Traversing the US (and back)

[jessejman]

Day 17: Skyline Drive to Strawberry Peak



I was sitting, here at this vista, pondering which of the four trails to take when this guy pulls up on an ATV.



I am by no means tall at 5,8 and yet I appear a dwarf in these photos.



Look at how far I have to crane my head up to look him in the eye. The man was very nice and helped us figure out which way to go. We found that every time we asked for directions they would give us the quickest way to get out of the woods. That wasn't the case this time, though later found out that we did miss a pretty spectacular off road section. That ATV is about as big as our Land Cruiser, by the way.





The road had recently been very rough and so saw some attention by a dozer but it soon turned back into umolested, natural trail.

 

[jessejman]

Day 17: Skyline Drive to Strawberry Peak



The trail quickly narrowed an became nothing more than an overgrown ATV trail. We had to move some deadfall a time or two and we were very nervous that these small trails would simply peter-out, become non-existent.



The route finding was extremely difficult through here. I would recommend buying the USFS recreational maps of any areas you are going to. The Gazetteers and GPS just aren't enough in places where there are tons of trails and no signage.



It is hard to tell from the photos just how narrow this path is. Lots of pin-striping going on.



This area remains one of the most navigationally challenging, devoid of people and jaw-droppingly beautiful areas of our trip.

 

[jessejman]

Day 17: Skyline Drive to Strawberry Peak



The sun was baking us and it was hot even at elevation, so we became creative with the sun-reflectors. Often one of these reflectors was rolled up into our youngests window in order to provide her shade. Other times we used it in the front window or in my window with the window open so that we had air moving through, but a thermal barrier in place.







Dropping down into Wallsburg



and then into Heber City.

 

[Wainiha]

And...

I guess you're still writing this thread?

Very entertaining. I would love a long trip like that. There is so much of this country I haven't seen.

 

[jessejman]

Days 18 - 24

I am slowly still writing this. We returned last night from a nice weekend exploring northern alabama in an area I've been going to since I could drive. It was a great weekend and we tested out the waterproofness of our tent in the deluge Saturday morning. We did miss the Southern Overland Rally which was a bummer but I had to work but I had to work at a camp on Friday. I'm looking forward to reading about all the good stuff that went on there.

Back to the trip: Days 18 - 25 were spent in Salt Lake City. We stayed with my good friend Richard. I try to make it out once a year to climb with him but two years had passed since I'd been out there. The last time I went out I spent a week, summited two peaks in the area, tore up carpet in his condo and put in solid bamboo flooring with only a circular saw and my tool-belt. But that's a different story. This trip I managed to get in some epic mountain bike rides, we summited Lone Peak (an undertaking) and I put in and painted baseboards in the condo - using only a circular saw. My family was mostly able to relax, although, my wife helped with the prepping and painting of the baseboards.



Richard, has a pool and we spent a lot of time there even though the old-folks in the building



didn't really appreciate our sort. The Cruiser wouldn't fit in the garage so we attracted lots of attention at the street. Some serious sun-bathing going on here.





Fashion show produced by putting on all clothes from the the clothes boxes. He also had a large TV and it was a big hit. Not having one at home, we were surprised at all the great learning opportunities we were missing from programs like Ice-Road Truckers and Swamp People. We decided we really needed to get one at home and spend money on tons of channels. We really have been depriving our children.

I'm trying to get my buddy to send me the few photos from Lone Peak.

 

[jessejman]

Day 25: SLC to City of Rocks, Idaho



The plan was to leave mid-morning. Didn't happen. And then meet my parents in City of Rocks mid-afternoon. Didn't happen. They flew to Bend, rented a Jeep and drove to meet us in Utah in order to drive back to Bend with us on our route.






We spent three hours cruising at top speeds (still quite slow) on these nice gravel roads. These photos are near the Golden Spike Railway Monument. The road is paved almost all the way from Brigham City to the Golden Spike but turns to nice graded gravel just before or after the monument. I can't remember exactly. It's a lonely and devoid-of-life area. Also it was hot. We blazed through and had deadline for the first time of our trip. Have to meet the parents sometime today or they won't have a tent. Oh, and meet up with them whilst neither of us have cell service. Good luck!

 

[jessejman]

Day 25: SLC to City of Rocks, Idaho

Gravel - Salt flats - gravel - and then some small trails attempting to cross through the mountain range to the south of City of Rocks. On googemaps it appears that there are a number of unmarked trails that go up and through this range - and they are quite significant. But we were not able to cross through. Didn't happen; we didn't even get close and didn't have a lot of time to look for alternate routes. We ended up on a nice grave road: Dove Creek Rd.

 

[jessejman]

Day 25: SLC to City of Rocks, Idaho

We were glad to be back on the road and out of the city. It was hard to leave the air conditioning and the pool at Richard's condo but we knew we had to and we do better in the open spaces.





Up Dove Creek Road and north toward Idaho. None of us had ever been to Idaho before.




