Western United States in a 4Runner

[t4rman]

Copied from Toyota120.com

Short Film of the Trip

If you follow my build thread then you know that I have just returned from another trip to the western United States. This time I was able to spend a full month on the road and visit every state west of the Continental Divide. Needless to say, this report will be a bit longer than my usual pic heavy reports.

I read a book recently by Donald Miller titled Through Painted Deserts. It is a non-fiction about a trip Donald took when he was younger. It starts with him living in houston and meeting Paul, a guy from Oregon that has a slightly different view on life than everybody around. They decide to take a big trip in Paul's VW Westy and after a huge adventure end up in Oregon. Ever since reading that book, I have had an urge to drop everything and head west for as long as possible. I am in college and earlier this summer I found myself with two months off, job free, and a little extra money. I thought to myself, there will probably never be a better time to take this trip.

Planning started early in the year with some internet searching and trip report reading. I spoke about my plans with a similar minded friend and he decided to come along. He also had an opportunity for us both to earn some extra money in Denver that would help offset the cost of fuel. We both spend hours pouring over maps and planning route after route. Eventually the massive plan eroded into the mutual decision to have as little planning as possible. We set a general departure date, a handful of places we wanted to go , and that was about it. We would come home when money ran out.

The week after finals for my spring semester ended, I drove to flagstaff for the Overland Expo (because I'm an overland nerd and I wanted to see how the pro's handled living out of a tent). That trip included camping in Santa Fe NM, Mormon Lake AZ, Monument Valley UT, and near Pagosa Springs CO. I returned motivated, informed, and convinced that I was going to buy a Mercedes Unimog radio truck and convert it to a camper. (That idea quickly passed)

First Trip Report: Overland Expo '12 :camping:

I returned to Dallas for around two weeks then left and met my family in Florida for our annual vacation. While I was there an extended family member approached me about a business opportunity that would finance a venture to the west coast. I spent a week and a half traveling from San Francisco back home and went through, Tahoe, Moab, and Telluride.

That trip report is here: The Trip Home

By the time I returned, it was early July and the tentative departure date for the final trip of the summer was approaching. I made all my last minute preparations and headed out with my buddy, my dog, and a truck loaded to the brim with gear and supplies.

The first stop was Denver, CO. We stayed there and worked for a week and a half before departing for Yellowstone.

We camped off of Grassy Lake road in John D Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway. The gravel road runs east/west and can be accessed from highway 287 near the south entrance to the park or from Ashton ID and offers 8 dispersed campsites with pit toilets and primitive camping. I highly recommend camping here if you are visiting Yellowstone. The best part was the sites are free. :bigok:

We then spent the day touring Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and the surrounding areas.

Grassy Lake Campsite

Yellowstone Photos

Grand Teton

We needed to be in Seattle as early as possible so we moved quickly through Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington.

Fields in Ashton Idaho

Montana

Seattle

The Museum of Flight at Boeing Field is awesome. If you are interested in aviation at all I recommend it.

From Seattle I took the ferry across the sound and drove into Olympic National Park

The Beach at Port Angeles, WA

Ruby Beach, WA

 

[t4rman]

Shortly after that the odometer in the truck showed 99,999 so I pulled onto the shoulder to take a picture. When I looked up from the camera there was a lot of commotion in front of us. People were pulled over about 50 yards down the road and running across at something in the ditch. We rolled forward slowly and saw a Tacoma facing us on off side of the road with the drivers side door mashed against the bank. We grabbed a tow strap and with the help of the other people pulled the poor guy out of the ditch and back on level ground. It turns out he had fallen asleep at the wheel, drifted across oncoming traffic, went off the opposite side of the road, and slid down the drainage ditch until the truck came to a stop.

It was one of the stranger experiences that has happened to me. If the milage on the truck was different we would have had no reason to stop and would have been where the Tacoma crossed the centerline. There is no telling what would have happened then.

The aftermath

Oregon

California

 

[t4rman]

We spent some time in Grass Valley with friends and enjoyed luxuries like sleeping on a couch, a microwave oven, and access to a refrigerator. We did some mountain biking and backpacking. Then we started heading back east towards Yosemite and Death Valley.

A ranger at the mono lake information center pointed us toward dispersed camping in the Inyo national forrest on the east side of hwy 385 and south of hwy 120. In the two days that we were there we only saw one other person. I was surprised at the lack of people taking advantage of the free camping so close to Yosemite. There were forrest service roads everywhere and plenty of opportunities to explore. However, I would buy a topo map for this region as the roads and signage are fairly confusing and the free map available at the visitors center was basically worthless.

Bald Mountain

Yosemite was a madhouse as predicted. The views were still awesome.

We left Yosemite around mid day and headed for Flagstaff. On the way we drove through Death Valley National Park. The valley was a nice change from Yosemite. I believe we passed one car the entire time. Our only other company was a heard of cows that blocked the road for a bit. Death Valley is a neat place and I wish we could have spent more time there. We drove past the roads that I have read about in all the trip reports on here. It was hard not to just turn off the pavement and disappear into the mountains. The lighting on the Nevada side of the park was excellent. The sun was setting and it made for some excellent photos.

