Desert Expedition IV trip Report: Mojave Road

[Martinjmpr]

DE IV trip report (Martinjmpr)

Well, this year's "Desert Expedition" "DE-IV" is now over, so I figured I owed you all a trip report!

First off, before someone says it , yes, I realize it's a bit grandiose to describe a week long camping trip as an "expedition." But I'm not the one who named it.

(As a side note: Instead of dividing trip reports into "Expeditions" and "adventures" I wonder if it would make more sense to follow the lead of the ADVRider message board and simply divide them by time: Week-or-more trips in one section, < 1 week trips in another?)

In any case, the decision was made to retrace the steps of DE-I back in 2011, when the originators of the DE, Scott (ScottB), Scott's dad Sib, Ted (Tbars1), Brian (Brian1) and Michael (MJMcDowell) spent 3 days on the Mojave Road, then refitted at Barstow and spent the rest of the time at Death Valley National Park (DVNP for short.) I missed out on the Mojave Road/Mojave National Preserve (MNP) portion of DE-1 and met the group at Stovepipe Wells in DVNP.

In 2011, the trip started in mid-March, and it was a bit chilly and windy, so we decided to push the start date back a couple of weeks to the beginning of April, figuring we'd get better weather.

Unfortunately, before we got started, several members of our group dropped out including everybody who was on DE-1 except for Sib and me! So we had a somewhat "new" crew, besides me and Sib we had Ace Brown and Frenchie (FrenchieXJ) who were both on DE-III in Nevada, Gary (Gwittman) who was on both DE-III and DE-II in Moab, and also Frenchie's friend Grace, whom he knew from his days of guiding 4x4 trips to Mexico and SoCal.

For me, these camping trips are about exploring areas I haven't seen before, as well as trying out new gear or new techniques to see how well they work for me.

Preparation:

After taking my 2007 4runner on last year's DE-III, the most pressing need I had was for a better way to sleep in my truck. Unlike my 3rd gen (1999) 4runner, which had a reasonably flat deck with the seat bottom cushions removed and the seat backs folded down, my 4th gen 4runner was not a comfortable sleeping space and I knew I needed to fix that ASAP. I also needed to reduce the number of "big boxes" I carried in the back. So, my first step was to construct a sleeping platform which is linked here:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/122999-Built-my-sleeping-platform!

The only other changes I made in equipment were that I decided to try and cook with white gas, carrying two stoves (a 2 burner and a single burner, both Colemans) which didn't work out that well, and I brought my dual band hand-held HAM radio to augment my CB, which worked out well since there were 2 other HAMs on the trip.

Otherwise my equipment remained the same: 2007 Toyota 4runner, 4wd with the V6/Auto and multi-mode 4wd. Tires were BFG MT KM's on black FJ Cruiser steel rims in 255/75/17. I also used the same "two box" refrigeration system I used last year, that is, I have a small (19qt) Dometic (Waeco) refrigerator and I augment that with a 54 quart cooler. The fridge carries items that have to stay cold (meats, cheeses,
milk products, eggs, etc) while the cooler carries soft drinks, beer, water and anything that is not required to be refrigerated like tortillas. Since I ran out of ice a couple of times last year, I bought 2 1-gallon water bottles and froze them solid, as well as freezing some smaller water bottles to use as "ice cubes" that I could drink, and put them in the cooler along with the soda and beer. Having two "underbed" plastic tubs (see the pictures in my platform build) gave me a place to carry all my cooking gear so I was able to leave the big metal "chuck box" at home. As always, I brought my big plastic folding table which really comes in handy on camping trips. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes having a place to put your stuff without setting it on the ground!

By Friday Night, March 28th, I was packed and ready to go. I even had my ExPo "Wiffleball bat" tactically mounted to the roof rack!

Day 1, Saturday, March 29th:

Here I am, all clean and ready to hit the road! I always like to take at least one "clean" picture because I know my vehicle is about to get dirty!

My plan was to be rolling by 7:00 and I was actually on the road by 7:15 which is pretty good for me!

It had been dry and warm on the Front Range but coming down off of Kenosha Pass on US 285 (10,000' above sea level) into South Park, I ran into several miles of hard ice on the road.

