5 Months - 20,000 miles - An Adventure West - The Pancho and Lefty Expedition

[guthriealexander]

Google Map of the route, not sure if I can embed here.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=z4wwrdZru6n8.kwmXXu5-dj18

You can find my build thread here!
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...ne-but-Good-Enough-for-Government-Work”-Build

Without spending the next month of my life trying to develop a narrative around this trip, I will just keep it to the basics here and just attempt to show how beautiful and amazing the American West is. Hopefully I can flesh it out over time.

My basic goals for this trip were.

1) Have fun.
2) Hike as much as possible.
3) Meet up with friends.
4) Investigate potential areas to move to.

I left Comanche Texas on March 1st with the plan to make it to the Pacific Northwest before it started to snow.

Anytime you start a long trip a million questions go through your mind. Do I have everything, am I prepared, what if something goes wrong, do I even really want to do this. I think doubt like that is common and just part of the excitement of trying to start something new. As it was with this trip as I left Comanche and started the long drive towards Big Bend National Park.



Big Bend National Park











Guadalupe National Park - I have been to Guadalupe probably more than any other National Park, but have never climbed the peak. I meant to change that this time. My parents who were on their spring break vacation decided to join me, they climbed Guadalupe peak in 1985, and wanted to give it another go 30 years later. It took them longer but they made it. They will join me for about a week and a half off and on thru the Gila.











Lincoln National Forest - Coming north out of Guadalupe and west of Carlsbad, the forest road that leads along the edge of the escarpment has a few nice views but is mostly a 90 mile rough road with little reward. Unfortunately both Sitting Bull Falls and Dog Canyon were closed while I was in the area.




White Sands- An easy and pretty spot along some pretty desolate highway in southern New Mexico as I made my way to the Gila.




The Gila National Forest is probably my favorite place in New Mexico its huge, wild and diverse.







Took the long way north along forest road 150 and up to Alpine AZ to go down 191, ending in the Gila Box riparian area.

Gila Box- In the southwest, when they say roads are impassable when wet, they really mean it, glad I brought traction mats.

 

[guthriealexander]

Chiricahua National Monument- Really caught me off guard, what a cool place, really enjoyed everything about it.





Mt. Wrightson- Range just south of Tucson.





At the summit.



Saguero-




Phoenix- I knew the axles were going to need some work before this trip started, just didnt know when, Phoenix was the answer. Had a really good experience with Mike at Desert Toyota Shop.









Apache Trail- Took the Apache Trail out of Pheonix





Mogollon Rim- Wanted to drive across the Mogollon rim road (Forest road 300 I think) but it was closed halfway thru for "winter"





Sycamore Canyon-




Prescott/Flagstaff (First Time)-

 

[guthriealexander]

Grand Canyon- First big hike of the trip Rim to Rim to Rim in 1 day. 45 miles in 16 hours and 45 minutes!










Exausted and dark at the end.



Humphries- My first attempt at the highest peak in Arizona, much to early in the year to try. Met up with a buddy hiking the Arizona Tral.









Grand Staircase- Worked my way into southern Utah via Grand Staircase Escalante and Cottonwood canyon road.











Bryce-







Camp in the Nat Forest just outside of Bryce Entrance!



Zion- In Zion on a whim I decided to do the 47 mile Zion traverse Andrew Skurka has popularized. And would be meeting some hiking buddies later who were running the Zion 100k ultra marathon.









Camp at Smithsonian Butte, just south of Zion.

 

[guthriealexander]

And of course had to do the Narrows.





Drove thru the Dixie Nat Forest on my way to Capitol reef. Cool to see snow so close to Zion which was already pretty hot!









Got a little lost off the Burr Trail and ended up down Horse Canyon, one of the best drives of the trip!





Took the scenic route thru Capitol Reef thru Cathedral Valley.


Canyonlands- Took Poison Springs road, across the Dirty Devil River into Glen Canyon and finally the Maze district of Canyonlands. This section of Glen Canyon is managed by Canyonlands and you are subject to ALL the same regulations. Just keep that in mind.





I scraped on one too many washouts and started to rip apart my moto carrier!


Horseshoe Canyon Unit Canyonlands







Moab is a cool town, but much to busy for my taste, and free camping is really hard to find. Spent most of my time out by Willow Springs road (the old entrance to Arches)




Little hint, if you need to stay in town, the hostel will let you camp for 8 bucks, thats with use of all facilities, less than half a standard primitive site goes for in the area!




