texascrane
Adventurer
My brother and I decided to take a road trip out to Overland Expo this year. We figured it would be a good opportunity to see a few sights like the Grand Canyon that we’d never visited before.
We headed out to Flagstaff on Friday. It was a long drive from Dallas, but we got in around 7:30pm. We had been checking the forecast and knew that it wasn’t going to be very nice on Friday night so we booked a hotel room. Given the sleet/snow falling as we drove into town, we were pretty glad to have a warm and dry place to sleep. We got a burger and beer at the Flagstaff Brewing Co and called it a day.
Saturday morning looked good as we headed out to Mormon Lake. However, we ran into rain as we got close. Sure enough, we pulled up to find out that the camping had been shut down due to the muddy conditions. They converted our camping pass to a regular weekend pass and we made our way over to the vehicle parking area. It was muddy, but manageable.
We spent the day hitting up the various vendor booths, picking up some goodies, and checking out the sites. The wheelchair tank (tankchair?) was awesome. As the afternoon wore on, we decided we needed to hit the road if we wanted to find a good campsite. We got back to the car to find that most people had left the parking lot and it had turned into a really nasty mud pit. Sure enough, we made it about 20 feet before we got stuck.
Out came the traction boards and with a little help from some other attendees, we were out of the thick stuff. I picked a better line this time and we managed to slip and slide our way back over to the gate. I didn’t grab any pics of this, but I saw at least one person photographing us, so I’m sure some exist. I suppose if you’re going to get stuck someplace, the parking lot at expo is probably the best location you could pick.
We drove out east of Mormon Lake and found a nice campsite near Mud Lake. It was a good campsite, and we spent most of our time trying to clean off the mud from ourselves and our gear as best we could. Unfortunately, we had planned out camping at Mormon Lake and consequently didn’t have provisions for a fire. We tried to get one going, but the wood we collected was just too wet to ignite. Live and learn. Next time I’ll make sure we have a good way to start a fire even if we don’t have any plans for one.
The campsite:
Mud Lake:
Sunday morning we got up and decided to head north to Utah. We stopped at a coin car wash and spent a good while knocking the worst of the mud off the truck. As we were leaving several other expo attendees were pulling in with the same idea.
After a quick restocking trip at Walmart, we headed out towards Valley of the Gods. I had originally wanted to go to Monument Valley, but read on here that VoG was a much better camping location. You guys were right. We ended up with a killer spot overlooking Castle Butte. The weather was perfect and we were treated to an awesome sunrise the next morning.
Monday morning we drove up the Moki Dugway. The views were great. We also saw a caravan of 4 class A RV’s heading down shortly after we did. The road isn’t technical at all, but it’s tight enough that I wouldn’t want any part of it in a 40 foot long RV.
Moki Dugway:
View of the Valley of the Gods:
We got some breakfast at a great café overlooking the San Juan river and headed off to our next destination: the North Rim.
As we got closer and closer to the North Rim, the weather kept getting worse and worse. By the time we hit the main gate, we were being snowed on. We stopped at the backcountry office and talked with the ranger there. Our plan had been to head out to Point Sublime, camp there Monday, make the trip out to Tuweep on Tuesday and then head back towards Flagstaff on Wednesday.
They had apparently been getting a good amount of rain for at least the last week. The ranger informed us that the short was in to Point Sublime was blocked by downed trees, the longer way had some sections that had turned into swamps, and while she didn’t know the exact status of Tuweep, she didn’t expect it to be any better.
We were disappointed, but with the forecast for continued rain into Tuesday (and continued cold temps), we decided it wasn’t worth trying to get to Point Sublime and Tuweep as a solo vehicle. We hit the North Rim visitors center, bought some gifts for the wives, took a few pictures and headed back towards Flagstaff and a hotel room at the Hampton Inn to regroup and plan our next steps.
The Grand Canyon:
We considered heading back to Texas and hitting up Big Bend for a couple of days, but a quick check of the weather forecasts told us that wasn't going to be any better. The forecasts for Sedona on Tuesday and Wednesday looked good, so we decided that would be our next destination.
We came in on Schnebly hill road from I-17. We hit up the little volcanic rim loop (153A) and identified a couple of good prospective camp sites for the night. The best one was already taken by somebody with a sweet 70-series with a roof top tent, but there were plenty of other good ones available.