I had passed the ice by the time I got to Fairplay, and then dropped down Trout Creek Pass into the upper Arkansas Valley, where it was warm and sunny. Continued through Poncha Springs and up over Poncha
Pass which took me from the Arkansas to the San Luis Valley and the drainage of the Rio Grande. Stopped in Saguache for coffee and then noticed a strange "collection" of vintage Jeeps and other military
vehicles. I couldn't tell if it was a museum or if it was just somebody's private collection but they were pretty interesting and all over the center of town!

After that I continued on over Wolf Creek Pass, where I finally crossed the Continental Divide, and down into Durango for lunch and gas. From there it was West on US 160 just past Cortez, where I turned off onto County Road G towards Ismay Trading Post. This is a very scenic and not very well traveled road that runs through the 4 corners area and eventually puts you onto UT 162 about 20 miles East of Bluff. I
had taken this route (in reverse) coming back from DE-II in Utah and really liked it. I crossed over Comb Ridge and into Mexican Hat, where Ace texted me that he had just gotten to the campsite at Valley of the Gods - perfect timing!

We set up camp about 5 miles off the highway and enjoyed a couple of beers while we caught up on things. I was sad to hear that Ace's wonderful Golden Retriever Kyla was not feeling well, but she jumped and played until it was nearly sunset. By then we were both tired so we went to bed.

Day 2, Sunday March 30th:

It had been cool and overcast Saturday night, no starts to look at and it was equally gray in the morning. Strangely enough, it had been dead calm all night - not even a hint of a breeze. We packed up and
headed for Kayenta where we would pick up a quick fast-food breakfast.

Normally on a Sunday morning there are throngs of tourists on US 163 between Mexican Hat and Kayenta trying to get that perfect "sunrise" picture over Monument Valley, but because it was still gray and overcast, there were only a couple of people (I saw one car stopped with Pennsylvania license plates, I hope this wasn't his one chance to get a million dollar shot of Monument Valley, because in that gray
morning, nobody was getting any good pictures.)

By the time we got to Kayenta and US 160, the wind was starting to blow, hard. We ate quickly and headed out to the highway to do battle with the head- and crosswinds. We took a brief stop and stretch-
your-legs break at a feature that showed on Ace's map as the "Elephant's Feet."

After that it was back to the grind and battling the wind. The winds blew ferociously across the AZ Desert, and even when we turned South on US 89 towards Flagstaff and left the desert to start rising into
the low mountains, the wind continued to blast us. We stopped for gas and I picked up a few odds and ends I'd forgotten (I've found I always forget something!) and then headed back out into the wind, which
was now honking at a steady 30-40 MPH with gusts of over 50. I-40 through Flagstaff and West was a white-knuckle experience, and at one point we nearly saw an 18-wheeler take out a motorhome when it got hit by a vicious crosswind. We stopped for another fast-food break in Williams as we descended down from the Kaibab plateau, and mercifully the winds dropped off by a fair amount, too.

By the time we passed through Kingman, the wind was down to more-or-less "normal" and the sun was out, so it was much nicer. We exited the interstate to take the back road (OLD route 66) to Oatman. This is an extremely narrow, twisty road but Ace's trailer handled it with aplomb. Ace and I had been conversing on the CB all day on the trip's pre-determined channel (channel 4) and just as we rolled into Oatman, Frenchie called us up. We looked to our left, and there he was, sitting there waiting for us! I then tried to call Sib on his phone, only to find that he had rolled into Oatman not 5 minutes before and was heading towards our location on the East end of town.

Since it was still relatively early in the afternoon, we decided to take a walk through Oatman. If you've ever been to Oatman, you know the deal: Burros everywhere. We even saw a momma and baby combo
trying to beg food from the tourists (there were lots of tourists, this being a gorgeous, sunny Sunday afternoon.)

After sampling the sights of Oatman, Frenchie led us, 4 vehicles in all now, to his campsite he had picked out the night before, which was just South and West of Oatman by a few miles. The location was
perfect and we set up our camp, got reacquainted, and Frenchie even fired up his propane campfire! The campsite was perched on a flat piece of high ground that offered fantastic views of the Colorado River
valley, all the way down into Needles (CA) and Laughlin (NV.) We were all excited that the "real" trip was starting in the morning, and we had a beautiful sunset and then watched the night lights before
going to bed.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Day 3, Monday, March 31

We decided to have breakfast in town, since we needed to gas up anyway before we hit the Mojave Road. We gassed up and ate at a nice little cafe, then headed over to the Ari Casino parking lot where our
journey would start. When we got there, I looked around and saw this cool little combo in the parking lot!

