12/14 - 12/15 - Off Roading in Sand Hollow, Utah

It's been a long time since I did some harder off roading trails, so I was all for it when my good friend Nick from Rogue Overland invited us out to Sand Hollow State Park for 2 days of hard wheeling. Sand Hollow is in St. George and only about a 2 hour drive from Las Vegas so the plan was to meet up with the Vegas gang early Saturday morning, drive out, hit John's Trail Saturday then hit Sliplock Gulch the following day before driving back home. 

Day 1 - Saturday

Saturday morning started dark and early as we meet up at 0600 at the gas station but we rolled out on time and meet up with the group in St George a little ahead of schedule! If you've ever wheeled with the guys from Rogue Overland then you'll know that you don't want to be the one guy running late. The early drive out gave us a good chance to enjoy the sunrise! 

As we met up with the rest of the guys, we headed out to Sand Hollow State Park, aired down, and started rolling down John's Trail. This trail was only about 3 miles long but took most of the day. It was also a bit of a kick to my confidence as I haven't done a hard trail in awhile. It took me awhile to get settled back in! Thankfully for me, I had some experts with me who were patient with me as I figured out how to wheel some of the harder trails again. I felt a lot better by the end of the first day! 

There were a few maintenance issues amongst the group so I started taking the bypasses. There's no ego on the trail and if you're concerned, then take the easy way out! I knew the Bronco was more capable than me that day but I'm okay with it. At the end of the day, it's my daily driver and I didn't take too many risks. 

As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words. That means a video is worth 1,000 pictures. Check out Rogue Overland's video here: Video

After the trail, Nick hosted us to a great dinner as we hung out around the fire. Perfect way to end the day! 

Day 2 - Sunday

Next day was Sliplock Gulch. It was a little longer at 9 miles but had very similar to terrain from the day before and was in the same area. Nick's wife, Vicky, sent us off that morning with home made sourdough and I put them in the Bronco engine bay to stay warm. After the day before, I felt a lot more comfortable this time around. However, this trail was pretty gnarly so I still took some of the bypasses but still had plenty of opportunities to get some good wheeling in! 

Near the end of the trail, we stopped for lunch so I popped the hood to see how Vicky's bread was doing. It was still warm and delicious! 

After lunch, we finished the rest of the trail, aired back up, and headed out different directions back home. Another great trip in the books! 

Files:

John's Trail

Sliplock Gulch

9/13 - 9/15 - Off Roading and Camping in Flagstaff

After a little more than four years, Lou and I decided to head back to Flagstaff and enjoy a nice break from the heat of both Las Vegas and Phoenix. Last time we were in Flagstaff, we camped at a really nice overlook called "Edge of the World" but the experience was dampened when our dog Winston, who was only a puppy at the time, ate too many pinecones and had doggy diarrhea all night. We decided to go back (without Winston this time) and get redemption enjoying the scenery. You can read about that trip here: Flagstaff October 2020

Day 1 - Friday

Friday was a work day but I left work a little early to make the drive with my trailer Shelly over to Flagstaff where Lou met me at the Circle K in town. After getting gas, we made our way to the Edge of the World trailhead and proceeded on the trail. It is an easy 26 mile trail down graded dirt roads through a forest. The green was a welcome sight for both of us. We came across a few cows on the way as well. Unbeknownst to us at the time, but these would not be the last cows we saw this weekend. 

It took us about 90 minutes to get to the end of the trail where the overlook is. Last time we camped at the popular spot as labeled on Google maps but this time, I did some research on Google Earth and picked out 5 tentative spots that wouldn't be so crowded. My scouting paid off and we secured a great spot with an awesome overlook away from all the folks in their Subarus and sprinter vans. We could see them at night and that ridgeline sure did look crowded. 

Day 2 - Saturday

We woke the next morning and I captured some awesome shots with the drone. It was a bit tricky because of the trees in the area but I made it happen. Take a look below:

After that, we packed up and headed out the way we arrived. We stopped at this cool bridge for a quick photo op. This photo does show how easy the trail was. We made good time on the way out as well. 

Once complete with that trail, we did a 14 mile through trail entering the Cinder Hills through the back entrance. This was a cool little trail since the front entrance is bogged down with ATVs and side by sides. 

After Cinders, we checked out another nifty trail called S P Craters trail. One of the entrances was closed due to a forest fire but there was an alternate path way in. This trail was a little slower going initially but it sped up as we went. Even at high elevation in Flagstaff, it was a bit warm, so we stopped under the first tree we found for lunch. It happened to also be the only tree we found. It was here that we noticed Shelly took a little damage from all the vibrations and needed a repair on the pull out drawer. No problem! 