Coming in on Schnebly Hill Road:
We headed down into Sedona and grabbed lunch. We then drove over to Barlow Jeep to see if they had any suggestions for us. Nina and her staff were awesome. They hooked us up with maps and recommendations on trails and campsites. We also chatted about the mud at Expo. I guess Nina had spent most of her time pulling people out the mud and was actually getting ready to head back out to the Mormon Lake for some instructor training sessions.
We thanked them for all of the advice and hit the road. Our first stop was Palatki, where we got a tour of some really cool thousand year-old indian ruins. Then we drove Outlaw Trail and looked at a few options for camping. We decided that the views from the rim couldn’t be beat so once we finished up the trail, we drove back up Schnebly Hill Road to the area we had scouted out earlier. The 70-series was still there, but none of the other camp sites we saw were occupied so we picked the next best one and settled in for a great night.
Palatki:
Outlaw Trail:
The view from our campsite above Sedona:
The next day we went back down into Sedona and had omelets at the Coffee Pot. I suggested that we check out Jerome. We didn’t really know anything about it but had heard it was worth a visit. We looked at our maps and decided to drive in via the Mingus Mountain Loop Trail. It took a couple of hours and had some great technical rocky sections that were fun but not overwhelming. The trail dropped us off on 89A up above Jerome. We drove in and did some shopping and had lunch at the Haunted Hamburger.
I should have taken some pics, but I didn’t think of it at the time. We really liked Jerome. The best way I can describe it is to say that it has a 1980’s and earlier Key West in the mountains vibe.
We headed back up to Flagstaff on 89 where we had a hotel room reserved for our last night before driving back on Thursday. We had intended to go drive a couple of the trails out East of Flagstaff before it got dark, but once we checked into the hotel we decided that we were too tired to run any more trails that day. We ran a few errands around town and then got some dinner at Criollo, which was very nice.
And early AM on Thursday we left for Dallas, arriving just before 11pm, concluding our trip. Neither of us had been to the Flagstaff area before and we really liked it. We hadn’t intended to go to Sedona, but it ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip. We definitely plan to come back and visit the Grand Canyon hopefully when the weather is a bit nicer.
We’re both really envious of those of you that have access to the great outdoors locations in that part of the country. It seems like it’s all national forest and there’s a monument or a park or something about every other exit. We obviously only scratched the surface during our short trip and I know we’re going to be coming back in the future to see more.
I also wanted to throw a special thanks out to David at Alpha Expedition. He hooked us up with some great gear for the trip and is a really nice guy to boot.
We headed out to Flagstaff on Friday. It was a long drive from Dallas, but we got in around 7:30pm. We had been checking the forecast and knew that it wasn’t going to be very nice on Friday night so we booked a hotel room. Given the sleet/snow falling as we drove into town, we were pretty glad to have a warm and dry place to sleep. We got a burger and beer at the Flagstaff Brewing Co and called it a day.
Saturday morning looked good as we headed out to Mormon Lake. However, we ran into rain as we got close. Sure enough, we pulled up to find out that the camping had been shut down due to the muddy conditions. They converted our camping pass to a regular weekend pass and we made our way over to the vehicle parking area. It was muddy, but manageable.
We spent the day hitting up the various vendor booths, picking up some goodies, and checking out the sites. The wheelchair tank (tankchair?) was awesome. As the afternoon wore on, we decided we needed to hit the road if we wanted to find a good campsite. We got back to the car to find that most people had left the parking lot and it had turned into a really nasty mud pit. Sure enough, we made it about 20 feet before we got stuck.
Out came the traction boards and with a little help from some other attendees, we were out of the thick stuff. I picked a better line this time and we managed to slip and slide our way back over to the gate. I didn’t grab any pics of this, but I saw at least one person photographing us, so I’m sure some exist. I suppose if you’re going to get stuck someplace, the parking lot at expo is probably the best location you could pick.
We drove out east of Mormon Lake and found a nice campsite near Mud Lake. It was a good campsite, and we spent most of our time trying to clean off the mud from ourselves and our gear as best we could. Unfortunately, we had planned out camping at Mormon Lake and consequently didn’t have provisions for a fire. We tried to get one going, but the wood we collected was just too wet to ignite. Live and learn. Next time I’ll make sure we have a good way to start a fire even if we don’t have any plans for one.
The campsite:
Mud Lake:
Sunday morning we got up and decided to head north to Utah. We stopped at a coin car wash and spent a good while knocking the worst of the mud off the truck. As we were leaving several other expo attendees were pulling in with the same idea.