Being a "tearjerker" I always get interested in seeing other people's teardrops! This one is a genuine, restored Ken Skill from (I think) 1949. Not sure of the make/model/year of the car, though.

The four of us (Myself, Ace, Frenchie and Sib) met up with the last two members of our group, Gary, who came over from the LA area and Grace, who came from San Diego. We topped off on gas and Frenchie got Grace set up with a CB so she could talk on the trail.

Once we had assembled and met, we headed out on the paved road to the start of Mojave Road. Since Ace had painstakingly put all the critical waypoints into his GPS, he took the lead, and since I was the only one who had no trailer AND had both CB and HAM, I took up the trail position.

We drove up the pavement and then jumped off near onto a road that parrallelled an irrigation ditch that took us over to the official "start point" of the Mojave Road, directly across the river from the old Fort Mojave (now the name of a town, a suburb of Bullhead city.)

When we got there, we saw a couple of guys on fat-tire mountain bikes and a support vehicle who were filming their mountain bike ride on the Mojave! We expected to run into them later on but we never did. Not sure if they bypassed us or if they were always behind us.

The Mojave Road is basically just a wandering dirt road that crosses a couple of paved highways through a relatively flat desert. However, once we got past the pavement, we stopped to air down.

A couple miles past the pavement, the road started to climb into the low hills that run along the NV/CA state line. Frenchie was talking on the CB and Sib was right in front of me when I noticed his left rear tire appeared to be completely flat! I called on both the CB and HAM that we needed to stop. We all did, fearing that Sib had gotten a flat, and I immediately pulled out my 4-way lug wrench to help with jacking up the truck. As we examined it, though, we realized that the problem seemed to be related to the deflators Sib had put on the tires to air down. Apparently they didnt' stop deflating when they were supposed to and let almost all the air out of the tire! Sib got his compressor out and we removed the other deflators from his tires.

While Sib was filling his tires, I was dealing with a minor problem of my own. When I first used my 2 burner coleman stove at Valley of the Gods on Saturday, I noticed a small drip of fuel coming from the valve wheel on the gas tank. Although this wasn't a major problem, it did appear that some fuel had leaked into the body of the stove and then dried. It was no longer a fire hazard - but it stunk to high
heaven! Since I was storing the stove inside the back of my 4runner, the interior reeked of coleman fuel and was giving me a serious headache! At that point, I was so nauseated that I contemplated just setting the stove on the side of the Mojave Road for someone else to find, as I had a backup single-burner coleman fuel stove as well. But, while Sib was filling his tires, I asked Frenchie if by any chance he had an extra ratchet strap I could borrow. Fortunately for me, he did, and I was able to strap the stove to the roof of my 4runner, fixing the odor problem and allowing me to breathe!

After we got Sib's tire filled up, we continued across the unmarked CA/NV state line and descended the low and rocky hills. We could see Mojave Road winding and twisting in front of us, and we knew that our first "historic site", Fort Piute, was a few miles ahead. Since it was close to noon, we decided to stop at the Fort for lunch and to explore the area.

After crossing US-95, we continued on up the gentle slope towards the green oasis in the distance, located at an opening in the mountain. As we made our way slowly, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw two race-style tube buggies coming up behind me. I called out to the group that we should pull over, since these guys seemed to be going faster than us, and in any case I'm sure they didn't want to eat our dust, seeing as how they were in open vehicles. The buggies raced past us as we plodded our way up to the fort.

Along the way the road was rising, and the vegetation was changing slightly. From the sandy scrub near the Colorado River, the vegetation was getting a bit thicker, and I also saw the first barrel cactus that I think I've ever seen. I didn't realize that they had such bright, red needles!

We found an open place to park near the ruins of the ranch that lies below Fort Piute, and walked up to the fort. As we were walking up, our buggy-drivers were coming back down the other way, so we chatted with them for a bit.

While we were parked I tried to take a "glamour shot" of my truck!

