Overdue Report

[Wombat]

This was more of a vacation than an expedition report, so I thought I'd post it here. I'll give my thoughts on the 80 at the end.

Earlier this year, I bought Kevin Speicher's 80. My wife and I were planning on taking a long overdue vacation exploring the southwest and decided that his 80 would be the perfect vehicle for what we wanted to do. There aren't many 15 year old vehicles that I would put so much trust in, but the combination of the Land Cruiser reputation for reliability and Kevin's attention to detail really made the decision easier. Kevin had receipts for everything, and basically the only thing left undone was the engine. The 80 had 138,000 miles on it, and though there were absolutely no signs of failure, I went ahead and had the head gasket and PHH replaced as a preventive measure. I wanted peace of mind on this trip, so on Kevin's recommendation SD Trux replaced both.

Our trip was to coincide with a move from San Diego to San Antonio, so after moving everything to SA and finding a house to buy, we pointed the 80 north and headed out.

Mason, TX - Day 1 Great lunch! In our own version of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives we wanted to stop at as many local places as possible. This one fit the bill, the BBQ sandwiches were awesome.

Des Moines, NM - Day 2 We were kind of making a bee line to Colorado/Utah, but still wanted to stay off the interstate as much as possible. There were some beautiful small towns along the way, and being able to stop and enjoy the scenery was a nice change from going from Point A to Point B as fast as possible.

Cucharas Pass, CO - Day 2 It was late May. We would have loved to have done some of the spectacular passes that Colorado has to offer, but they weren't even close to being open. We decided to get to Utah as soon as possible, but still stop and see the sights.

Wolf Creek Pass, CO - Day 3 Twenty years ago I used to climb 1300 foot radio-navigation towers, but I'm still afraid of heights and wouldn't go near the edge. We also stopped in Durango. Last time I was there in the early 90's I remember it as a nice town. For me it seems to have lost it's charm. We had lunch at nice place just outside of town (Christina's-Great fried clams and they let us bring our dog onto the patio).

Arches NP, UT - Day 3 We arrived at Arches on the afternoon of Day 3. We were a little tired and after going through the park we decided to escape the bustle of Moab and headed up to Green River for the night.

The next day the reason we bought the 80 becomes clear

 

[Hltoppr]

:lurk:

-H-

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

Very cool. Keep em coming.

 

[ChuckB]

Flareless 80's are sexy IMOP!!!

 

[Wombat]

Our philosophy on buying the 80 will probably strike a familiar cord. We knew we wanted to take a road trip. We have a dog and she is part of our life and would be included, so the traditional fly/hotel vacation was out, and we've never been remotely interested in that anyway. At the time I had a Dodge diesel, we considered buying a trailer to tow, but after staying at some RV campgrounds back when we had a toyhauler we knew that wasn't what we wanted either. Dragging a trailer into some of the places we wanted to go wasn't appealing to us anyway.
Fortune smiled on us after checking the ExPo classifieds. I've always loved the Land Cruiser, I was leaning towards a 60 and probably would have bought Princess if it had been for sale at the time. I saw Kevin's 80, something clicked, and then I noticed that it was local. Convincing my wife was easier than I thought. I reminded her of all the times we've taken road trips, all those dirt roads we noticed heading off to who-knows-where. Instead of wondering where they went, we could take that right turn and see for ourselves. She loved the idea, and why not? She had owned an old FJ40 (the Blue Mule) when we first got married. A few days later the 80 was in our driveway.

 

[Wombat]

Day 4 - We had purchased a 4WD guidebook while in Moab, and the area just south of Green River looked interesting. My wife has always loved rock art, and it seemed that the San Rafael Swell had plenty. We were kind of turned off by the touristy vibe we got while at Arches NP, and the Swell seemed to be just what we were looking for.

We spent the night in Green River. We went down the main street looking for a place to eat. Ben's Cafe looked like just the place we had in mind:

The menu claimed to have the best chile in the country. I don't know if it was that good, but we had to try it, and yes, it was pretty damn good.

The next morning, we headed out. A couple miles west of Green River, we took the exit and headed west down a road that paralleled the interstate and noticed an unmarked dirt road turnoff. This is it, we surmised, and made the left and headed south. As per the guidebook, we zeroed our GPS (Zumo 450) and everything seemed to be keeping pace with the map we had. We had a destination in mind, but it soon became clear that there was a whole lot more to this place than the guidebook had hinted at, and in the spirit of not having a destination we put the guidebook away and headed right at the next fork, heading north. We passed under the interstate:

On the other side we stayed in the sandy wash which looped around until we ended up here:

This is what our trip was all about. With the crowded memory of Arches behind us, we were finally able to enjoy the solitude that the desert offers, and contemplate the beauty around us.

