unURBAN Adventures - Alaska to Argentina to AFRICA!

[unURBAN]

Prescott, Jerome, and Sedona

Drove south from Las Vegas to Arizona and Prescott. Rumours had it that there was supposed to be a BBQ event arranged by Overland Journal and Adventure Trailers, and we decided to go for it. At the BBQ we met several of the people behind probably the best overland travel oriented magazin in print (yes, that would be Overland Journal), and had a really great evening with good food (prepared by AT and "Overland Gourmets"), and hours of travel- and equpment-********-chat into the night.

And after the weekend Chris from OJ took us to play around in the trails around Sedona. The first trail was Soldiers Pass, and the tralhead was just minutes from the city center. Short but fun trail, and it seemd to be peacefully shared between hikers, bikers, jeep-tour companies, and 4x4'ers.

The trail lead us up to a huge sink hole. Water has washed out the rock underneath the surface, and eventually the roof caves in. I wonder how many caves like this we have driven over....??

The next trail we drove into was Broken Arrow Trail. Both of these trails are rated difficult in Charles Well's guide book, but we definitely have the feeling that the trails in Moab (guide book from the same author) are rated a little bit harder! Still, there are defintely challenging obstacles on these trails too.

However, the biggest challenge we encountered on this trail was heavy traffic! For a while I was wondering if the hangover from the BBQ still was playing tricks on me, as I thought I saw pink jeeps all over the place....

The high light of this trail was The Stairs. Not too difficult, but the ride down was quite bumpy. Note that the Nissan Patrol has a slightly wider track than the jeeps that have been down here over the years.

Our day in Sedona ended at a fantastic camp site overlooking the Sedona and the valley. Drove up on Schnibley Hill Road and took off on a rough trail going all the way over to the cliff edge, and we parked and popped the tent about three feet from the edge. Beautiful views!

The next morning we were ready to head north to Flagstaf and I-40, and on our way back down to Sedona (we wanted to take the scenic route a little bit further to the west) we came across a guy that wasn't too happy about his GPS software....

In all cases the road was going to be closed for a while, so we had to turn around and drive back up and over the mountain. Finally back on the highway, we said goodbye to Chris which headed back to Prescott, and we pointed the Patrol west towards Death Valley!

More soon!
E&M

 

[Deleted member 9101]

In all cases the road was going to be closed for a while, so we had to turn around and drive back up and over the mountain. Finally back on the highway, we said goodbye to Chris which headed back to Prescott, and we pointed the Patrol west towards Death Valley!

More soon!
E&M

That should be made into a demotivational poster...lol. Poor guy

 

[denis]

You are awesome, and the reason why i joined this forum.
i love hiking and taking the roads less traveled. My fiancee and i want to do the same type of expedition when we can afford to build a expedition vehicle.

will be fallowing your progress and blog, keep it up guys.

 

[unURBAN]

You are awesome, and the reason why i joined this forum. i love hiking and taking the roads less traveled. My fiancee and i want to do the same type of expedition when we can afford to build a expedition vehicle. will be fallowing your progress and blog, keep it up guys.

Thanks.... (Malin is blushing...)
Good luck with your planning - don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions. And we'll do our best with the blogging!

E&M

 

[unURBAN]

Death Valley

We thought Death Valley would be really hot, dry, lifeless and a “dead” place. Now the summer and the hottest season are over, and tourists are slowly starting to arrive in Death Valley. The temperature was still pretty high for us Norwegians with 38 degrees Celsius. One of our first stops was Badwater with an altitude of 88.7 meters below sea level.

That makes it the lowest we have ever been on this planet, even lower than our deep dive on the scuba course we took years ago.

Death Valley was first seen by europeans on their way to the gold fields in California in the mid 18-hundred century. Then gold and other minerals were discovered in Death Valley and different mines were started up. One guy, Scotty, a con man, claimed he had a gold mine just to scam wealthy investors. Scotty was forgiven by Johnson, one of his investors, and they became friends. Johnsons built a ranch in Death Valley and Scotty lived and died on the ranch and today the ranch is just called Scotty's Castle.

On our way to have a look at The Racetracks we passed through Teakettle Junction, but we did not have a teakettle to offer to the Gods of this junction. So fingers crossed that I can still have my tea in the morning… The Racetrack is not a place where cars are racing, but rocks.

The puzzle about these moving rocks has not been fully solved, but the main hypothesis is that the when the playa surface get wet and slippery the rocks slide with the wind.

And the road is getting kind of narrow some places...

From the Racetracks we drove over the Lippincott Pass, a narrow winding road with some washouts down into Saline Valley.We got down in the valley were we had a closer look at the salt flat and the remains of the salt mine that was operated here from 1903 until the 1930s.

In the middle of Death Valley we stumbled over an oasis with palm trees and hot springs. Wow!

That was one of the last things we expected, but a great surprise. It was a surreal experience to sit in a hot pool while enjoying the scenery of Death Valley (and btw, clothes are optional...). Later on Espengot a second bath at the Marble Springs.