We explored and ate lunch, and then Ace led us back to the Power Line road to bypass the closed section of Mojave Road (the section between Fort Piute and the hills to the West is closed and we had to go around it.)

After climbing the hills on a wide shelf road, we came to an intersection where we took a right and then shortly a left that put us back on Mojave Road (which showed up on my GPS as "Old Government Road.")

By this time we had ascended above the dry and dusty scrub at lower elevations and the area was surprisingly grassy, the Lanfair Valley. Every now and then we'd pass a Joshua Tree and there were hills off to our right. Way in the distance was a large white cone, a LORAN beacon (navigation beacon for aircraft) that also showed up on our maps and provided a nice reference.

It wasn't long before we reached the famous Yellow School Bus. Yes, it has been put back up on its wheels! We stopped to look around not only at the school bus but at the crushed red station wagon that sits beside it.

Kyla enjoyed the school bus as well!

It was only a few miles past the school bus, with the late afternoon sun shining down, when Frenchie called on the radio and said he was having some problems with his steering. We stopped at an intersection and got out to examine Frenchie's XJ.

It wasn't good. Frenchie's front tires were "splayed", that is, his left tire was pointing left and his right tire was pointing right. Apparently a collar on his tie-rod had worked its way loose and allowed for excessive movement. Frenchie and Ace got their tools out and Frenchie got his tarp down so he didn't have to lie in the dirt while he messed with his front end.

Meanwhile, since it was getting late in the afternoon, Gary took off towards the Lanfair Buttes to see if this was the site of some famous petroglyphs, and also if it would be a suitable campsite for us.
Before Frenchie and Ace were done with Frenchie's jeep, Gary had returned with the news that this was indeed the petroglyph site, and that there was good camping right next to it. Frenchie finished up with his jeep and we all headed to the campsite for dinner as the sun was sinking in the West.

The site chosen for the first nights campout has more petroglyphs than I think I've ever seen in one place. A low hill covered with flat volcanic rock, and every rock was covered with fantastic petroglyphs with an amazing array of designs. These pictures don't do it justice, in fact I don't think any picture can.

It was breezy, but relatively clear that night. Frenchie fired up his campfire again, and we all sat close to stay warm as the desert night turned chilly in a hurry! At least it was good "sleeping weather" with a cool breeze all night.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Day 4, Tuesday, April 1st:

My day started with another minor problem: Some of the small water bottles in my cooler had thawed so I them into my fridge and cranked it up to max, thinking I'd freeze them solid so they'd provide cooling for the stuff in the cooler. Unfortunately that seemed a little more than my battery could take is it was too weak to start my truck! And while I carried a set of jumper cables, I was parked in such a way that it would have been difficult to get another vehicle close enough to my front end to use them.

But it was Frenchie to the rescue again, he carries a portable jump pack, and got me fired right up! In the meantime, we had all been watching the weather. We had heard a report that a "system" was coming through, and sure enough there were a bunch of angry dark clouds to our North that seemed to be getting closer. At one point, although it was dry at our camp, there was enough rain in the air to form a complete rainbow to the Northwest. The rainbows continued to come and go, and I got a photo of this one as it was starting to disperse:

Kyla was bundled up in her warm vest and seemed to be enjoying herself.

Luckily for us, we never got more than a splatter or two of rain before packing up and getting on the road.
Once out on the road, Frenchie cautiously determined that his field repair had worked and his Jeep was tracking straight and true. It was only a few minutes after getting back onto the Mojave Road that we came to another famous landmark, the "penny can." I got these photos to prove that Frenchie and I both paid our "toll!"

We crossed Ivanpah Road and then continued on towards Rock Spring, our next destination. Just before Rock Spring, Mojave Road crosses the well-graded dirt road (Cedar Canyon road) and then descends down a very steep and rocky 4wd trail!

I really wasn't expecting anything like this on our trip, so it was a nice surprise. Being the "tail gunner" I got to watch everyone else go down first. Nobody had any trouble, though, and we took the short drive through the wash to the Rock Springs site. At Rock Springs there's a very distinctive "pyramid" of rocks.

We also saw some rather sad and worn out wildflowers

After a few minutes at Rock Springs we continued on towards the old stone cabin that overlooks the springs. Gorgeous views from up there of the New York Mountains and the lush (for a desert!) valley!

