My life is an adventure, 2000 Suburban is the vessel

[CrazyDrei]

I'm quite impressed with what you have done to and where you have taken the Burn,,,well. Done. Lots of places to see around Vegas. Did you record the Alaska trip?? That would be very close to the top of my bucket list. In a Burb. Even better

Bearwoodbrown,

Thank you. We have had many adventures in my Sub and have many more to come. I did do a really good picture and log for my first trip to Alaska in a 1996 Nissan Pathfinder however I did not document my last trip to Alaska in the Sub nearly as much. Here is pretty much the only picture I can find of the Sub and our little Tee-Pee camper in Soldatna Alaska.

Camping on the side of the road somewhere is Alaska.

Our hard sided pop-up camper on the Homer Spit.

We are supposed to drive up to Alaska again next summer, I will take more pictures and document it better than the last trip. This summer I might be driving up to Happy Valley or Goose Bay in Newfoundland, will get plenty of pictures from that adventure.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Day trip: Hoover Dam trails.

Couple of my friends convinced me to get out for a half a day adventure to explore some fun and easy trails south of the Hoover Dam but before the paved access road to Willow Beach AZ in the Lake Mead NRA.

First trail was Horse Thief Canyon which the Park Service closes in the summer to vehicles.

Entrance to the trail.

White Rock Canyon Bridge

Another angle of the historic White Rock Canyon Bridge in the foreground, this was the original route of the first Rt 93 connecting Las Vegas to Phoenix.

Dry waterfall at the end of Horse Thief Canyon

Two miles down the road we found another 3-4mile long trail named Black Joe Mine, which had three sets of railroad tie road blocks each of which lead to the actual mines. We did not hike to any of the mines. Drove to the end, turned around and came back to pavement.

The last trail we explored was the Old Ranger Station Rd which lead within 1/2 mile of the Colorado River.

At the end of the 4x4 trail there was a 1/2 mile hike to the water and ended up at the old River Guagers House site.

Foundation of the old house.

Looking upstream.

Looking downstream.

View of the site from 200ft above on the ridge.

Kids had a blast climbing through the rocks on the trail.

Another boulder that blocked the trail.

View up the trail at the boulders 100ft from the vehicle parking area.

This was a great short trip with a really fun hike at the end of a trail to the beautiful Colorado River.

 

[Sierra Valley]

Sierra Valley,

The pictures are up and working well from what I can tell. Try pressing Ctrl + F5. That will do a hard refresh and should re-load all the pictures.

So Odd I cannot see them. This website has gone down hill that is forsure. UGH. There are other threads I cant see either now.

 

[SirWilliamGoes]

Great trip so far!! Im upset that my rock with #USAONDIRT sticker is no longer at the Mojave Rock Pile ? Awesome trip and I look forward to following along

 

[BigAl]

The house location was a good choice!

 

[CrazyDrei]

The house location was a good choice!
View attachment 520232

BigAl,

Yeah, it sure it, but getting there back when they were building the dam was quite and adventure, well worth the view waking up to this every morning.


This is the view of the canyon leading to the water and the easiest path to the foundation of the building.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Day Trip: Chloride AZ and Roy Purcell Murals

Had 1/2 a day to kill so I took the kids for a drive up a trail I have had my eye on for over six months. We followed Big wash Rd just north of Grasshopper Junction 2,000ft up into the mountains. It was by far the most enjoyable drive I have done in a long time. THe trail ran along a ridge overlooking both the wilderness and the valley and Chloride AZ below.

BLM rd maintenance ended and the trail became fun, narrow and super twisty.

Pretty cool mine along the trail where the kids got to climb around and explore.

We continued down the trail passing a couple of side by sides and a built Jeep, everyone looked at us in disbelief that a Suburban can manage this trail. All of a sudden the trail flattened out and saw this!

These murals are larger than life.

Roy Purcell painted these murals in 1960s.