 

[1leglance]

Great report....looking forward to more and really looking forward to getting up to Utah..
Oh and thanks for the on the places to eat..the best part of small towns on trips is the local food.

 

[Wombat]

We spent most of the morning exploring San Rafael Swell. This trip was all about popping our cherry and getting a feel for this type of travel. We decided to head over to Route 24 via the dirt roads and start aiming for Capitol Reef NP and then to Lake Powell.

We had lunch at the Red Rock Restaurant in Hanksville. Hanksville is just a small town at a crossroad in the middle of nowhere. Another fine meal, I didn't have it in my notes but I'm pretty sure they had good pie. West of Hanksville on Rt 24 we passed this interesting organic farm.

My wife picked up some bread and the proprietor asked us where we were headed. We told him we were on our way to Lake Powell and he told us we had missed the turn off. When I told him we were taking the Notom-Bullfrog Road he took a look at the 80 and smiled and said we were going there the right way.

After a quick dash to the Capitol Reef park entrance to get out NP stamp (yeah, we're a couple of weenies) we backtracked back to the Notom-Bullfrog Road.

A this point we were trying to decide wether to head straight down to Lake Powell or to cut over to Boulder, UT via the Burr Trail. This was a difficult decision because we were caught between our desire to head over towards the Grand Canyon or continue south and see the Valley of the Gods and Lake Powell. We had visited Lake Powell back in '93 and had always wanted to return. In the end, we decided on Lake Powell but decided to at least do the switchbacks on the Burr Trail, which proved to be visually spectacular.

We reached Lake Powell in the late afternoon and got a room at the Defiance House Lodge on the Bullfrog side. Notom-Bullfrog Road was well worth it, lots of washboard in some sections, but the scenery more than makes up for it. The Burr Trail is not to be missed if you're in the area. None of these are technically challenging, but they're a different way of traveling and personally for the last 18 years my wife and I were always in such a hurry to get from one place to another that we have missed out on what sometimes is the best way to get there, and what's in between.

 

[Wombat]

Day 5 - We decided to stay at Lake Powell for an extra night. We had a nice view and lots of fun stuff to do.

Day 6 - We took the ferry across to Halls Crossing.

We stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument on the way to Valley of the Gods. The decent on hwy 261 to the VOG was pretty fun.

The wind was absolutely howling and the switchbacks were unexpected. Valley of the Gods was amazing, another place that should be experienced.

We headed over to Mexican Hat and had lunch at Valles Cafe
I had a couple of hot dogs, we wound up sharing a table with a nice couple from Europe who were touring around.

We then found out that my sister and her family were over in Colorado for the weekend (they're professional whitewater kayakers), so we headed east and decided to go to Mesa Verde to see the Pueblo cliff dwellings before heading up to Buena Vista. We arrived in the evening and spent the night at the lodge there.

 

[Wombat]

We did the morning tour for the cliff dwellings

We then headed towards Buena Vista via 550 and 50. Would have loved to do Engineer Pass, but even though it was 100 degrees when we had left Lake Powell the day before, some of the passes in Colorado still looked like this:

After a short visit with my sister and family in BV, she took us down to Salida for dinner and for a tour of the town. Salida was exactly what I had wanted Durango to be like. During dinner it was announced that my niece was getting married, so it was a great occasion and we were happy to have been there for the news. My niece is the current woman's world champion in freestyle kayaking and my BIL is the current world champion. We're the only family members who ever bother to see them compete, and it was once again nice to be there with them for another milestone.

We needed to start heading south again, so we said our goodbyes and headed towards New Mexico, after a brief stop at Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park, where my wife tortured me into walking across freezing meltwater in my bare feet. We then had lunch in Fort Garland, CO

After lunch, we headed south on 159, destination: Roswell, NM!

The next day, we toured the museum.

They were nice enough to allow pets, so River got to see the aliens:

We then headed back to San Antonio.

 

[mosq]

Wow! I love the nature there! Great pictures!

 

[Wombat]

Wow! I love the nature there! Great pictures!

Thanks - I grew up in New York and took several cross country trips while in the military. I always dreaded driving across the desert southwest and found it quite boring. Something clicked when I moved out to southern California and I really fell in love with the desert.

One of the finest days I've had was doing course work for a desert race. I was a flagman for a section where the course crossed a road, the road wasn't very busy but on the off chance a vehicle happened by I was there to ensure the course was clear before waving them by. It was a long day with lots of downtime, but the level of serenity I reached was hard to equal in the bustle of everyday life. For one 18 hour period, nothing really to worry about except my little patch of desert.

I had a few interesting visitors, including this retired gentleman who spent his days riding the high desert with his dog. He didn't have much in the way of material possessions, but I did envy him in many ways.