We passed through Government Holes and then ended up back on the wide, well graded road through the Mid Hills until we hit both the railroad tracks and the paved road, the Kelso-Cima highway. There we stopped for lunch while Ace, who was suffering from a cold, decided to run up to Cima to see if the little general store that used to be there was still open (he was back in 20 minutes, apparently the store has long since closed.) As we ate lunch, another group of off-roaders in some lifted Toyotas was on the side of Kelso-Cima road trying to fix a problem that I could never discern. Apparently they had run part of Mojave Road but decided to cut their trip short and return home.

Mojave Road stretched out before us, a winding ribbon of sand that pointed towards the hills in front of us.

The road from Kelso-Cima heading West runs perpendicular to a shallow drainage, which means that the road rolls like a choppy ocean: Up and down, up and down. I can't imagine it was much fun in a wagon or buckboard, even at the low speeds they traveled. We stopped at Marl Springs and finally saw some colorful flowers:

Then a little past Marl, we crested a low rise and saw even more flowers including this gorgeous one (Indian Paintbrush, I think):

The next major landmark, sitting near the crest of the hill, was the famous "mailbox" and flag. We stopped for pictures and of course to sign the book!

And of course, to see the frogs!

From the mailbox, the road trends downhill, but still rolls (though not as much as on the uphill side.) Soda Lake shimmers in the distance, but we knew we wouldn't reach it today.

We continued downhill until we intersected with the Aiken Mine road, a well-graded dirt "highway" and as we crossed it the low, black cliff of the lava flows loomed in front of us. We kept getting closer and closer to the lava slab, which sits on top of the desert like the icing on a cupcake, and the Mojave road skirted its southern edge. Eventually, we got to where we could see a paved road with traffic off to our left, parallell to us, and I guessed that this must be Kel-Baker road. After running alongside Kelbaker for a couple of miles, we finally crossed over the pavement. By this time it was nearly 4:00 PM and time for us to look for a campsite. Wanting something that was at least a little bit sheltered from the wind, we finally decided to hunker down next to the lava flow just past the Kelbaker Road crossing (a couple of miles East of Seventeenn Mile Point.) We could see the occasional car or truck driving on Kelbaker, but traffic was pretty light overall. The camp offered great views of Soda lake to the West and shelter in the form of protection from the wind, so it was pretty nice.

We all made dinner and Frenchie got out his big stew pot for everyone to throw whatever they wanted in there to share for a "camp goulash." We ended the day sitting around the propane fire.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Day 5: Wednesday, April 2nd:

Since Frenchie still had his big stew pot on his fire, and since I had a lot of food I had brought (including 6 eggs, which had amazingly survived the bouncy road intact), I asked if they wanted to try something that Liz and I had done before: Zip Loc Omelets! I cooked up some Chorizo, got out my cheese and salsa, and my zip loc bags, and took them over to Frenchie's area. None of the other people there had ever done these before, and every time I had done them in the past, someone else actually did the cooking, so it was a bit of an experiment for us all, but it worked. We all enjoyed some nice, fresh omelets and of course, one the the best things about zip loc omelets is that cleanup is a breeze (you just throw away the zip loc bag.)

We did have to experiment with cooking time a bit. At first we though 8 minutes would work (it did for mine) but after having some "leakage" from the bags we used, we decided to "double bag" all the omelets and that extended cooking time to about 10-12 minutes.

For those who have never made them, Zip Loc omelets are super easy: You just need a big pot of boiling water (big enough that the bags won't touch the sides or the bottom) and a heat source (we used Frenchie's campfire, which he put a grille across the top of to make a large cooktop.) You crack your eggs into the zip loc bag, and throw in whatever else you want (cheese, ham, chorizo, mushrooms, whatever.) Then, you seal the bag, shake vigorously to mix everything, double-bag the omelet, and drop it in the boiling water. That's it! 10 - 12 minutes later you pull it out, the egg will be cooked, all the other stuff will be inside and it just slides right out of the bag and onto your plate. Yum!

Because of the big breakfast, we didn't leave camp until about 9:30, but we also knew this would be our shortest travel day.