These are huge murals, the talons are 3-4feet long.

Boys standing next to a medium size mural.

Native American themed art.

These have been continuously restored and up kept since 1960s.

One of the bigger murals

Just to give you a perspective of the size.

Rod of Asclepius?

Incorporating symbols.

Roy likes the serpent.

Hard to see in this picture by there are foot prints all over the murals, like the red one to the left of the male/female symbols.

Highest in elevation mural.

We continued approximately one more mile and reached the mining town of Chloride AZ.

Entire town is sort of an open air freelance art museum and a throwback to the past.

I filled up my tires in front of this former gas station house that has a narrow gauge rail road running completely around it. 3 minutes per tire from 17psi to 45psi, not too bad for a little Puma.

Once again an amazing trip with a very special surprise at the end. I would recommend this trail for anyone that is passing through the area, if not the entire Big Wash Rd loop but at least the easy road to the murals.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Snow play.

A lot of the country is getting snow and even Las Vegas got a few inches, the trails are calling. My buddy just put on a light bar on his 4Runner and really wanted to see how well it works. We did an afternoon evening trip up and down a 47 mile trail, totaling just under 95 miles in the dirt, 20 of which were in the snow.

Both of our trucks at the Mormon Well along the Mormon Wells Rd.

One of the kids playing in the snow.

2-4" of fresh snow settled to 1-2"

 

[CrazyDrei]

Enough snow, heading over to the sand dunes.

We had a little bit of snow in Vegas so I went up to 8,500ft to play, it was fun but a little on the colder side, so it's time to head back down to 2,000ft and warm back up in the sand dunes.

My buddy with a 2015 4Runner joined me, he really enjoyed the still damp sand and 10psi in his tires.

Recent rains kept the sand pretty firm and made it extremely enjoyable driving down the windblown cornices.

Another angle of coming down the leeward side of the tiny little dune.

This is the view from the highest peak that you can drive to in the Nellis Sand Dunes area. Surprisingly there was no one else in this part of the OHV area.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Day Trip: Bonelli Bay, Bonelli Landing, Cohenour Loop Rd

Temple Bar area of Lake Mead is a relatively remote part that does not get nearly as much traffic as it deserves. I decided to do a half day adventure that as usual turned into a full day ordeal after we finished exploring all the trails I have never been on and revisited old ones. Water level has been decreasing significantly especially due to the last two years being much dryer than usual. We were able to drive parts of the lake that I have scuba dove within the last five years.

We explored the Bonelli Landing area which is on the way to Temple Bar. This sign has been gratified and I used some Photoshop to bring it back to it's partial former glory.

Despite the wind and overcast day, the water was much warmer than expected especially if you do not get out of your vehicle.

Kids are fearless and do not understand the concept of cold water is cold.

Surprisingly huge amount of sea shells on this beach.

Best part of this camera is that it makes an overcast gloomy day look like we are at a Bahamas photo shoot.

Now just the Sub.

Locals did not appreciate us disturbing the peace and quiet of the area on our way to the next trail.

We are in Bonelli Bay, last time I was in this area I used a boat and a scuba tank to get down to this spot.

Fun and easy trail that runs for approximately three miles then splits off into a five to seven mile loop.

There have always been inhabitants in the Colorado River Valley long before Europeans sailed across the ocean and came out west.

Petroglyphs

More petroglyphs.

And the last rock that I hiked to before returning back to the truck.

More locals. Free grazing this time, could be one of Bundy's cattle.

Last stop where I actually took pictures. It's a short approximately three mile long trail off the main loop.

It's difficult to capture how high you really are on top of a big hill.

Looking down and out towards Lake Mead.

Other side of the panorama.

Great trip, covered a lot of miles int eh dirt, found several great places I have never been to before. A thunderstorm rolled in so we boogied out to the main drag not to be caught up in it. Will be revisiting this area in the near future to finish time lapse videos of couple more trails I did not have time to do on this trip.

