dickiedoo
New member
Hello,
I'm new to the EP world, so let me first start by saying hello and thank you. This place was amazingly helpful in planning our first ever real overland trip back in late 2020. With Covid going on, we hadn't been able to plan a real getaway, so I started looking for some domestic alternatives that would allow us to be outside, explore unknown places, and experience something unique.
Enter EP and the amazing write-ups, photos, and stories about Arizona's backcountry. I take a trip out to AZ every year for a few days of singletrack with the guys but never really considered camping, much less a week of overlanding. Well, after some research and many Youtube videos, we booked flights, rented an overland rig from Outdoorsy, and began planning what would be a very special trip.
After landing in AZ with what seemed like an insane amount of gear, we headed off to get the rig that would be our home for the next 6 days. We definitely overpacked, but after the horror stories of how cold and unpredictable AZ can be in late December, I didn't want to take any chances.
We went with a vehicle that we're very familiar with, as we have a JKU that spends quite a bit of time off-road back home. I will say that wheeling a vehicle with the added weight of a rack and RTT was a whole new experience and not one I'm planning on repeating anytime soon. *Overland trailer build thread in the making*
The rig at our obligatory first stop...
The best piece of advice I ever received from this group was to purchase the AZ Backroads and 4WD Trails book, and man did it pay off. We spent countless nights planning our routes and fallback plans. We had all these thoughts about "what if we can't find a place to stay?" or "what if it's just too damn cold?" so we had backup plans for backup plans. Secretly I was also trying to make sure we had at least one super special place we could visit while we were out there. Enter Schnebly Hill.
Our plan was to head just north of Pheonix, load up on supplies, and find a place to camp fairly early. I knew we'd need to find a location, learn to set up the tent, get working on a fire, and some dinner. Not to mention that we'd been up for nearly 20 hours by the time we ate dinner. Our first night landed us in BumbleBee, and it couldn't have been more perfect. Outside of some cattle and a few folks panning for gold down in a gulch below, we were all alone. It was fantastic.
We were hooked after our first night...despite it being a little chilly.
The morning was one of those IG-worthy experiences, and we sat in the tent watching the sun come up for at least an hour. We were also sort of waiting on it to warm up a bit, so this made for some great redneck TV.
The next day we ventured into the little town of BumbleBee and spent a few hours exploring backroads before heading up 17 to what would be the most memorable part of the trip.
Now, I've been to Sedona with my Father and brother years ago, but I was really too young to appreciate how truly special the place is. We'd seen all these amazing posts, videos, blogs, and articles about Schnebly Hill and the story of the city was too cool to pass up. I knew the trail wasn't too difficult based on the 457 hours of YT videos I watched over the Thanksgiving break but wasn't really sure if the top would be open for camping. Fortunately, we were in luck. As it turns out, there aren't many people looking to camp in December at 6500 ft of elevation. Being a native Georgian with limited exposure to high altitude camping, I'd later discover why.
Schnebly Hill didn't disappoint. We saw everything from the trains of pink Jeeps to 250K Sprinters running up and down the road. I was shocked at what types of vehicles people were willing to flog, but it made for a very entertaining day.
We made it to the top after a few hours of winding back and forth and managed to dink around until I found what could only be described as the perfect spot. Fortunately, there was some leftover wood and a stacked stone fire pit from the previous campers, so we quickly set up camp before the sunset and got a fire going. It was getting cold fast, and the wind was picking up.
We were perfectly perched upon a snow-sprinkled cliff, overlooking the incredible red rocks of Sedona, had a fire rolling, a secret bottle of champagne chilling, and nothing to do but watch the magic of the day coming to an end. Well, I had one sort-of important thing left to do.
It was just as I had imagined it playing out in my head a hundred times before. It was just us, beautiful, clear, and our location could not be more ideal.
OK, ok... it was also freaking cold, windy as all get out, and a bit daunting being perched on the edge of this cliff with snow and wet rocks all around, but that's what it's all about.
After nearly 6 years (yes, I said 6 years) of the wildest and mildest of experiences together, here we were. Tired, hungry, cold, slightly dirty, but happy and feeling accomplished. At the risk of falling off this massive ledge, we went out onto what was the furthest edge of the site to watch the sunset over Sedona's beautiful red rocks. I reached into my front pocket, got down on one knee, and pulled out the only super-tiny rock that could possibly get anyone's attention at that moment.