We rounded Seventeen Mile Point and headed down towards Soda Dry Lake.

So far in the trip we had not talked to anybody who had come across Soda Lake, so we still weren't sure if we'd be crossing the lake or taking the detour through Baker (in the 2011 DE-I trip, the group ran into some wet ground and ultimately decided to take the Baker Bypass.) As we got closer we discussed the best way to proceed. Since I had pretty meaty tires, no trailer and a D-ring on my rear trailer hitch, I volunteered to go first, so that if I got stuck Ace or Frenchie could pull me out with a winch.

However, as the road got lower and lower, and as we got closer and closer to the lake, it remained bone dry (even a little dusty.) Grace had mentioned that there was a rock cairn in the middle of the lake and the tradition was to take a rock and add it to the cairn, so before we entered the lake bed proper, we stopped to pick up a rock or two. We drove across a flat, grassy meadow and before we knew it, we were ON the lake!

The lake bed was dry and the road was well trodden, so we had no qualms about continuing our crossing without any other preparations needed. We stopped a few times for pictures and added our stones to the rock cairn in the middle of the lake:

The lake bed is extremely flat, and surprisingly there were tracks in the thick mud off to the side of the established "road" indicating that some people had been out there playing around on the lake bed mud. We could see the Zzyzyx facility to the north of us, and I had thought we were going to be able to stop there to visit (the guys in 2011 apparently did) but I didn't realize that the road that goes from the West end of Soda Lake to Zzyzyx is blocked by a locked gate.

Just as we exited the playa, we ran into a couple of other vehicles coming East. We let them know that the road across the lake was dry and open, and they appreciated the information.

At this point, we actually exited the "Mojave National Preserve" itself and entered BLM land, the Rasor Dunes Off Road area. The road winds around the blowing, drifting dunes here, and I think Ace had to work hard to keep us more-or-less on the "trail." After crossing Rasor Road we dropped down a short but steep rocky section and into a river bed, where we stopped in the shelter of the dunes for lunch.

From here the road continued more or less in the Mojave River Bed, though there wasn't much water. Just past an old mine, the road crossed under the large, box girder railroad bridge, so we decided to line up the trucks for a photo op. As we were posing the trucks, we remarked that in the 2011 trip, they had managed to park their vehicles there and get a picture just as a train was crossing, and it was too bad there wasn't a train for us to include in the picture.

Well, you can probably guess what happened next! Yup, here came the train, just in time to be featured in our group photo:

Right after the bridge, Mojave Road enteres Afton Canyon, still running through the Mojave River bed. Although there was a little water it was nothing to concern us, until we got towards the end of the canyon. Ace called out on the radio "here's the car wash" and sure enough, we crossed the river itself, probably 20" deep or so at this point.

We also passed under the railroad again, so now we were on the North side of the tracks, and went through another "car wash." This one was a bit deeper, possibly as deep as 24" or so (it nearly came up to the bottom of Grace's and Sib's tailgates, whatever that distance is.) But the crossings were uneventful. Shortly after the last one, we came to the Afton Canyon BLM campground. As you would expect for a Wednesday night in April, it was almost empty, so we had our choice of sites.

It was at this point that Grace and Sib decided to head home. It was still relatively early (not even 4:00 PM) and they both figured they could make it home by nightfall. So, Gary, Frenchie, Ace and I set up our camp and took advantage of the concrete picnic tables and the nice established fire pit.

Just after Sib and Grace departed, the angry gray clouds that had been menacing us for the later part of the afternoon finally let loose and began to rain. But, as is typical with desert rainstorms, it ran out of energy within about 15 minutes and before long, the skies were blue again.

As the daylight faded, I tried to get some pictures of the sunset against the spooky looking cliffs in Afton Canyon.

I also hiked up to the railroad tracks to try and make a phone call home. I wasn't able to get a clear signal, but I did send a text, and I also took this "shadow selfie" by the tracks in the setting sun:

I also got my tripod out and tried to take some pictures of the waxing crescent moon as it set in the West:

We ate dinner and then, since Gary had brought firewood (and we found more at the campsite), we had our first actual log campfire of the trip before finally going to sleep.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Day 6, Thursday, April 3rd.