We drove through Las Vegas and made it into Flagstaff in the early morning. If you are ever in town Cinder Hills in an off road park that is less than 10 minutes north and offers terrain like nothing I have seen. While I was cooking breakfast a group of Jeeps came rolling by and started attempting to doughnuts in the volcanic rock. I felt a little bad for them actually. We packed the truck and with showed them how its done, bikes and everything. (4.7 ******)

 

[t4rman]

We left Flagstaff for Telluride. The Grand Canyon was on the list but we had both been already and opted to drive by Monument Valley. We arrived at Alta Lakes Campground just after dark and woke up to a great view of Sunshine Peak (14,006'). This was my second time at this campground and it did not disappoint. It is an abandoned mine so there are plenty of neat buildings to explore, the views are incredible, and there is a freshwater spring that produces enough water to make a decent sized waterfall.

We spent our time in Telluride hiking and exploring Gold Basin. Another of my Dallas buddies met us up there and we all hiked to a peak on Silver Mountain (12,452'). On the last night of the trip we all went into town, had dinner, chilled at a local coffee house/bar, and listened to live music. It was definitely a great ending to an epic trip. The drive home was uneventful. It was hard to come back to life in the Texas suburbs after a month of adventure, wilderness, and an overall lack of civilization.

Alta Lakes Camp

Gold Basin

At the Top

Stuff that worked well:

The 4Runner. Even at 100k miles it was working great. We didn't have any unexpected maintenance issues.

We brought cots and a 4 person tent. If you are planning on doing an extended road trip, go overboard on your sleeping configuration. We definitely appreciated having a nice place to sleep after a long day.



Things that I would change:

We had a basic cooler that required a lot of ice and drowned a lot of our food. I would spend the money on a Yeti or Engel cooler. Maybe even a fridge. I'm still trying to justify the extra cost.

We had a big coleman camp stove. It was more than we needed and burned quite a bit of propane. A Jetboil or similar stove would have worked just fine.

Even though we appreciated the tent and cots, they were a pain to deal with. It would be great for a base camp and is not that hard to set up, but after the 8th time of setting it up and tearing it down, it got irritating. I'll be investing in a nice RTT before too long.

 

[Seeker]

Nice rig, beautiful photos. I hate to be the guy who asks about equipment in a trip report thread but... where did you get your roof rack/ladder?

 

[ssichler]

Really nice. Enjoyed the video also. My wife and I did a similar trip in 2009 and it really gives you a perspective on what a beautiful country we live in.

 

[t4rman]

Seeker, The ladder is from Gobi. The rack is from Baja Racks. Last I checked, this particular rack isn't on their website. Give them a call and they will hook you up.

ssichler, thanks! The west certainly has some beautiful places.

 

[Nomadllc]

Looks like a sweet trip. Great video!

 

[1leglance]

Stunning pics and good on you for getting out there while you are young and free

I would say that a fridge is worth it's wieght in gold to me, others maybe not but I love mine and would not live without it.

on the tent vs RTT....I have had both and a sleep inside setup.
For two people who are a couple a RTT is great and can be fast to setup/teardown
For two people who are not a couple the space might be tight...unless you are used to a small tent.

For two people who are friends then a big tent & cots are really the best way to go. If setup/teardown is a hassle then either switch off who does it each day or do it together so it goes quicker.

Looking forward to more reports and great pics in the future.

 

[stioc]

Love the pics, the trip and especially the 4Runner- nicely/tastefully done! I just read your build thread on toyota 120- funny, I don't like the looks of my roof-rack sitting so high on the stock cross bars either unfortunately there aren't too many options out there for my truck though. You need to post a copy of your build thread here so we can ask questions...I'll PM ya.

 

[team-oomizumi]

Great adventure. Enjoyed your photos.

Those aren't the two of you pictured on the top of that rock cropping, are they?

 

[hinocairnseclipse]

great photos! Will check the vid later when its not choking my bandwidth

 

[mizzle415]

Epic trip is right! Looks like an awesome getaway and tons of fun had along the way. The video was well edited and quite entertaining. Where in Cali were those swimming holes. I'm always on the look out for good swimming and fun rocks to jump off.:snorkel:

To comment on a potential tent setup. I don't have any experience with RTT, but have done a lot of car camping/ mountain bike trips over the years. Lately I've been using a Coleman Instant Tent. It's construction is a little cheesy, but it has lasted me two summers of at least 5 weekend trips and one ten day trip. It sets up in about 2 minutes once you've done it before and taking down and packing it up isn't much longer. Something to consider if you camp mainly in the summer time and don't need top of the line.

 

[t4rman]

Great adventure. Enjoyed your photos.

Those aren't the two of you pictured on the top of that rock cropping, are they?

Thanks! I was actually the one taking the picture. Daniel is on the rock with another friend that met us in Telluride.

 

[t4rman]

Epic trip is right! Looks like an awesome getaway and tons of fun had along the way. The video was well edited and quite entertaining. Where in Cali were those swimming holes. I'm always on the look out for good swimming and fun rocks to jump off.:snorkel:

To comment on a potential tent setup. I don't have any experience with RTT, but have done a lot of car camping/ mountain bike trips over the years. Lately I've been using a Coleman Instant Tent. It's construction is a little cheesy, but it has lasted me two summers of at least 5 weekend trips and one ten day trip. It sets up in about 2 minutes once you've done it before and taking down and packing it up isn't much longer. Something to consider if you camp mainly in the summer time and don't need top of the line.

Those spots are in the South fork of the American River near the royal gorge. Places like that are all over the northern california foothills though. We went to some places on the Yuba river as well.