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First trip out fall
2002. We treked the 20 miles over unpaved but well graded roads to
Chaco Culture National Historic Park for two days of camping and
hiking. No off-roading here but the car handled beautifully on the
gravel road.
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| Spring 2003 and a road trip
through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Here a
little back country in Arches National Park |
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A visit to our land in
Colorado which we hadn't seen for about 20 years. It was still
there!
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The little car is dwarfed by
the sand dunes of White Sands National Monument.
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September 2004 finds us on a
sightseeing trip to Northern California through Lassen Volcanic National
Park, Lava Beds National Monument and Cow Mountain OHV Recreation
Area. Here we stop to contemplate Mt. Lassen before hiking to its
10,500 ft summit.
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We camped two nights at
Lassen and two nights at Lava Beds. Here is our camp at Lava
Beds. Since it was after Labor Day, the parks were fairly deserted.
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On the way back from Lava
Beds, we checked out Cow Mountain OHV Area near Ukiah. We stuck to
the easy trails but still had a ball "wheelin" the Freelander. In
this shot, the flat part of the road is visible behind the car and I'm
climbing up about a 30 degree slope.
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Since it hadn't rained all
summer the trails were very dusty. It took nearly three days for
me to get the Hippo cleaned up, washed and waxed! The car
performed flawlessly on this trip of more than 1200 miles over
interstate highways, winding mountain roads, forest service roads and
OHV tracks.
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In October 2004 we took a two
week camping trip across California, and Nevada then across Southern
Utah. As part of that excursion, we drove the Hole-in-the-Rock
road in Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument. We got a late
start to the HITR and because the weather was threatening, we didn't
want to camp too far down the road. This picture was taken at our
turn-around point about 4.5 miles from the end of the road.
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Next day, we went over the
Burr Trail to the Waterpocket Fold road within Capitol Reef National
Park. Burr Trail is paved until it reaches the park and then
becomes graded dirt. There is a wonderful set of switch-backs
where the road drops 800 feet in half a mile. Here, we stopped to
photograph the yellow cottenwood trees in a small canyon along the Burr
Trail.
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After visiting Glenn Canyon
National Recreation Area, Natural Bridges National Monument, and
Hovenweap National Monument we turned North to the Island in the Sky
District of Canyonlands National Park. There we camped for a
couple days and drove about 20 miles of the White Rim Road. This
picture was taken at our turn-around point with Airport Tower in the
background.
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November 2004 finds us on our
first excursion to Death Valley National Park with the goals of 1)
getting an overview of the park; 2) hiking some of the canyons and 3)
running a few of the many 4X4 trails. Our first trail outing was
to Marble Canyon. This picture was taken at the end of the canyon
where we had lunch. This trail is quite easy all the way to the
end.
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Next day, we broke camp and
drove part of Trail Canyon off the West Side Road south of Furnace
Creek. This trail turned out to be much harder than advertised and
we turned around after about five miles. This picture was taken on
the way out where we stopped to take in a panorama of the valley below.
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On the way out of Trail
Canyon, the road crosses the a wash. It is several car-heights
deep and steeper than it looks here.
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After moving our camp to near
Scotty's Castle, we ventured down Racetrack Valley Road to Teakettle
Junction where we stopped for a rest and a photo shoot. The road
to the Junction and on down to the Racetrack is graded dirt with a
wash-board surface that is bone-jarring at any speed.
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Departing from Teakettle
Junction to the East on Hunter Mountain Road, we went through Lost Burro
Gap and up the side road to the Lost Burro Mine. This road was
rough, steep and nearly washed out in spots. We made it OK though
by stopping once in a while to scout ahead on foot. During lunch
at the mine the wind came up and clouds began blowing in thus ending our
Death Valley explorations, at least for this visit.
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March 2005. We joined
the Nevada 4Play Off-Roaders on a trek to the ghost towns and mines in
the Shoshone and Paradise Mountains southeast of Fallon. We had
eight vehicles, good weather, fine company and great adventure!
Here I'm exiting the "pit" where we had the opportunity to scale slopes
and challenge moguls. Later we ventured down a shelf road through
snow and mud with several vehicles getting stuck and recovered. An
excellent day overall. |