In one of the most remote places in California someone have transported a bath tub out to the middle of nowhere and filled it up with blue marbles…… and ducks!!

Before leaving Death Valley we spent a night at Eureka Sand Dunes. The sand dunes rise up to 230 meters above ground in between the mountains. Waking up with the view of Sand Dunes was a great end to our stay in a park that surprised us with its great and varied nature and marks left by people with a good sense of humor.

Malin

 

[suntinez]

I thought your vehicle looked familiar, just saw you pull in at Kirk Creek a couple days ago. Now I'm really sorry I didn't pop over to say hello, been enjoying reading about your travels.

Enjoy the views!

 

[jpvm]

As usual, marvelous shots , thanks for the travel report.-

This is a real narrow spot , especially for the Y61's rather wide footprint, I guess you used a "spotter" :bike_rider: to drive this place through , right ?

Wheeeww !! I thought your balls had exploded into tons of tiny balls .... :Wow1:

 

[awalter]

In talking with some of the old timers in Death Valley, there was a real "marble bath" in one of the side canyons near Steel Pass. It was a tinaja cut into the granite that eventually back filled with sand & today could be buried under 10' of sand. Years ago folks brought a tub out which the Park Service would remove, but the tubs just keep coming.

Al

 

[unURBAN]

I thought your vehicle looked familiar, just saw you pull in at Kirk Creek a couple days ago. Now I'm really sorry I didn't pop over to say hello, been enjoying reading about your travels.
Enjoy the views!

What??? You should definitely have popped over!! Next time! And if you keep reading, we'll keep posting!

E&M

 

[unURBAN]

This is a real narrow spot , especially for the Y61's rather wide footprint, I guess you used a "spotter" :bike_rider: to drive this place through , right ?

Nope... Following standard procedure: more speed! ;-)

Wheeeww !! I thought your balls had exploded into tons of tiny balls .... :Wow

...that's what happens when passing a washout going too fast....

E

 

[Christian P.]

E&M,

It was great to meet you in San Francisco! Thanks for stopping by.
I expect I will ran into you again soon...

 

[unURBAN]

In talking with some of the old timers in Death Valley, there was a real "marble bath" in one of the side canyons near Steel Pass. It was a tinaja cut into the granite that eventually back filled with sand & today could be buried under 10' of sand. Years ago folks brought a tub out which the Park Service would remove, but the tubs just keep coming.

Al

We certainly hope they will keep comming for years and years! And also marbles...

http://www.4x4abc.com/G-Class/Death.Valley/marble-bath.html

E&M

 

[unURBAN]

E&M,
It was great to meet you in San Francisco! Thanks for stopping by.
I expect I will ran into you again soon...

We certainly hope so! Take care, and safe travels!

Espen&Malin

 

[unURBAN]

One of the things that are amazing about travelling in the US is that sometimes within a short drive the landscape and climate can change dramatically. We woke up by the Eureka Sand Dunes in Death Valley, put on shorts and t-shirt and took off to our next destination, Yosemite. Tioga Pass was our entry point to Yosemite National Park, and there we were surrounded by peaks with fresh snow.

Our Death Valley clothing was swapped out with pullover, pants and shoes. Tioga Road was a beautiful drive into the park, but everything along the road like campgrounds was closed because it was late in the season. And because of this the campgrounds in Yosemite Valley was full, and if you are able to plan your travel a bit more than us, it is advised to book a campsite online ahead of time.

We meet up with our friend Tim who had driven his late 80-model Subaru south from Alaska and we pirate camped at a “nice” location outside the park.

Next couple of nights we were able to get a campsite inside the park at Upper Pines. One evening we had a big black bear running through the campground 30 meters away from our Patrol being chased by a couple of Park Rangers.

For the first time on this trip we took out our climbing equipment and did a couple of two pitch climbs with Tim. It was great, and I hope we are able to get the dust of our climbing equipment a few more times on the way south.

Leaving Yosemite we made a stop at the Tuolumne Grove to have a look at the giant sequoias, and they were huge. Sequoias are in the coast redwood family and can get up to 3000 years old.

In one of the dead giant trees there were cut a tunnel in 1878, so that wagons and later cars with tourists could drive through. Today this road is closed and only used to hike down to the grove to walk among the sequoias. After seeing the sequoias we were ready to head north towards San Francisco...

E&M

 

[unURBAN]

Black Chasm Cavern

Okay... There was a detour on the way to SF... We drove north on CA 49 - The Gold Country Highway - on our way from Yosemite. This road takes us through many "old western" towns. And if we hadn't had a roof top tent, I think we would have spent a night or two at this rustic hotel in Volcano.

But we can definitely recommend the restaurant and their Whiskey Flat Saloon!

And in this area there are also serveral caves. Some had daytrips where you are crawling around in tight spaces, but we decided to visit the Black Chasm Cavern. This cave is quite known for its helictite crystals. The guided tour took about an hour (they wouldn't let us in on our own... hm..), and behind this modest entrance.......:

...we found a differnt world...

Helictite crystals

And THEN we dwent to San Francisco!

E&M