We kept rolling and the trail opened up to sweeping landscapes. However, our progress was halted but not by rocks. We encountered a few herds of cows very comfortably grazing and couldn't be bothered. One cow stood up as we approached, made eye contact, and started peeing in the middle of the road, marking his turf. Rude! We didn't want to blaze a new trail so we turned around in search for another path. We had to do that a few times before we eventually got by all the annoying cows. 

Once past the cows, we were able to circle around the craters. There was a hiking trail up to the top of one but we elected not to do that. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see the big craters.

After the craters, we started a new trail that Lou knew up a forest road in search for camp. We found a decent spot quickly and set up. It was tucked away in the trees and Lou whipped us up some steaks for dinner. Yum!

Day 3 - Sunday

Our plan today was to pick up Sophia from campus at Northern Arizona University and take her to lunch. Lou and I figured we could have a slow start to the morning since no one wants to wake a college student up too early on a Sunday morning. 

We drove to campus and I illegally parked in the parking lot while we checked out her new home. It was pretty nice! She boasted about having a sink in the room and her and her roommate were even growing bonsai trees outside! Jury is still out if the trees survived the winter though since they get snow there.

As we drove off campus for lunch, I spotted the automatic delivery robots called Starships driving around campus. I knew about them and was excited to see one in person! We also spotted one of apparently two big statues of the campus mascot, Louie the lumberjack. He was in fact chopping wood. 

We arrived in downtown Flagstaff to a kind of hipster place called Proper Meats + Provisions. We all had a nice lunch before dropping Soph back off at her dorm. It was great to see her and rumors are she did very well on her first semester! 

Lou and I send our goodbyes and I started the 4+30 hour journey home ready to see Nina and fluffy Winston! 

Files:

Edge of the World to Camp

Cinders

S P Craters

Trail to Camp

2/8 - 2/11 - Off Roading and Camping by Backway to Crown King

Lou and I wanted to put a trip together and realized we haven't done Backway to Crown King in awhile so decided to plan a trip around that. Lou picked out and sent me about 10 trails that I sifted through to put together a good flow. Once we had a weekend picked out, we invited our dad and other brother John to come along. Pa would make it but sadly John could not. We didn't invite anyone else since we wanted to keep it just as a boy's trip.

Day 0 - Thursday

Pa flew in to Vegas on Wednesday evening which gave us a little time to hang out before we departed for the trip. Nina had dinner ready for us which was great! We woke up early Thursday morning, grocery shopped, packed up, and departed around lunch with the intent to make it to Lou's place by dinner. We rolled in about 15 minutes late but Lou didn't seem to mind as he made us salmon and steak filets for dinner. Yum! Don't tell Winston but I snuggled up with Denali on the couch for a bit after dinner. 

Day 1 - Friday

Since the trailhead was close to the house, we had a slower start Friday morning. Lou made Pa and I eggs sunny side up with toast while he finished packing up the Jeep. We all took one last shower for the weekend and headed out to get gas before driving the 20 minutes to the trailhead of Castle Hot Springs. This trailhead is right near the Lake Pleasant fee area but just outside of it thankfully. Even with our later start and stopping to take a selfie, we were aired down rolling out by 10:30. 

The plan was to run Castle Hot Springs southwest to Tribly Wash north to Anderson Mill south over to the highway north to Box Trail going east back into Lake Pleasant to camp at the start of Backway to Crown King so we'd be ready in the morning. As we started our day on Castle Hot Springs, we enjoyed some beautiful Arizona scenery home to many saguaros. Not long after, we passed the Castle Hot Springs all-inclusive resort complete with their own green house and garden. Talk about Farm to Table! Nina said she didn't want to go though. 

As we continued, the clouds looked like they were going to rain but thankfully didn't. It had been raining all week leading up to the trip so the trail was already muddy in some sections and I was hoping it wouldn't get worse. About halfway through Castle Hot Springs, we approached the northly turn off for Trilby Wash. However, the trail was blocked by a barbed wire fence so with thoughts of Pucker Pass still on my mind, we skipped both Trilby Wash and Anderson Mill and continue on.

We stopped for lunch near the end of Castle Hot Springs. Pa and I had some Greek yogurt with peanut butter and granola. Very nutritious! Lou had an avocado sandwich. We all washed it down with some Coca Cola that Lou brought. During lunch, we took a few minutes to look at the PowerPoint to go over the plan for the rest of the day. Once we all had a shared mental model, we knocked out the last few miles, drove 25 minutes on the highway and arrived at the start to Box Canyon.