Big country here. You can spot the road descending the valley in the center of the photo. We needed the downhill as the engine temp had steadily increased as we climbed the pass.



We crossed into Idaho and about twenty minutes later we passed these guys waiting for us on the side of the road.

 

[jessejman]

Day 25: SLC to City of Rocks, Idaho

Somehow, without cell service we were able to meet my parents even though we were hours late. I had managed to get a text through letting them know that we were going to be late but to wait at City of Rocks entrance. What I didn't know was that there were four entrances. They picked the most logical one and waited and waited. But we were very late and they had driven around to some of the other entrances and were just arriving back at the most logical one when I went driving past them. For some reason I was looking for a red 4-door Jeep. Luckily my wife spotted them. After almost a month away from home, my kids were ecstatic to see them.




After meeting my parents and quickly catching up we cruised into the City of Rocks. I somewhat knew what to expect from my small amount of research in googlemaps but the area was much more interesting than I was expecting. I think it was a Friday and as it turned out, this place was much more popular than I had thought. There wasn't a single open campsite in the entire place! We'd had a long day and the kids were eager to get out of the car but we had no where to stop. I was getting frustrated and feeling foolish for not having a place planned out for us to stay. We climbed high up into the forest north of the actual Preserve hoping to find a place to boon-dock but there were signs driven into every available level area of ground anywhere adjacent to the road.



Growing more and more aggravated - ok, I was angry at this point, I decided to head out of the park. I was bummed that we couldn't camp in the presence of those random white monoliths of granite that make up the city. I was angry that we couldn't wake up and let the kids climb around on the boulders.



Thankfully, not far outside of the park we found a nice pull off next to a spring and made camp. It was decent though right on the road and I'm sure it was private property.

 

[jessejman]

Day 26: City of Rocks to Jarbridge, NV

Here a few maps of what we trying to accomplish. We erred from the original plan but much for the better. The next three days were the most remote, rugged and incredible of the whole journey so I wanted to break the maps up in as much detail as possible. It was an amazing traverse of the desert and we had no company whatsoever.

Overview of the day:



Part 1: Up Trapper Creek, Oakley to Rogerson



Part 2: Rogerson to Jarbridge

 

[Foy]

OK, here we go.........

Been looking forward to this stretch for weeks now! Go for it!

Foy

 

[jessejman]

Day 26: City of Rocks to Jarbridge, NV

Navigation for this section was fairly straight forward. In the Trapper Creek area there were tons of atv trails and we could have made our trip through this section more adventurous by finding some of these trails. Alas, we didn't have time to explore away from our planned route. It was a great area and worth spending some time in.
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Heading northwest from City of Rocks we hit the small town of Oakley gas and groceries. The next known gas was two days and more than three-hundred miles away so we filled up the extra tanks. Also I had no idea what the range of the Jeep my Dad was driving. I assumed it had to better or on par with our guzzler.



Out of Brush Creek Canyon and into Oakley. Through the window is the grocery store. It was small but decently stocked. We bought some cheap steak and they even had doughnuts!



Not much going on in the town for a Saturday(I think) morning.



Then on to Trapper Creek Road and past this Reservoir where most of the town looked to be.



The National Forest greeting party awaited us at the entrance to the forest.
The lower portion of this area was very dry, white and chalky.



But that changed as we gained elevation and the valleys constricted.

 

[jessejman]

Day 26: City of Rocks to Jarbridge, NV

This area made me wonder if we were back in the Wasatch or in the Colorado mountains. Yet it had a distinct beauty - more like what we would find later in Montana.







It was fun to look back and see another truck traveling with us. My parents also offered to take the two older kids for a while, leaving us in relative peace and quiet for most of the morning.

 

[jessejman]

Day 26: City of Rocks to Jarbridge, NV

After going up Trapper Creek and then down Rock Creek road and through some other scenic roads we dropped down into Rogerson. Somehow we missed gas in Rogerson despite the fact that we looked around and even asked someone if there was gas in town. The person told us there was not, but down the line in Murphy, they told us that there is gas there. Anyway, this would have effects down the road.





After passing through Rogerson we passed over this dam and then did about 40 miles of pavement to get us into Murphy Hot Springs.



And then into Murphy where there is nothing other than a small community of small houses who all share the same desire: trout fishing. We asked around for gas: none; and asked about our planned route: no one had any idea and really only confused me more. We did however change our plans to what is shown on the route maps a few posts prior to this one.



We then headed upstream along the river and began looking for a campsite.

 

[jessejman]

Day 26: City of Rocks to Jarbridge, NV





Heading pretty much due south towards Elko we passed through the town of Jarbridge. It isn't much. They had gas which you can see in one of the photos. They wanted more than $8.00 per gallon. We were pretty confident our fuel would last us to Owyhee. And at this price we were willing to gamble.



Steaks marinated in soy sauce, garlic and pepper since lunch. Grilled over the fire pit. We swam in the river that flowed just behind the camp. The concrete table was a great help and beat the pants off our little fold-up deal.