out of the park on forestry roads and headed into some muddy and rocky terrain. We lucked out and found ourselves in a "designated wood cutting" area and scored a bunch of free firewood. We didn't have to cut anything it was just laying all around, scraps from people that had come before us. Good thing we didn't have to cut anything since I left my hatchet back at camp in the camp box.
Firewood!
The weather the next morning was noticeably colder and much more windy. The snow, rain, and a whole hell of a lot of wind was on its way and we had to make some serious decisions about where we were going to go. We had been running from the storms since our third day out and it looked like we had run out of options.
If we went East (back the way we came), we wouldn't have been able to go too far before we had to turn around and start heading back, through the storms we were avoiding in the first place. Plus, there wasn't anything we were really wanting to see in New Mexico after our experience with the Indian Reservations.
We couldn't go back to Bryce / Zion because they were already in the storms, and we didn't want to go south because it would only buy us a day at the most. Going off road again through the desert did sound like a lot of fun, but it would come at the cost of taking us way out of the way of getting to the start of the Mojave Road on the 21st.
With the 4runner packed, we sat in the ranger station's parking lot going over our maps, gps, and iphone mapping apps. We came up empty handed. We even thought about heading to the airport and going to Fiji. But, we couldn't with our dog. We were out of options.
I forgot where I took this...
My first plan was to head straight on to the Mojave Preserve, but that too had its issues. First of all, it would already be in the storm. Second of all, I finally got a hold of my dad as he was out on his own 4 day off road / drinking trip. He had bad news. He was supposed to be meeting us at the Colorado River to guide us along the Mojave Road, making a stop at our ranch within the Mojave Preserve. But, he had taken out my mom's 100 series (2007) Land Cruiser, which he says he didn't want to mess up going over the Paiute Mts in the rain. I did not want to take the chance of going over those first mountains and "little grand canyon" solo in the rain and wind.
Then it also came out that even if we went directly up to the ranch via Goffs and Landfair Rd. that he wouldn't be able to meet us out there until Tuesday afternoon (two days away at that point). So we decided to check it out and at least drive to the preserve.
The wind had already been howling for hundreds of miles by the time we got to Fenner, the turn off on the 40 to get to Goffs. And when we started on to Goffs the blowing rain and dust started.
My wife turned to me and after a long conversation...we called the trip. I was willing to brave the rain and the wind at least for a day but she had enough. She said she was tired and woozy and dirty and just want to go home. This will make a little more sense in a minute.
So I surrendered and we drove to my parents house in Oak Hills ( east side of 395 and 15 split) to take cover. We stayed there and waited for my dad to come home to tell both my mom and him that they are going to be grandparents for the first time this November. We had a lot to drink (my wife drank water...a lot of water), had a BBQ and a nice time before we returned home on Monday.
I thank you all for following along on this trip of ours and I will be posting some reviews and such here, as well as our Facebook page. We have more smaller and more focused trips planned so stay tuned!
Mud is fun. Here is the base layer of red mud in Zion. We added slightly more orange mud in Arizona. Now that the car has been cleaned the mud has sucked the oils out of the paint and you can really tell where it was before. Oh well, if you read any of my thread about the "Teflon" coating you already know the paint is shot anyway.
Here is an example of the dinosaur tracks we risked our lives and equipment for:
On our way to the Grand Canyon:
So we got the hell out of the reservation and headed to the Grand Canyon. We cut off on forestry roads most of the way there through the desert and mountains. It was a ton of fun, but at the very end we had a big scare as we came to a closed Forestry Service gate, but after we checked...it wasn't locked!
The weather on the first day was absolutely phenomenal. We got there with plenty of time to have a look around and set up camp and enjoy ourselves. Local fare:
Elk in the camp:
The next morning we checked the weather and headed to the ranger station to talk to the rangers and see what they thought about the weather. They advised us that we would be good for one more night before the snow hit as the snow (2+ ft) would be coming in that afternoon. De decided to take the gamble and spend another night. That bought us plenty of time to do some exploring outside of the park.
We headed of out of the park on forestry roads and headed into some muddy and rocky terrain. We lucked out and found ourselves in a "designated wood cutting" area and scored a bunch of free firewood. We didn't have to cut anything it was just laying all around, scraps from people that had come before us. Good thing we didn't have to cut anything since I left my hatchet back at camp in the camp box.
Firewood!
The weather the next morning was noticeably colder and much more windy. The snow, rain, and a whole hell of a lot of wind was on its way and we had to make some serious decisions about where we were going to go. We had been running from the storms since our third day out and it looked like we had run out of options.
If we went East (back the way we came), we wouldn't have been able to go too far before we had to turn around and start heading back, through the storms we were avoiding in the first place. Plus, there wasn't anything we were really wanting to see in New Mexico after our experience with the Indian Reservations.
We couldn't go back to Bryce / Zion because they were already in the storms, and we didn't want to go south because it would only buy us a day at the most. Going off road again through the desert did sound like a lot of fun, but it would come at the cost of taking us way out of the way of getting to the start of the Mojave Road on the 21st.
With the 4runner packed, we sat in the ranger station's parking lot going over our maps, gps, and iphone mapping apps. We came up empty handed. We even thought about heading to the airport and going to Fiji. But, we couldn't with our dog. We were out of options.
I forgot where I took this...
My first plan was to head straight on to the Mojave Preserve, but that too had its issues. First of all, it would already be in the storm. Second of all, I finally got a hold of my dad as he was out on his own 4 day off road / drinking trip. He had bad news. He was supposed to be meeting us at the Colorado River to guide us along the Mojave Road, making a stop at our ranch within the Mojave Preserve. But, he had taken out my mom's 100 series (2007) Land Cruiser, which he says he didn't want to mess up going over the Paiute Mts in the rain. I did not want to take the chance of going over those first mountains and "little grand canyon" solo in the rain and wind.
Then it also came out that even if we went directly up to the ranch via Goffs and Landfair Rd. that he wouldn't be able to meet us out there until Tuesday afternoon (two days away at that point). So we decided to check it out and at least drive to the preserve.
The wind had already been howling for hundreds of miles by the time we got to Fenner, the turn off on the 40 to get to Goffs. And when we started on to Goffs the blowing rain and dust started.
My wife turned to me and after a long conversation...we called the trip. I was willing to brave the rain and the wind at least for a day but she had enough. She said she was tired and woozy and dirty and just want to go home. This will make a little more sense in a minute.
So I surrendered and we drove to my parents house in Oak Hills ( east side of 395 and 15 split) to take cover. We stayed there and waited for my dad to come home to tell both my mom and him that they are going to be grandparents for the first time this November. We had a lot to drink (my wife drank water...a lot of water), had a BBQ and a nice time before we returned home on Monday.
I thank you all for following along on this trip of ours and I will be posting some reviews and such here, as well as our Facebook page. We have more smaller and more focused trips planned so stay tuned!