Arches



Natural Bridges

 

[guthriealexander]

Lees Ferry





Buckskin Gulch



St. George





Vegas





Everglades and Keys- Hopped on a plane from Vegas to Florida for a week, but its OK i borrowed a Jeep!







Back to Vegas I went straight to Death Valley.





And climbed the highest peak in the park, Telescope Peak.


Saw a sign for Kennedy Meadows driving south on 385 and had to go relive some PCT days.

Kern River


Sequoia Nat Forest





Getting close to Overland Expo time I started working my way back towards Flagstaff, via the Mojave Road.

 

[guthriealexander]

Stopped thru Prescott again.










Granite Peak.


Sycamore Rim Trail



Tried and failed again to climb Humphries.



And made it to Snowverland!





Met some friends from home who rode from Texas.





Then we decided to see if we could make it to the Grand Canyon only on dirt roads.



Lots of late season snow in Colorado and New Mexico so I tried to stay to lower elevations.





By the end of May, I was really wanting to change up the interior layout of the Cruiser. And as much as I liked having the bike around I was worried about some of the high passes in Colorado. So I drove back to Texas for a week, cut my bike carrier off and welded a quick and dirty Jerry can holder.

 

[guthriealexander]

On the way back to Colorado I wanted to check out a few places I have always driven by but never stopped.

Caprock Canyons State Park in Texas


Capulin Volcano


Really like the Spanish Peak area of Colorado, I have spent time here Elk Hunting but never just exploring and hiking.



Great Sand Dunes


I'm obviously doing this whole overlanding thing wrong. Mazda 5 with custom storage is the way to go. (at the Great Sand Dunes Visitor Center)




Central Colorado









Cinnamon Pass







Met up with yet some more hiking buddies on the CDT in Chama NM. The snow was too high in the San Juans, so we decided to do a western tour of CO! After beer and pizza of course.





Black Canyon




Dinosaur Nat Monument




Devils Causeway in the Flat Tops Wilderness








Rocky Mountain National Park- No crowds if you walk 15 miles thru the snow.

 

[guthriealexander]

Spent 8 days in Denver visiting friends and really trying to get a feel for the town.

Sunset on Sloans Lake.


Picked up another good friend at the Denver airport who would travel with me for almost two weeks on the way to Salt Lake City where he would fly out.



Popo Agie Falls


The Wind River Range is spectacular and I will need to come back and hike as much of it as I can.

Sandy Basin




Almost to titcomb basin


Did both the Wyoming and Idaho side of the Tetons













And the tourist circuit in Yellowstone

 

[guthriealexander]

Salt Lake

Boise

Above Redfish Lake in Idaho in the Sawtooths





Up to Glacier where crowds and fires kept me to the outskirts of the park.








Roosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars- Kinda far to drive for trees, but I love old growth.


Spent the 4th of july on the 8 hour ferry back and forth to Stehekin WA just to go to the bakery!




Fires buring along lake Chelan.


Highway 20 thru the north Cascades to Seattle.






Friends in Seattle already had permits for a few days in the Enchantments, so I tagged along.




Coalchuk Lake


Stewart Lake


And went sport climbing for the first time ever at exit 38, west of Seattle.

 

[guthriealexander]

Olympics

I had a friend from Seattle join me for the Olympics, he has a brand new baby and could only stay for one night, so unfortunately I missed some some of the northern areas of the park. We did get to do the Hoa river trail though thru the rainforest which was just spectacular.









Del Ray Beach in Oregon was a bit more inviting than the olympic coast.



Hung out in Bend for a few days and did some local hikes including the Green Lakes Trail






East Oregon

Sunset at Dixie Lookout





The Wallowas are really cool mountains in far eastern Oregon, granite, glacier carved, just not what you would expect emerging out of the high desert. Joseph OR sits right in the center of it all, seemed to be a really neat place. The rodeo was in town when I was there so it was busy, but seemed pretty touristy otherwise.










By now im about 5 months into the trip. I am tired, the land cruiser is tired. I still have a good 2 months of good weather left, but I felt like I needed some down time to plan out my next move.

 

[guthriealexander]

And now im tired at looking at the computer, I will try and flesh out some more details of the trip in the following days and answer any questions anyone might have!

 

[fortel]

Nice photos, looks like a great trip. Your pics of Humphrey's Peak makes me want to get back out to Flagstaff again, it's one of my favorite towns anywhere.

 

[Maxcustody]

Wow, what an awesome trip and pictures!!!

Sent from my Roof Top Tent

 

[safariguy]

You are THE MAN. Thanks for including us in your amazing journey.

 

[dbtx]

Epic. So many places that I have been wanting to visit...