I probably ate and drank a little too much Wednesday night and as a result I wasn't able to sleep well. So, when the sky started lightening at around 6am, I decided there was no point in staying in my sleeping bag, so I rolled out and started packing up camp. Frenchie was up but Ace and Gary were still asleep. I shook hands with Frenchie, thanked him again for his help with the ratchet strap and the jump start, told him to say my goodbyes to the group for me, and then headed out on the Afton Canyon road straight North towards I-15.

After airing up at I-15 and a brief stop for coffee and a snack in Baker, I hit the road towards Las Vegas. I had dumped my two 3 gallon cans into my truck on Wednesday morning, so I had plenty of gas to get me to Vegas, which meant I didn't have to pay California's highway-robbery gas prices. Unfortunately I hit LV at the tail end of Rush Hour so it took me longer than expected to get through there.
However, I filled up with gas and snacks, called the wife to let her know I was on my way home, and hit the road. Lunch was in the town of St. George, UT, where I figured I had to try an in-n-out burger, just to see what the hype was all about (meh, it was a burger), and then I continued north to Cedar City. My plan was to end up in Escalante that night and to camp somewhere in Grand Staircase/Escalante NM.

My GPS kept trying to route me on UT 143 through Parowan and Panguitch, but I have no idea why it didn't route me over the much shorter, more direct UT-14 which goes from Cedar City straight over the mountains to US-89. Since I had last done the UT143/Brian Head route in 2011, and since I hadn't done the UT-14 route past Cedar Breaks NM, I ignored the GPS and went that way instead.

Up at the pass, the views of Zion National Park to the South were amazing!

And I also ran into snow on the highway for only the second time on this trip:

Still, UT-14 is a fantastic road, and the forest scenery was a welcome change from the sandy desert. I hit US-89 and then turned North, through Hatch, until I finally hit the junction of UT-12. I had only driven a few miles of this legendary road before (basically, the area between Boulder and Torrey, and the few miles around Bryce Canyon) in 2008, so I was really excited to take the whole route.

Anyone who's ever driven this road knows how incredible it is, and I didn't really want to stop for pictures as I still intended to camp. However, as I got into Escalante, dead tired, it was quite chilly (around 40 degrees and that was with the sun still up) and I checked the weather forecase which was for temps to dip below freezing. I also noticed there was still a fair amount of snow in the grassy and dirt areas, and so I ultimately decided to wimp out and get a motel room rather than camp for the night. I also figured my wife would appreciate my homecoming a lot more if I washed off the stink of 5 nights of camping before I got to the house! I was so tired I didn't even bother to eat dinner, just showered and went to bed.

Day 7, Friday, April 4th:

I tried to wake up early as I knew I would have a long day, and I was also excited about continuing my way up UT 12.

UT-12 was everything I expected and more. I've seen my share of scenic highways (I live in Colorado after all!) but UT-12 is just breathtaking. The most incredible part is the area between Escalante and Boulder, where part of the road actually runs along the knife edge of a hogback with the road sloping down in both directions off to the sides! This photo really doesn't do it justice but suffice to say,
for a paved road, UT-12 is one that you shouldn't miss:

I then continued on through Boulder, up and over the 9,500' mountains (where, snow several feet high still lined the roadside and there was intermittent ice on the roadway itself) and dropped down into Torrey. At Torrey I took UT-24 East through Capitol Reef NP, crossed the San Rafael Sweel, then to the town of Caineville. Just outside Caineville, I took this photo of Factory Butte, a striking mountain sitting all by itself in the middle of the desert (I presume the name comes from the rock spires on top that look like huge smoke stacks.):

UT-24 took me to I-70 and from there it was the same old road I'd driven so many times in the past 9 years or so. Gas up at Green River and then hit the superslab for the long drive home. I finally got in just before 6pm, exhausted and glad to be home!

 

[4x4x4doors]

Looks like I missed a great time (as I expected). Thanks for sharing.

The unidentified car looks to be a 46 Ford. In the online link I found, the car is even the same color. http://www.tvhistory.tv/1946_Ford.JPG

I share your thoughts about In-N-Out. Good but its a burger.

Looking forward to the other contributions/pictures.

