Travel 7848 miles through the desert southwest - a 2025 adventure

[wngrog]

We kinda split up for the summer. Justin was gracious to host us as we all came and went T different times.

I flew out with Red to Rigeway and rented a house. She is a remote worker so while she made spreadsheets I hit the passes.

I even got to winch over some moron that flipped his adventure trailer.

Weather in June is perfect. I got a nice hail storm on Imogene.

 

[wngrog]

Black Bear in a 200 is amazing. I one-shotted all of the switchbacks with the turning brake thing. The Heep guys were shocked.

Jonathan killed it in the Saudi 80 of course.

He split off early and spent time with his kids.

Red and I hiked around Ouray, hit the nudist spa and actually ran into @woody and Heather a couple of times.

I spun a few more than 600 miles on this leg. It was a great trip.

 

[wngrog]

We got the gang back together again in September with the mission to see more of Canyonlands and the Grand Staircase area.

We flew into Montrose and collected our vehicles. The HJ60 came back to the flat lands where it belongs and Jonathan traded his Saudi 80 for his diesel 80.

We found a great route that was a mix of 2 lane and gravel that brought us out in Moab.

The rain in the rocks made for some great waterfalls.

GAIA Link

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/lUZBn7u4YJs42eildbCvfaOs

 

[wngrog]

From Moab it was highway to Green River for gas then a 75 mile dirt track south to the Canyonlands Maze District ranger station

This is the most remote ranger station in the Lower 48

We had 2 campsites since they limit each site in the Maze to 2 vehicles. Permits required. The most famous sites "the Dollhouse 1
And 2 were booked.

The trail is semi rough with some pretty good
Switchbacks. We got started at about 2. According to the internets it would take us 5
Hours to get to our camps

 

[wngrog]

6 hours to the Dollhouse was a stretch. We pulled in 4 hours later. It's cool but neither Dollhouse camps have much of a view. Ours were better so we backtracked back them before it got dark.

They also claimed this trail was harder than elephant hill. Not even close. It requires 4Low but it's not remotely hard.

Super remote. Permits keep the traffic super light. The only people we saw were in the Dollhouse camps and some mountain bikers.


The night sky here is perfect. No bleed over from any cities as there are none.

GAIA Link

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/0diyPj5qEGKIMGVQ9sS6mgjQ

 

[wngrog]

We got an early start out. Most accounts had people spending a week in here with lots of
Hiking but we were out of the park in about 22 hours.

At the south end of the park property on the paper map there was a little note saying the road leaving due west had a river crossing so we took off to check out the Dirty Devil River along Poison Springs Road

Magnificent canyon. The road was pretty smooth and the views were huge.

Unfortunately when we got to the river it was up from the rains that we drove through 2 days prior and we wimped out.

The good thing about back tracking in the desert is the views are always different going the other way

We then turned south as the nearest gas station was a couple hours away

 

[wngrog]

The closest gas is down in Ticaboo. Laird had to tap into his 5 gallon can reserves in the Taco

After we all filled up we hit dirt and the Burr Trail for the Henry Mountains.

This was a great afternoon hitting lists of great terrain before climbing to altitude in the mountains

Note the large backtrack if you ever use this GAIA link

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/XUkKSUxnTuIDpVodzi20SW5u

 

[toy_tek]

Epic!

 

[wngrog]

The next morning we turned west for Capital Reef NP. We turned and drove to the very south end and picked up Burr Rd again which is a series of excellent switchbacks that get you up on the plateau.

We took a side trial and hike to a cool overlook

Next we drove into the main park on a pretty hairy off road track called South Draw Road. Highly recommend.

From there we toured the canyons with the rest of the park tourists then beat feet to the town of Torrey for gas and grub.

From there we found a lakeside camp at 11,000' for the night.

Gaia link

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/UdzbODvt5zlfAyW00tDeaxen

 

[wngrog]

The Fishlake National Forest was as empty as the rest of the places we had been so far. We saw a couple of hunters but mostly we had the place to ourselves

We traveled south to check out the Devils Backbone trail and then hit a great burger joint in Escalante.

Our goal for the night was to see Lake Powell and my buddy Adam Tolleman told me about.....

 

[wngrog]

Adam told me about the Grand Bench but not about the gatekeeper going into it.

It was legit hard. All I had in the 200 to make it up on to the finger plateau that got us to the overlook.

But man was it ever worth it. What a magnificent spot.

I the end, we were 2 hours too early to camp so we used the last light to make out way back off the Grand Bench to camp

 

[wngrog]

Lake Powell overlook - https://youtu.be/1ViR_cGOJn0?si=FKZJzsoxuI9JDDyx


GAIA link

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/8nqmvN1Lni0hcRuWRCLUHC2X

 

[wngrog]

We woke up the next day and had some breakfast at camp then took the beautiful Utah roads to Nevada. We stopped through Valley of the Fire state park but it was very underwhelming after what we had seen. Once in Vegas we cleaned up as best we could and dropped the trucks at @Mace 's house for storage until the next leg....

GAIA link

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/zOQuXg9nalvLpnISCeDnKvBF

 

[LDowney]

...

I flew out with Red to Rigeway and rented a house. She is a remote worker so while she made spreadsheets I hit the passes.

...



View attachment 4054727

I did not realize that your bride was a pivot table princess. Carolyn normally stays at home citing her spreadsheet activities; but with such an example, maybe I can convince her to consider a few trips in 2026. Thanks

 

[wngrog]

California. Here we come.

BTB did work on my truck, Jonathan's and SteveOs. The Tacoma was ready to rock and roll and @Mace kindly delivered it and my 200 to BTB so we could all leave from one spot.

We stocked up on provisions and were out of town by noon headed to the Mojave Trail.

SteveO came up with this idea. Instead of I15 to DV, take this trail over. No brainer.

It was relatively easy and moderately Scenic.

 

[OGBeno]

Flex, baby.

 

[wngrog]

About 1/2 way in we started getting trail traffic by the go-fast kind of vehicle taking advantage of the whipped out road. They can really move.

We rode to dark which is an annoying 5:30 this time of year. Mojave Preserve asks that you only camp in designated spots. No permits required.

 

[wngrog]

Day 1 GAIA

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/tEBsXApTfwO8obz6rpOM3bqR

 

[wngrog]

The next morning we woke up at the base of a volcano with lots of pummice all around. We made a side trip up to a lava tunnel then continued on the Mojave Road

This road takes you across Soda Lake if it's dry but with all of the wet we had to bypass it. We filled up with gas and bought the store out of firewood.

We decided we wanted to finish Mojave Road so we picked up the trail after a couple of dead ends and finished it with a nice canyon and a pretty deep river crossing.

 

[wngrog]

Another beautiful spot in the deep desert with water. Very cool.