My family and I decided to drive down to the Overland Expo this year, largely because we arranged to pick up a brand new Turtleback Trailer and get bumpers put on the Lexus. My wife and I took some time off work so that we could take our time exploring the area while making our way back home. With us, we brought our 5 year old son, Blaise, and our 2 year old daughter, Eliza. They are great road trippers!
We made it down to Salt Lake City from Tacoma on day one. My wife had a spot of skin cancer removed three days prior, so she doesn't remember any of this day thanks to Vicodin. No pictures from day one, just boring freeway driving.
Day two (Friday) we stopped by my alma mater, UVU. They got a lot of my money, and I don't even use that degree anymore. Oh well, not uncommon. Nice campus though!
The kids were happy to get out and walk around for a bit before one last push to get to the Expo.
Shaun Rasmussen
I thought it was interesting how the water came off that fountain:
After that quick stop at UVU, we drove down to Flagstaff through some really interesting terrain. We made it down to the Expo late enough that we pretty much just set up camp.
Saturday, we had new bumpers put on the Lexus by the guys at Southern Style Speed. They drove all the way out from Louisiana to put bumpers on my GX and one other. They did this at the Expo, right in front of some very nice Unimogs; it was fun to see people turn their backs to some half million dollar ultimate overland rigs to watch them put bumpers onto an SUV. They started my install around 1 and finished after dark. Approach and departure angles are much better, I have multiple D-Ring mounts for safety/recovery, light mounts, spare tire on the back, and even a place to mount a jerry can now! Not to mention it looks much better now, too!
Before Picture (there are a lot of bugs down here):
Bumper install on a sheet of cardboard:
Kevin making the cut-out for the trailer hitch, no going back now:
Front bumper, just as it was mounted up:
Once it got dark, we got some help with lighting from Kevin's GX and an FJ:
Somehow, I don't have a completed picture of the install from that night. Probably because it was really late and a little dark for good pictures. Back to camp with a more capable rig!
Saturday, we wandered around the Expo and saw some really interesting things, learned a lot, and met a bunch of great people. Later in the day, we picked up our new trailer from Dave at Turtleback and set up camp with some people we were going to Toroweap with in the morning. They all had a lot of fun watching us try to set up our trailer for the first time, and I believe we ended up looking like we couldn't fight our way out of a wet paper bag. I always like to play with something in the driveway for a while to learn about it before going on a big trip, but we had no choice here. Everyone got a good laugh watching us struggle, and everyone was very willing to offer up pointers. We got all set up, and left for Toroweap in the morning.
Toroweap is one of the most amazing places ever, and I will certainly find myself back here again. It is about 60 miles of dirt road (the last 7 or so rough enough to want a 4x4) back into the middle of nowhere, and there would be no help for miles if something were to happen, so I did feel a little better being in a group.
A little rough area getting down to the campground, Tuweep:
The camping is limited here, so plan accordingly. We stayed at the group camp (that we learned you need to reserve). There was a friendly ranger that let us stay there even with too many cars for the camp, and no reservations. I wouldn't plan on this method in the future:
The group we were with was great; great with our kids, and experienced overlanders who were willing to share knowledge. Despite our luck in them letting us tag along with them, they were staying here another night, and we wanted to see other new places, so we bid farewell that next morning and headed out. We of course stopped at the Toroweap lookout for about an hour and a half first. This place is really nerve wracking with two small kids, but it is such an impressive and breath-taking sight, that it is high on my list of favorite places I've ever been.
Park the rig at the parking lot:
You walk from the parking lot, just a few yards, and you are at the top of a cliff that is a few thousand feet high. You are staring right down at the river. Amazing views!
Father-daughter selfie at the top of a 3000' cliff (my mom was not amused at this one):
We bid farewell to this amazing place, and started driving towards town to refuel, stock up on food again, and head out towards Grand Staircase.
I got a little bit of information on here as to what areas would be interesting to visit, but it was largely just looking at the Benchmark Maps and picking out places that look interesting. One little road that was on some maps, and not others, but always showed it was for four wheel drive vehicles only, was Nipple Creek. How can you go wrong with a place called that? Off we went. This was probably my favorite road of the entire trip.
The road begins:
At this time I didn't know it, but the road goes up a steep and skinny road up that cliff on the left of the picture. I should have got a picture, but I am a failure at getting pictures of the best spots.
Here we are at the top of that hill (last picture was from the middle left edge of this picture):
Shadows are getting long, probably time to find a spot to camp for the night...
This will do; a nice stream bed. A quick discussion was had about the chances of a flash flood, and camp was made:
After a great night with great food and warm showers (this trailer is nice!), we kept exploring Nipple Creek, which included driving the creek bed for a lot of the time. It is interesting to see what the water does when it flows, like making this dramatic under-cut in the rock. I really bet it would be fun to see this with water in it!
We kept seeing where the stream bed was white, but we couldn't figure out what it was making it white. The water cut out a tiny part of the road that was fun to drive up with a trailer.
