NC to OR on the TAT in my 4Runner

[unkamonkey]

It seems like you are having fun on this trip. I only went Vegas once and three days turned into six and I was willing to hitch hike home at that point. Harleys and rain, I've had to empty water out of my boots before after a ride. There are faces in them rocks, you need a few more beers or some of that medical stuff you got here in CO.. It must be me but I can see them without any help. My life is like that.

 

[SirWilliamGoes]

It seems like you are having fun on this trip. I only went Vegas once and three days turned into six and I was willing to hitch hike home at that point. Harleys and rain, I've had to empty water out of my boots before after a ride. There are faces in them rocks, you need a few more beers or some of that medical stuff you got here in CO.. It must be me but I can see them without any help. My life is like that.

Love it!!!!

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[SirWilliamGoes]

OK so I'm at the grand Canyon national park. Any off roading to get to a view of sunset and camp??

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[SirWilliamGoes]

So I'm at the visitor area before the GC National Park and I'm trying to decide if I should forgi the painted desert and go on up to see the other things on my map. I'm running short of time and if I went to the painted desert then it would be after flagstaff today and then turning around to come back this way. What's everyone's opinions??

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[SirWilliamGoes]

I'm writing you guys tonight from an RV and bus parking lot inside of the Desert View area of the Grand Canyon National Park one place that I have an awesome reception. I've traveled all this way to see a Sunset and was unable to see the sunset due to the weather so I guess I will have to wait until in the morning and try to catch a glimpse of the sunrise. The $30 that I paid at the front is good for 7 days so I think that I will be okay I should at least see one sunrise or Sunset before I leave the Grand Canyon Park area. This being said I'm heading out towards the Cameron area on Highway 64 that goes through the national park and I plan to catch a National Forest Service Road and try to catch a campground there. The drive was long today it took parts of Route 66 which was cool but where I stopped was rather touristy at the beginning in AZ today was mostley paved interstate which is boring and makes me sleepy as hell but it did go up some of the prettiest scenery that I've seen. The Grand Canyon is breathtaking and I cant wait to see noth rim tomrrow hopefully the weather is better Im really hoping to find some local off road guys that can give me some off road trails to take to get to camp sites for tomorrow. Thats my goal. I decided to forgo The Painted Desert in hopes that I will see the same scenery while going through the Grand Canyon. Also my route takes me up north towards Monument Valley and the Vermillion Cliffs and some other places that I said I would absolutely never miss. I was able to stop at a little spot outside the park and get some wings that were awesome, beer that was cold and full cell service. Here are some pics that I took from today. If anyone has any suggestions about off the grid areas or Off-road trails please let me know. Here is the just of where I'm heading. Now is the time I could use an experienced navigator.

I spent the morning traveling some off road areas around Meadview. Nothing major

Came across the natl geographic center that had these high dollar *** rocks!!!

Left to venture down some of the forest rds to see if I could somehow gain free access to the park and that's a no go!!!

Finally bit the bullet and paid the 30$ to go through and boy I'm glad I did.

I can't wait to see it with sunny clear Sky's!!

I came across these folks that j thought were the same folks someone had mentioned earlier in my trail. I stopped them and they speak 0 English!! We tried to talk by me pointing to the Trans Am Sticker on my truck. The gentleman read it and said he did Trans Africa Trail. I opened the back to try to show them that I was currently on the TAT. They did t get it. I really hate they didn't speak English because 1 they had a site in the full camp!!! I could have sleep in the truck next to them!!!! 2 the stories I bet are absolutely amazing!!

BTW a diesel Land Cruiser. IM IN LOVE!!!

I plan on working on my video for last week tonight hope to get it up tomorrow or Sunday so stay tuned. Till tomorrow!

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[SirWilliamGoes]

As promised, here is the latest video. I broke it down to 30 min vid and will finish week 4 today or tomorrow.

https://youtu.be/5NuweX3SEw4

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[94Wrangler]

Cool video! I guess you would have a lot of time to think while you've been gone. I'm not a mariner but I think that sub/boat thingy you saw was a life boat. It kinda looks like the life boat off the movie Capt. Phillips or whatever where the Somalis took over the tanker. Be safe!!

 

[SirWilliamGoes]

Whaaaaaasssssuuuuupppp!!!

DAY I think 27

I'm at Jacks sports bar outside if Zion NP which thanks for convincing me to go because it was cool. I hiked up the Canyon deal and then climed to the top of the highest part I could manage!! Wow it was great, unfortunately it was raining but it was still beautiful. Side not DC shoes great for skating, stunt bike riding, mountain bike rides and Harley riding not good for hiking. There were a couple of time I slipped on the sand on top of the rocks and almost felt as if I should tell tember because bless the poor people below me if I fall I'm taking them all out!!!

I campped in the truck last night and no one botored me which was great, either they didn't notice or didn't care but none the less I may try that again tonight!! I woke up at 430 to 35 degree temps and my tire light on. I was not that comfy due to the fact that I slept in the front seat so tonight I won't do that. Anyways I got up, chased the sunset between desert view and grand view and was able to catch a little bit

I checked the tires and they were not significantly low so I figured it was due to the drastic temp changes is why the light came on. I went to gas station to fill up with gas and air and the light went off, I rechecked and all was good so off I went. I decided to head towards camron and then to North rim to try to see the Canyon in the sun. On the way to Cameron I found some dirt Rd tracks and took them and I'm so glad I did. What and awesome Trail(s) and some great sights

From there I went into Cameron and had breakfast. Ever since the Grand sand dunes in Colorado where I had this boritto deal with green chili sauce I have been addicted. So I tried a breakfast burrito with it.