 

[mjmcdowell]

Martin, great photos/trip report, glad everything went well even tho there were a few little glitches, it's all part of the trip, as I know so well.. ha! Any how glad you made it home safe. Wish I could have made it...... but then again I will be out there for the DE IV part 2 in late summer, sure would like to see you and all the others be able to make this trip as I think there will be lot's more to see that we have not seen yet. Stay safe my friend. Michael

 

[Scott B.]

That a was a really nice trip report - make me all the more sorry I missed the trip. Looking forward to the fall portion (Part 2) of the trip!

As for In-N-Out, you either get it or you don't. Must be a California thing. :yikes:

 

[mjmcdowell]

Hmmmmm...... I seem to remember that it was T-Bars, (Ted) that raved about those burgers in 2011 if I'm not mistaken. Not bad, but I agree.... just Burgers but then again I'm from NYS. Beginning to wonder about my smarts living up here still....... Michael

 

[Scott B.]

Hmmmmm...... I seem to remember that it was T-Bars, (Ted) that raved about those burgers in 2011 if I'm not mistaken. Not bad, but I agree.... just Burgers but then again I'm from NYS. Beginning to wonder about my smarts living up here still....... Michael

We've been wondering about that for a while!

 

[Brian1]

Sounds like you guys had a good time! Did you make any stops in Afton canyon at the boxcar or spooky canyon for a quick hike?

I'm going to have to mark down the place Gary found for the next trip, I don't remember seeing those cool Petroglyphs on my few trips through there.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Sounds like you guys had a good time! Did you make any stops in Afton canyon at the boxcar or spooky canyon for a quick hike?

I'm going to have to mark down the place Gary found for the next trip, I don't remember seeing those cool Petroglyphs on my few trips through there.

We didn't do any hiking in Afton, though I think we saw where some of the trails go into the canyon. Where is the boxcar? I didn't see one as we were driving through but then again, I wasn't really looking for one.

 

[gwittman]

Brian, the Petroglyphs are at a place called Indian Well. I have camped there before. It is not easy to find but not that difficult either. The last time I was there the well was crystal clear. This time it looked kind of stagnant.

 

[Brian1]

Thanks Gary. Martin, if you didn't know it is there it is real easy to miss! It is actually buried and you can only see the roof and about 1' of the top in places.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Final thoughts/Notes/Lessons learned:

First off, let me just say "thanks" to Ace Brown for doing such a great job of guiding us! It would have been tough to follow the trail otherwise. This isn't like White Rim where there is only one road and all you have to do is stay on it. In much of the Mojave Preserve not only is the Old Mojave Road not well marked, but there are other more traveled, easier-to-follow routes that criss-cross the Mojave Road.

My Sleeping platform worked great, and the "deck chair" mattress worked very well. However, there was not much headroom - it was kind of like a bunk in a submarine! OK for sleeping but not much room to sit up. I quickly got into the habit of undressing before I even got in and then jumping into the back of the vehicle in my skivvies!

The window screens worked great, too. I'd definitley recommend this modification to anybody who sleeps in their vehicle.

My white gas experiment didn't go so well. I'll most likely revert to Propane for the next one. Not that it's not a good idea, but if you're going to do white gas, make sure you have a place to store it outside your driving/living compartment. That stuff REEKS!

My "two box" cooler system worked OK but this is probably the last time I'll use it. Time for me to buck up and buy a bigger fridge.

My Masterflow MV-1050 compressor was only used once, at the end of the trip. It made a few odd "coughing" noises while trying to fill up my tires, and filling up took longer than usual. I made a mental note to check the compressor out when I got home, thinking maybe a seal was going bad or it had some other problem, and then made that check unneccessary when the compressor fell out of my truck at the motel in Escalante and broke. So now it will just be replaced with a ViAir 90P.

Zip Loc Omelets are fantastic! Only caveat is you do need a rather large cooking pot to boil them in. Frenchie was a big help here with his Camp Chef fire ring and large stew pot.

The Mojave Road is a great route, but one drawback is that concentrating so much on that road meant we missed a lot of "side trips." I'd definitely like to go back to the Mojave Preserve and explore some of the areas away from the Old Mojave Road.

And finally, it was great traveling with Ace, Frenchie, Gary, Sib, and Grace! I appreciate their depth of experience and their knowledge!

Another great ExPo Trip down! Now to plan for DE-V....