We decided that next stop should be Alstrom Point overlooking Lake Powell. To get there, a little driving through Grand Staircase was required:
I have never been to the South West, so this landscape was new to me. I was very impressed, I will certainly be back to explore more. All of you who live down in this area are very spoiled!
We made it down to Salt Lake City from Tacoma on day one. My wife had a spot of skin cancer removed three days prior, so she doesn't remember any of this day thanks to Vicodin. No pictures from day one, just boring freeway driving.
Day two (Friday) we stopped by my alma mater, UVU. They got a lot of my money, and I don't even use that degree anymore. Oh well, not uncommon. Nice campus though!
The kids were happy to get out and walk around for a bit before one last push to get to the Expo.
Shaun RasmussenI thought it was interesting how the water came off that fountain:
After that quick stop at UVU, we drove down to Flagstaff through some really interesting terrain. We made it down to the Expo late enough that we pretty much just set up camp.
Saturday, we had new bumpers put on the Lexus by the guys at Southern Style Speed. They drove all the way out from Louisiana to put bumpers on my GX and one other. They did this at the Expo, right in front of some very nice Unimogs; it was fun to see people turn their backs to some half million dollar ultimate overland rigs to watch them put bumpers onto an SUV. They started my install around 1 and finished after dark. Approach and departure angles are much better, I have multiple D-Ring mounts for safety/recovery, light mounts, spare tire on the back, and even a place to mount a jerry can now! Not to mention it looks much better now, too!
Before Picture (there are a lot of bugs down here):
Bumper install on a sheet of cardboard:
Kevin making the cut-out for the trailer hitch, no going back now:
Front bumper, just as it was mounted up:
Once it got dark, we got some help with lighting from Kevin's GX and an FJ:
Somehow, I don't have a completed picture of the install from that night. Probably because it was really late and a little dark for good pictures. Back to camp with a more capable rig!
Saturday, we wandered around the Expo and saw some really interesting things, learned a lot, and met a bunch of great people. Later in the day, we picked up our new trailer from Dave at Turtleback and set up camp with some people we were going to Toroweap with in the morning. They all had a lot of fun watching us try to set up our trailer for the first time, and I believe we ended up looking like we couldn't fight our way out of a wet paper bag. I always like to play with something in the driveway for a while to learn about it before going on a big trip, but we had no choice here. Everyone got a good laugh watching us struggle, and everyone was very willing to offer up pointers. We got all set up, and left for Toroweap in the morning.
Toroweap is one of the most amazing places ever, and I will certainly find myself back here again. It is about 60 miles of dirt road (the last 7 or so rough enough to want a 4x4) back into the middle of nowhere, and there would be no help for miles if something were to happen, so I did feel a little better being in a group.
A little rough area getting down to the campground, Tuweep:
The camping is limited here, so plan accordingly. We stayed at the group camp (that we learned you need to reserve). There was a friendly ranger that let us stay there even with too many cars for the camp, and no reservations. I wouldn't plan on this method in the future:
The group we were with was great; great with our kids, and experienced overlanders who were willing to share knowledge. Despite our luck in them letting us tag along with them, they were staying here another night, and we wanted to see other new places, so we bid farewell that next morning and headed out. We of course stopped at the Toroweap lookout for about an hour and a half first. This place is really nerve wracking with two small kids, but it is such an impressive and breath-taking sight, that it is high on my list of favorite places I've ever been.
Park the rig at the parking lot:
You walk from the parking lot, just a few yards, and you are at the top of a cliff that is a few thousand feet high. You are staring right down at the river. Amazing views!
Father-daughter selfie at the top of a 3000' cliff (my mom was not amused at this one):
We bid farewell to this amazing place, and started driving towards town to refuel, stock up on food again, and head out towards Grand Staircase.
I got a little bit of information on here as to what areas would be interesting to visit, but it was largely just looking at the Benchmark Maps and picking out places that look interesting. One little road that was on some maps, and not others, but always showed it was for four wheel drive vehicles only, was Nipple Creek. How can you go wrong with a place called that? Off we went. This was probably my favorite road of the entire trip.
The road begins:
At this time I didn't know it, but the road goes up a steep and skinny road up that cliff on the left of the picture. I should have got a picture, but I am a failure at getting pictures of the best spots.
Here we are at the top of that hill (last picture was from the middle left edge of this picture):
Shadows are getting long, probably time to find a spot to camp for the night...
This will do; a nice stream bed. A quick discussion was had about the chances of a flash flood, and camp was made:
After a great night with great food and warm showers (this trailer is nice!), we kept exploring Nipple Creek, which included driving the creek bed for a lot of the time. It is interesting to see what the water does when it flows, like making this dramatic under-cut in the rock. I really bet it would be fun to see this with water in it!
We kept seeing where the stream bed was white, but we couldn't figure out what it was making it white. The water cut out a tiny part of the road that was fun to drive up with a trailer.
We decided that next stop should be Alstrom Point overlooking Lake Powell. To get there, a little driving through Grand Staircase was required:
I have never been to the South West, so this landscape was new to me. I was very impressed, I will certainly be back to explore more. All of you who live down in this area are very spoiled!