She said yes.
Turns out that the little Go-Pro I'd set up to capture the sunset happened to be a heck of a great recording of the proposal. I couldn't have asked for a better day. We spent the rest of the evening huddled up by the campfire, drinking champagne I'd stuffed into a snowbank about an hour earlier without her noticing.
Eventually, the temps dropped into the teens, the wind kicked up to 25mph gusts and we called it quits. What could only be described as one of the best days ever, quickly turned into the night from hell. While I'd done my homework, I neglected to factor in one critical part of this amazing campsite... the wind. The Jeep rocked back and forth, and the thick fabric walls of the tent buffeted angrily as the wind hit gusts came one after another. I stayed awake laying in bed that night thinking that I couldn't literally have rented a less-aerodynamic setup. We were essentially sleeping in a box strapped to a larger box facing directly into the wind, about 20 ft from a 400ft vertical drop. I literally didn't sleep, and not for all the wonderful reasons one would have imagined that night.
We spent the next day visiting the Prescott National Forest, Jerome, Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon before heading back down to warmer elevations. Our original plan was to camp the north rim of the GC, and we'd procured all of the proper permits to do so for a few days. After chatting with the local Rangers we quickly decided it wasn't a smart move given the road reports, forecasted high temps in the teens, and the remote location of the sites.
We spent the next few days exploring Black Canyon, Bloody Basin, Agua Fria, and other areas just north of Scottsdale and Cave Creek. It was much warmer, and equally as secluded. We fell in love with the Arizona backcountry, and the freedom this type of setup gave us.
Arizona showed off a bit on our last night in Bloody Basin.
We're back home now, and I'm in the process of building an offroad trailer so we can continue to run down the overlanding rabbit hole. I owe a lot of the success of this first trip to this community and the amazing contributors here. The advice and tips we received were amazingly helpful, and I can't thank you guys enough.
I'll be sure to post up when we hit the trails with our old/new Bantam Military trailer later this year.
I'm new to the EP world, so let me first start by saying hello and thank you. This place was amazingly helpful in planning our first ever real overland trip back in late 2020. With Covid going on, we hadn't been able to plan a real getaway, so I started looking for some domestic alternatives that would allow us to be outside, explore unknown places, and experience something unique.
Enter EP and the amazing write-ups, photos, and stories about Arizona's backcountry. I take a trip out to AZ every year for a few days of singletrack with the guys but never really considered camping, much less a week of overlanding. Well, after some research and many Youtube videos, we booked flights, rented an overland rig from Outdoorsy, and began planning what would be a very special trip.
After landing in AZ with what seemed like an insane amount of gear, we headed off to get the rig that would be our home for the next 6 days. We definitely overpacked, but after the horror stories of how cold and unpredictable AZ can be in late December, I didn't want to take any chances.
We went with a vehicle that we're very familiar with, as we have a JKU that spends quite a bit of time off-road back home. I will say that wheeling a vehicle with the added weight of a rack and RTT was a whole new experience and not one I'm planning on repeating anytime soon. *Overland trailer build thread in the making*
The rig at our obligatory first stop...
The best piece of advice I ever received from this group was to purchase the AZ Backroads and 4WD Trails book, and man did it pay off. We spent countless nights planning our routes and fallback plans. We had all these thoughts about "what if we can't find a place to stay?" or "what if it's just too damn cold?" so we had backup plans for backup plans. Secretly I was also trying to make sure we had at least one super special place we could visit while we were out there. Enter Schnebly Hill.
Our plan was to head just north of Pheonix, load up on supplies, and find a place to camp fairly early. I knew we'd need to find a location, learn to set up the tent, get working on a fire, and some dinner. Not to mention that we'd been up for nearly 20 hours by the time we ate dinner. Our first night landed us in BumbleBee, and it couldn't have been more perfect. Outside of some cattle and a few folks panning for gold down in a gulch below, we were all alone. It was fantastic.
We were hooked after our first night...despite it being a little chilly.
