Pre & Post Expo trip 2015

[kai38]

We've all heard stories about the rain & mud at Expo, (it was a learning experience)
But here's our pre & post Expo trip report.

We left El Paso, TX 3 days before expo, 1 from San Antonio Tx, 1 from El Paso Tx & 1 from Santa Teresa NM
All Toyotas all towing trailers.
Along the way we picked up a Jeep from Deming NM and another Land Cruiser from Calgary Canada joined us at the 1st evenings camp site along Cherry Creek rd in AZ

Cherry Creek Rd runs almost along side the Desert to Pine scenic road in AZ, crosses a few washed out areas and a lot of very scenic areas with some hidden cliff dwellings in the area.

After traversing this area we crossed 260 and picked up Rim Rd 300 one of my favorite AZ drives.
We stopped at the rest stop and meet Mr Leary and his friend Roger from TX, they had been out on the road a few days also enroute to Expo, they spent the night with us at N34 20.588 W110 59.311 I had crossed this area last Sept and checked out a few campsites. It was a little too windy along the edge so we moved across the street for the evening.

In the morning Mr Leary & Roger left early and we headed across the rim road

Along the way we passed a few other rigs in route to Expo also, stopped and chatted then countuined.
We arrived at Expo Thursday, while it was still dry set up camp, headed out for showers and to explore Flagstaff.
That night it started to rain, then snow, and you've heard the stories
By Saturday we decided to run to dry ground and went to Pine Grove camp ground along Lake Mary road.
Nice to have hot showers and toilets, we were now glamping for the evening.

Drying out

Sunday morning we all went into Flagstaff to hit the car wash and meet up at Wal-Mart to restock.
We now dropped of one Jeep and picked up another with friends from CA, with 2 small kids.
After fueling up and restocking we headed to the North Rim
After crossing the Navajo Bridge we turned into the dirt to a campsite along the rim of the canyon before it becomes the National Park at N36 46.585 W111 39.552

Badger Creek camp site room for 5-6 trucks, 1st come 1st serverd and we got there at the right time.

 

[yabanja]

Subscribed!!

Allan

 

[kai38]

After a chilly night along the edge of the canyon we headed back to 89-ALT to another dirt road leading to other points along the canyon at N36 34.086 W111 49.318

The views were also great and a bonus was we didn't see another person all day long

From there we headed across to Buffalo Ranch rd heading west to Kaibab National Forest and Crazy Jug Point
We followed the GPS which sometimes gets a mind of its own and routed us thru roads and trails with fallen trees which we had to clear. With day light burning we decided to stop for the evening in an open field. It started to rain with mixed snow on us as soon as we st up our RTT and an OZ tent.
We stood around talking for awhile and retreated to our own tents to read and or watch movies.
Next morning after an overnight low of 21 degrees

We decided to go old school and use paper maps to get us over to Crazy Jug.
After looking and ohhing n ahhing at the awesome views we headed to another favorite campground at the AZ/UT border for 2 days to relax and dry out where we also were met by another friend in a Land Rover from Albq. N37 00.082 W112 02.116 and the friend from Canada headed home.

 

[kai38]

The Arizona Traverse backpacking trail ends in this campsite and a woman just finished her hike from the AZ/MX border to the AZ/UT border, she had dinner with us and shared stories of solo hiking across AZ with us.
3lbs bacon rolled up into a can for breakfast

 

[kai38]

After 2 days of relaxing and drying out we headed to UT, up Cottonwood Canyon to view Grosvenor Arch and over to Willis Creek, a small easy to access slot canyon
N37 28.983 W112 05.824

 

[kai38]

After Willis Creek we headed to Hell's Backbone.
We stopped at a campground on the road and saw bear boxes so we were now having to put food and cook ware away at night while dispersed camping
I just happen to have this in my truck from a trip to Alaska a few years ago

We were now down to 3 rigs, the family headed to a hotel room for the night and would meet us in the morning.

From Hell's Backbone we headed to Burr Trail and a side road called Wolverine Petrified Wood Area a nice loop that re-connects to Burr Trail
From there we headed towards Lake Powell and a look out point Halls Creek Lookout Point N37 43.068 W110 55.822 that was a planned over night camp spot but it was too early to stop for the night.

We countuined to N37 50.967 W110 39.692 Star Springs campgrounds for the evening.

 

[kai38]

In the morning we meet up again with our friends with small kids that got a room for the night. Good idea it rained and was windy all night again and we headed to Natural Bridges NM

Another rainy day

The original plan and route was going to take us from Nat.Bridges across the dirt on Elk Mn Rd to Comb Ridge then back across on Snow Flat rd to 261 and down to Moki Dugway
We ran for warmer climate in Moab for 2 days

 

[kai38]

After two days in Moab we headed back to finish parts of the origanil route, now we were back down to 3 rigs, the same that started out from El Paso, TX 2 weeks ago
We headed towards Moki Dugway and took a side road to the right before heading down the cut backs towards Muley Point Overlook, well worth the drive, much better views then Gooseneck State Park and it's free N37 14.078 W109 59.563

 

[kai38]

Great trip, good people that joined us and shared stories.
We were very lucky at the beginning of the trip and at at the end of the trip we had two trailer failures with no injuries
Everyone pitched in to help when both accidents happened
One we were able to get the trailer back on the road and the 2nd which happened right outside Gooseneck State Park

After waiting for a wrecker to come for the trailer we had a good dinner in Mexican Hat UT

And headed home the next day to plan the next trip

 

[yabanja]

Awesome! We crossed paths several times...... Thank you for the great pictures and report! My mouth is watering from all that bacon!

Allan