Lake powell.....
Where Has Your 80 Taken You?: 80 Series Camping/Overland/Adventure Thread
- Thread starter atomicshawn
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I think i saw ur truck in Canyon de Guadalupe. did you stay there?
Took me awhile to find the mountains, got distracted by the machinery...
Sometimes the Cruiser just gets you to your base camp (270 miles of pavement, 30 miles of dirt road, only 15 miles of trail and just one river crossing a couple of streams and a beaver pond or two for this one).
Then you move a little further in the morning to reach the toe and start the real fun.
Then you move a little further in the morning to reach the toe and start the real fun.
Sometimes I leave the real trail rig at home and the '80 has to make it in and out of hunting camp. Here, we are heading home, still about 50 miles from the trailhead. A week or two of gear and a bull moose in the back settle the six inch Slee rears down to match the 4 inch fronts rather nicely.
This is not my '80. But my cruiser did get me to where I took the picture of one of the Trekkers crossing this stream in his '80 at the headwaters of the Chistochina River during the Alaska Cruiser Trek 2016.
Camping on an iceberg in a frozen glacial lake The wall to the right actually curves around to the very left edge of the picture, towering above us and sheltering us from the wind. Very secluded too *if* anyone actually happened to be wandering between the bergs on the lake like we were.
Again, the pic is not of my Cruiser, but one of the guys following me. No sure if I might have shared this pic before... maybe on a ACT thread? Crossing the Gokona river just below the glacier.
Mark...
No sure if I might have shared this pic before... maybe on a ACT thread? Crossing the Gokona river just below the glacier.Mark...
The midday sun can distract you from the sub-zero temps and the tons of jumbled ice boulders above you can distract you from the hundreds of feet of water beneath you. Usually.
Mark...
Mark...
what a nice flat day at the Lake!
Right, I wish I had a boat. Lake Powell is amazing!!!!!
Just don't rent one of the small open bow jobbers from the marina. Those are in god awful condition! Even their nice houseboats are not well maintained. If you ever rent one, get the newest they have, the ones that have not been buggered up.
My wife and I rented a 65' last year, the luxury boat. When new, I am sure it was outstanding. Now, not so much. In fact, we were pretty disappointed. The good thing, instead of renting one of their open bows, we bought one locally, used in on the lake here a few times and on our trip up there. We just sold it. Not only is it cheaper to buy one than rent it, we made money on the sale of the boat!
In the warmer times before the last ice age buried this area under thousands of feet of ice it was heavily forested. These eroded cuts and waterfalls are a great place to look for petrified wood and other fossils.
The first picture, looking up, and this next one looking done don't really give you a good way to get a sense of the scale... We left the Cruiser parked in the brush before we started the climb. I am sure you can not pick it out down there though...
This close up section from that last image may help.
Nothing better than being dozens of miles (about 40 in this case) from the nearest road or other humans.
The first picture, looking up, and this next one looking done don't really give you a good way to get a sense of the scale... We left the Cruiser parked in the brush before we started the climb. I am sure you can not pick it out down there though...
This close up section from that last image may help.
Nothing better than being dozens of miles (about 40 in this case) from the nearest road or other humans.
Did some pavement pounding, saw some sights. A friend of mine is leaving the state in a month so we checked some things off their bucket list.
We headed out Friday night and stayed at a hostel in Gunnison. The following morning we rolled out and headed to Telluride for lunch.
As it turns out, the Ramshorn Rally happened to be in town when we arrived. The area was flooded with beautiful Aircooled Porsches, ranging from the humble 356 all the way up to a mighty 959. I shot these cars on film, can't wait to see how the photos come out.
Also, Black Bear Pass looks terrifying.
From Telluride we drove to Mesa Verde NP. Some great views along the way.
The cave dwellings of Mesa Verde were really cool to see in person. Highly recommend checking them out if passing through the area.
As the sun dropped we headed into Durango and stopped at a great B&B.
From there we started the journey home, stopping by the Great Dunes NP. The wind was very intense so we didn't stick around long.
After getting blasted by sand I explored a little bit of the 4x4 trail that runs through the park, Medano Pass. It's currently open about 6 miles in. The sand was nice and packed so I didn't feel a strong need to air down. In 4Lo, 2nd gear, I had zero issues in the loose sand pits I encountered. Along the way I helped a rookie in a 4Runner navigate their first stream crossing. I took the lead then made sure they got across. I thought my dashcam was rolling for this but apparently it wasn't overwriting old files so none of it was recorded. It might be time to upgrade to a Gopro. After two of these crossings I turned around and headed for home.
Overall, great trip, will have to revisit a few places to camp out. When Medano Pass is fully open I'll definitely be doing the whole thing.
We headed out Friday night and stayed at a hostel in Gunnison. The following morning we rolled out and headed to Telluride for lunch.
As it turns out, the Ramshorn Rally happened to be in town when we arrived. The area was flooded with beautiful Aircooled Porsches, ranging from the humble 356 all the way up to a mighty 959. I shot these cars on film, can't wait to see how the photos come out.
Also, Black Bear Pass looks terrifying.
From Telluride we drove to Mesa Verde NP. Some great views along the way.
The cave dwellings of Mesa Verde were really cool to see in person. Highly recommend checking them out if passing through the area.
As the sun dropped we headed into Durango and stopped at a great B&B.
From there we started the journey home, stopping by the Great Dunes NP. The wind was very intense so we didn't stick around long.
After getting blasted by sand I explored a little bit of the 4x4 trail that runs through the park, Medano Pass. It's currently open about 6 miles in. The sand was nice and packed so I didn't feel a strong need to air down. In 4Lo, 2nd gear, I had zero issues in the loose sand pits I encountered. Along the way I helped a rookie in a 4Runner navigate their first stream crossing. I took the lead then made sure they got across. I thought my dashcam was rolling for this but apparently it wasn't overwriting old files so none of it was recorded. It might be time to upgrade to a Gopro. After two of these crossings I turned around and headed for home.
Overall, great trip, will have to revisit a few places to camp out. When Medano Pass is fully open I'll definitely be doing the whole thing.