After a quick restocking trip at Walmart, we headed out towards Valley of the Gods. I had originally wanted to go to Monument Valley, but read on here that VoG was a much better camping location. You guys were right. We ended up with a killer spot overlooking Castle Butte. The weather was perfect and we were treated to an awesome sunrise the next morning.
Monday morning we drove up the Moki Dugway. The views were great. We also saw a caravan of 4 class A RV’s heading down shortly after we did. The road isn’t technical at all, but it’s tight enough that I wouldn’t want any part of it in a 40 foot long RV.
Moki Dugway:
View of the Valley of the Gods:
We got some breakfast at a great café overlooking the San Juan river and headed off to our next destination: the North Rim.
As we got closer and closer to the North Rim, the weather kept getting worse and worse. By the time we hit the main gate, we were being snowed on. We stopped at the backcountry office and talked with the ranger there. Our plan had been to head out to Point Sublime, camp there Monday, make the trip out to Tuweep on Tuesday and then head back towards Flagstaff on Wednesday.
They had apparently been getting a good amount of rain for at least the last week. The ranger informed us that the short was in to Point Sublime was blocked by downed trees, the longer way had some sections that had turned into swamps, and while she didn’t know the exact status of Tuweep, she didn’t expect it to be any better.
We were disappointed, but with the forecast for continued rain into Tuesday (and continued cold temps), we decided it wasn’t worth trying to get to Point Sublime and Tuweep as a solo vehicle. We hit the North Rim visitors center, bought some gifts for the wives, took a few pictures and headed back towards Flagstaff and a hotel room at the Hampton Inn to regroup and plan our next steps.
The Grand Canyon:
We considered heading back to Texas and hitting up Big Bend for a couple of days, but a quick check of the weather forecasts told us that wasn't going to be any better. The forecasts for Sedona on Tuesday and Wednesday looked good, so we decided that would be our next destination.
We came in on Schnebly hill road from I-17. We hit up the little volcanic rim loop (153A) and identified a couple of good prospective camp sites for the night. The best one was already taken by somebody with a sweet 70-series with a roof top tent, but there were plenty of other good ones available.
Coming in on Schnebly Hill Road:
We headed down into Sedona and grabbed lunch. We then drove over to Barlow Jeep to see if they had any suggestions for us. Nina and her staff were awesome. They hooked us up with maps and recommendations on trails and campsites. We also chatted about the mud at Expo. I guess Nina had spent most of her time pulling people out the mud and was actually getting ready to head back out to the Mormon Lake for some instructor training sessions.
We thanked them for all of the advice and hit the road. Our first stop was Palatki, where we got a tour of some really cool thousand year-old indian ruins. Then we drove Outlaw Trail and looked at a few options for camping. We decided that the views from the rim couldn’t be beat so once we finished up the trail, we drove back up Schnebly Hill Road to the area we had scouted out earlier. The 70-series was still there, but none of the other camp sites we saw were occupied so we picked the next best one and settled in for a great night.
Palatki:
Outlaw Trail:
The view from our campsite above Sedona:
The next day we went back down into Sedona and had omelets at the Coffee Pot. I suggested that we check out Jerome. We didn’t really know anything about it but had heard it was worth a visit. We looked at our maps and decided to drive in via the Mingus Mountain Loop Trail. It took a couple of hours and had some great technical rocky sections that were fun but not overwhelming. The trail dropped us off on 89A up above Jerome. We drove in and did some shopping and had lunch at the Haunted Hamburger.
I should have taken some pics, but I didn’t think of it at the time. We really liked Jerome. The best way I can describe it is to say that it has a 1980’s and earlier Key West in the mountains vibe.
We headed back up to Flagstaff on 89 where we had a hotel room reserved for our last night before driving back on Thursday. We had intended to go drive a couple of the trails out East of Flagstaff before it got dark, but once we checked into the hotel we decided that we were too tired to run any more trails that day. We ran a few errands around town and then got some dinner at Criollo, which was very nice.
And early AM on Thursday we left for Dallas, arriving just before 11pm, concluding our trip. Neither of us had been to the Flagstaff area before and we really liked it. We hadn’t intended to go to Sedona, but it ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip. We definitely plan to come back and visit the Grand Canyon hopefully when the weather is a bit nicer.
We’re both really envious of those of you that have access to the great outdoors locations in that part of the country. It seems like it’s all national forest and there’s a monument or a park or something about every other exit. We obviously only scratched the surface during our short trip and I know we’re going to be coming back in the future to see more.
I also wanted to throw a special thanks out to David at Alpha Expedition. He hooked us up with some great gear for the trip and is a really nice guy to boot.