 

[Regcabguy]

First trip through the desert

First outing and adventure in the Apex Dunes area after 37" tires went on.

We did approximately 100 miles, 20 miles of "overlanding" through open desert, 10 miles of playing in the sand dunes and 70 miles of dirt trails of varying degrees of difficulty. The truck did well, front rub a little with full suspension articulation, no rub in the rear.

First venture off the trail, 12.5 and 13.5 wide foot print at 35psi kept the truck afloat in the open desert, it rained a few days before the outing and my feet sank 1-2" into the sand every time I stepped out. Truck sank 2-4" into the sand most of the adventure.

It went everywhere I pointed it without any hesitations.

This was a steep ravine that I dropped into just to see how it handles the more technical terrain.

Front right tire sank 8-10" into the sand here, this is where it rubbed with suspension articulation and would definitely rub if I tried to steer.

Little bit of fun in the sand, floated great with a wide footprint.

Truck ran great with the big tires and went through every obstacle I pointed it at, couple more tweaks before the next adventure.

Have you upgraded the braking system?

 

[CrazyDrei]

Have you upgraded the braking system?

Regcabguy,

Yes, well kind of. I went to bigger front rotors and brake pads. Upgraded to the 2007 Tahoe front brakes, kept the rears the same and kept vacuum assist rather than upgrading to hydroboost. I can lock up all four wheels on backtop and that's plenty of power for me.

2000 Suburban K1500 budget low lift with 37"s

Thank you for that informative write up Mr Crazy. I have to say you really put your rig through some serious abuse. I am looking forward to seeing the new suspension set up when you get that ready and installed. Keep your truck running and rocking. Cheers, Chilli..:cool: Chilli, Too many...

www.expeditionportal.com

Link to the install of the bigger brakes.

 

[Umnak]

really enjoy seeing our adventures with the Suburban and kids. Keep it up.

 

[CrazyDrei]

really enjoy seeing our adventures with the Suburban and kids. Keep it up.

Thank you,

I will post more later this week and will keep them coming as long as I can.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Day Trip: Amargosa Big Dune and Chloride Cliffs Death Valley

Weather is getting awfully nice to explore the desert and surprisingly the Sub is running like a champ, so we go out and explore. This time we went back to the sand dunes at Amargosa Big Dune where for the last year I have been eyeing the top of Competition Hill and really wanted to figure out a way to get the Sub all the way to the top.

We stopped by the Area 51 Alien Center to get gas and random souvenirs.

Next door was a brothel, can you venture a guess which state we are in?

The desert is full of roadside attractions like this world's largest firecracker to draw the tourists off the road and give them a welcome break from driving.

Life is hard when you have to figure out which toys to use at the dunes...

Boys did not hesitate to jump into the RZR.

After couple attempts I finally made it to the top of Competition Hill! Toddlers were having way too much fun as we were attempting to make it all the way up and were highmarking.

Jeep eventually made it up and my buddy is showing off in his RZR.

Jeep attempted to keep up with the RZRs and nearly rolled down a 400ft dune, he ended up backing down in reverse.

400lbs of skid plates and heavy duty bumpers and he's buried in sand. RZRs didn't attempt recovery, Sub pulled him out effortlessly.

3 year old's competition hill!

We got bored of the sand and decided to do a 40 mile each way trail ride into Death Valley to the area known as Chloride Cliff.

We are at 5,230 feet above sea level, yet 5,400ft above the valley floor below.

Top of Chloride Cliff.

No angle from the ground can capture exactly how high we are.

My buddies light up buggy whip.

Not a common sight to see a Suburban at the end of this trail (Jeep did not want to attempt and parked 1/2 down the trail) but also a Suburban with a sand whip.

We went back to the sand dunes, took a different trail which involved following an old railroad track and played around the dunes a little longer before calling it a night and heading back home. Great trip and several more milestones checked off the list.