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[SirWilliamGoes]

DAY 27ish continued pic limit

So after breakfast I headed to North rim, on the way through the painted desert I found some blm and bla rds that I explored

This is a bad area for these horses!!

From there it was off to Vermilion Cliffs

I made my way to the north rim to find that it was closed!! Till next week so I ate a sandwich, and decided since it was snowing and crappy that I would head to Zion to camp instead of here.



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[SirWilliamGoes]

DAY 27 Continued again!!

So from there it was off to Zion

Now I'm at Jacks, and eating chips and salsa due to the fact you have to order food and beer not just beer!! But I'm glad I stopped here because I was talking with a guy that mountain bikes that's givin me some great rds to travel tomorrow and showed some of the views!! It will be ba k tracking to the north rim but based on what he said it should be awesome and I can camp around there and it's off road so hell's yeah!! Plus I'm almost done anyways. I haven't looked at a calendar but my only obligation is Bike Week and I'd like to have 3days or so for rest. Till tomorrow PEACE!!

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[galvyork]

I live about45 min from Zion and it's a great park. There is a ton of places to explore. Bryce canyon is pretty cool plus just driving dirt roads. I'm headed to Escalate this weekend. I have heard good things so we will see. Safe travels. Don

 

[SirWilliamGoes]

DAY 28

So I took the ride down to toroweap and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a long 60 mile Gravel Road that was pretty well-kept up up until the very end at about five miles where it got really dicey. As long as you have high clearance you will be ok. There is no cell phone signal so be prepared if you decide to go there and I only ran into one couple while I was there the whole time. I decided to hike around and view the different viewpoints since I could not come there because I did not have a Backcountry permit I determined that I would stay there for the day and try to hunt out the perfect place to watch the sunset. I found numerous different places that were just breathtaking. They all had various different views of the Colorado River and every single one of them was beautiful period after hiking around for a little while in the Sun and drinking a few beers I rearrange the truck and then determined that I was going to lay out on the picnic table on my sleeping bag and my pillow and kind of rest for a little while. Well a little wild turns into me falling asleep for about an hour. I woke up in time to still catch a glimpse of the sunset however I was unable to get the full thing and I was unable to get the pictures that I wanted although I did see quite enough of the sunset so it's okay. I've been travel down the trail about 8 to 10 miles to Mt. Trumble and campped on BLM land. I woke up in time to travel back up to the point to be able to watch the sun rise I was unable to get any good pictures just because the camera cannot capture all the different colors with the sun coming up in its viewfinder but I'm here to tell you that it was absolutely beautiful. My current situation is that I am back tracking to travel back to Zion Mountain School the reason is is because I found out last night that I left my debit card with them!! So I get to revisit Zion National Park yet again!!!! I am driving down the road and utilizing the talk to text feature on my phone there for some of this may not make sense or maybe misspelled I will proofread it later but I wanted to get these pictures to you guys so without further Ado here are the pictures of Toroweap

Went by pipe springs and saw these guys. Definitely a rig I would drive

Meanwhile mines not bad either!!

After Zion I'm going to head toward the staircase and I will probably get a room tonight simply because from climbing I'm sore mainy collarbone then I'm sunburned from falling asleep!! Till later Peace.

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[94Wrangler]

Awesome pics as usual. What type of camera are you using?

 

[SirWilliamGoes]

Awesome pics as usual. What type of camera are you using?

Ha-ha. My phone, Samsung. I'm trying to work out them replacing it since screen is broke for some of the pics. I haven't seen them on big screen but everyone likes the quality

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[SirWilliamGoes]

DAY 29

What's up guys, today I woke up hauled *** back up the mountains to see the sun rise. A hairpin kink in the Rd caught me by surprise making me loose control and run of the rd, lucky I was able to get back on Rd and nothing was damaged. I learned slow down when you can't see!!

I headed back to Zion where I picked up my card and asked about some water spots. He told me to check out pine Creek so I did!I hikes down to a little area with water where I could see a water fall, I hike over to it and then decided I would try to go for a dip. It wasn't shin deep b4 I realized it's WAY too cold for that

From there I headed to horseshoe Bend. By the way if your looking for this on Google they ha e the address confused with the military base in Alabama so be careful!!! I navigated to it by going to horseshoe Bend parking area. I did not realize that there was such an intense walk to view it!! Nonetheless it was absolutely worth the walk. What I will say is bring water, and be prepared for everyone around you speaking something other than English. Surprisingly I have come across many other languages on my trip making English the minority.

From there I decided that I would head to monument valley and hopefully catch a hotel since I am so sore from all the activities. If I was 100% from my accident then I'd be good. Unfortunately I didn't plan for accident therefore I didn't plan for all these hotels either. There is not much out here in monument valley and the rooms in the cities near here were high as giraffe (u know) so after not seeing nothing I decided to look for BLM land. Most all the land out here is owned by indians and it's apparent so you have to be careful where u camp. I found Valley of the Gods and went down the Rd off the main highway where I read a sign that said Rd impassable when wet, well there is a storm to the south but I think I should be good hopefully!!! I did find one other camper who's driving a Chevy 2500 with toy tailer and truck camper so I'm sure if I get stuck he would help hopefully!! I moved some stuff around for tonight's camping and hopefully I get good sleep. Here's the view

From here I will head towards the 4 corners then down to New Mexico and o. Rte 66. I'll be honest with you guys I'm ready to be home!! I miss my bed!!! I plan to be back around Saturday hopefully and then I will trade the 4runner in for a Harley and go to bike week. Question is should I continue the forum for bike week??

Here are SE pics from today's travels and monument valley

Man I was lucky to catch this at sunset. I can't wait to see the sunrise!! Till tomorrow. Peace!!

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