Box Canyon was a cool trail with many river crossings. Thanks for the recent rain, the river level was high giving us a chance to play in the water. However, it also made it hard to follow the trail since the water covered the banks. Fear not, we had our GPX tracks up and made it work. We took a hidden offshoot underneath low hanging trees to find the actual Box Canyon. It also had a great camp site tucked away under the shade of a huge tree. If we didn't already have a planned area, we could have definitely camped here. So, we parked the cars and journeyed the 100 yards or so and found the actual canyon. I'd hate to be there when it rained but it was neat to check out. 

After a few more water crossings, we came out of the box canyon and started winding through a more hilly terrain. The route we had planned was a longer route to Lake Pleasant but we found ourselves at a decision point where we could either continue the longer path or take a more direct route to camp. After a brief discussion, we decided to take the shorter route and get to camp a little earlier. It ended up being the right decision as we were able to find a good spot on the start of the trail to Crown King. 

Day 2 - Saturday

We woke up Saturday morning after a long night of rain. We've done this trail before and we camped at the start of the trail so we felt comfortable sleeping in a little bit before pushing off. We noticed there was cloud coverage over the mountain and looked like some snow had fallen overnight. We didn't think much of it at the point but it ended up being a big factor for us later that day. 

The trail started off winding through a little town before a slow ascent up to the town of Crown King where we intended to have lunch then find camp before doing some trails up north the next day. As we started ascending, the trails became slightly snow covered. It was a good chance to pause, get some snacks, and break out the drone for some cool footage. 

From there, we started to hit the obstacles portion of the trail. There was nothing too concerning until we were about 5 miles from the end. At this point, the trail was completely snow packed and I was having flashbacks to Pucker Pass just a few months prior. 

Thankfully, I had switched to Lou's KM3s that he replaced when he got new tires. These new tires, although old, gripped just fine and gave me a bit more confidence in the snow. 

As we approached a snow covered obstacle, there was a Jeep on 35s pulled off to the side and a line of ATVs munching up the trail as they were going up. We chatted with the owner of the Jeep, a guy named Brandon, and he said that he made it up the obstacle but started sliding in the snow and reversed back down the obstacle. Of note, he was rolling on 35 inch Bronco takeoffs (the same tires I had when I slipped at Pucker Pass). After much discussion and watching a Toyota group attempt the obstacle and fail, we made the tough decision to turn back. Our rationale was that even if we made the obstacle, we would struggle on the hill. Ultimately, our new friend Brandon who was abandoned by his group, didn't know the way back so we decided to turn back, take him with us, and camp at our same spot from the night before. 

Morale was low as we trekked the 25 miles back down the hill. But, once we got back, Brandon split off as we turned towards camp and set up in the exact same spot we were in just hours earlier. 

Since we didn't have any trails scouted out for the next day, we all decided to sleep in a bit. Pa and I were tired and ended up sleeping 11 hours that night. We must have really needed it!

Day 3 - Sunday

After our slow start, we packed up and decided to go to Rock Springs Cafe for lunch. Rumor had it they had good pie! So, we headed out, went to the cafe, and I can confirm they had good pie! After lunch, Pa went home with Lou, spent a few days with them before flying back home to Florida. 

Files:

Castle Hot Springs

Box Canyon to Camp

Backway to Crown King and Back

1/27 - Hiking the Anniversary Narrows by Lake Mead

Our friends Alex and Erin reached out to hike a trail that has been on his bucket list a long time - the Anniversary Narrows by Lake Mead. It is in the National Park so about an hour away from the house. The weather this time of year was a bit chilly in the morning so we decided to meet at 1PM at the trailhead. 

We let Winston and Koa say hi then drove the two miles on a dirt road to get closer to the actual narrows part. There was a decent sized ledge so we decided to park the trucks and do the rest on foot. After a couple hundred feet, we arrived at the start of the narrows. I've been to the narrows by Mt Charleston but this one was much longer and deeper. 

This trail had some scrambling to do where we had to pick up the dogs and put them on top of the ledge. But, there were a couple spots where there was a human path and a dog path. Winston loved going under or around the rocks on his own little trail. 

Once we crossed the narrows, we had a quick snack and turned back and went back through. Our total distance was just over 4 miles and took us an hour and 51 minutes. It was a short trail but worth it! 

Files:

Anniversary Narrows