The morning was one of those IG-worthy experiences, and we sat in the tent watching the sun come up for at least an hour. We were also sort of waiting on it to warm up a bit, so this made for some great redneck TV.
The next day we ventured into the little town of BumbleBee and spent a few hours exploring backroads before heading up 17 to what would be the most memorable part of the trip.
Now, I've been to Sedona with my Father and brother years ago, but I was really too young to appreciate how truly special the place is. We'd seen all these amazing posts, videos, blogs, and articles about Schnebly Hill and the story of the city was too cool to pass up. I knew the trail wasn't too difficult based on the 457 hours of YT videos I watched over the Thanksgiving break but wasn't really sure if the top would be open for camping. Fortunately, we were in luck. As it turns out, there aren't many people looking to camp in December at 6500 ft of elevation. Being a native Georgian with limited exposure to high altitude camping, I'd later discover why.
Schnebly Hill didn't disappoint. We saw everything from the trains of pink Jeeps to 250K Sprinters running up and down the road. I was shocked at what types of vehicles people were willing to flog, but it made for a very entertaining day.
We made it to the top after a few hours of winding back and forth and managed to dink around until I found what could only be described as the perfect spot. Fortunately, there was some leftover wood and a stacked stone fire pit from the previous campers, so we quickly set up camp before the sunset and got a fire going. It was getting cold fast, and the wind was picking up.
We were perfectly perched upon a snow-sprinkled cliff, overlooking the incredible red rocks of Sedona, had a fire rolling, a secret bottle of champagne chilling, and nothing to do but watch the magic of the day coming to an end. Well, I had one sort-of important thing left to do.
It was just as I had imagined it playing out in my head a hundred times before. It was just us, beautiful, clear, and our location could not be more ideal.
OK, ok... it was also freaking cold, windy as all get out, and a bit daunting being perched on the edge of this cliff with snow and wet rocks all around, but that's what it's all about.
After nearly 6 years (yes, I said 6 years) of the wildest and mildest of experiences together, here we were. Tired, hungry, cold, slightly dirty, but happy and feeling accomplished. At the risk of falling off this massive ledge, we went out onto what was the furthest edge of the site to watch the sunset over Sedona's beautiful red rocks. I reached into my front pocket, got down on one knee, and pulled out the only super-tiny rock that could possibly get anyone's attention at that moment.
She said yes.
Turns out that the little Go-Pro I'd set up to capture the sunset happened to be a heck of a great recording of the proposal. I couldn't have asked for a better day. We spent the rest of the evening huddled up by the campfire, drinking champagne I'd stuffed into a snowbank about an hour earlier without her noticing.
Eventually, the temps dropped into the teens, the wind kicked up to 25mph gusts and we called it quits. What could only be described as one of the best days ever, quickly turned into the night from hell. While I'd done my homework, I neglected to factor in one critical part of this amazing campsite... the wind. The Jeep rocked back and forth, and the thick fabric walls of the tent buffeted angrily as the wind hit gusts came one after another. I stayed awake laying in bed that night thinking that I couldn't literally have rented a less-aerodynamic setup. We were essentially sleeping in a box strapped to a larger box facing directly into the wind, about 20 ft from a 400ft vertical drop. I literally didn't sleep, and not for all the wonderful reasons one would have imagined that night.
We spent the next day visiting the Prescott National Forest, Jerome, Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon before heading back down to warmer elevations. Our original plan was to camp the north rim of the GC, and we'd procured all of the proper permits to do so for a few days. After chatting with the local Rangers we quickly decided it wasn't a smart move given the road reports, forecasted high temps in the teens, and the remote location of the sites.
We spent the next few days exploring Black Canyon, Bloody Basin, Agua Fria, and other areas just north of Scottsdale and Cave Creek. It was much warmer, and equally as secluded. We fell in love with the Arizona backcountry, and the freedom this type of setup gave us.
Arizona showed off a bit on our last night in Bloody Basin.
We're back home now, and I'm in the process of building an offroad trailer so we can continue to run down the overlanding rabbit hole. I owe a lot of the success of this first trip to this community and the amazing contributors here. The advice and tips we received were amazingly helpful, and I can't thank you guys enough.
I'll be sure to post up when we hit the trails with our old/new Bantam Military trailer later this year.
