We didn't stick around in Ten Sleep any longer than necessary - mostly for the same reason that we scurried from Atlantic City and South Pass the day before - people. I'm sure that all these places would be super fun to wander around mid-week, but on a warm summer weekend they were just a little too crowded for our liking. It was on our way out of town that we realized why it was so crowded. Sure, the road we'd traveled into town may have been beautifully reminiscent of Utah, but it certainly hadn't warranted a quadrupling of the population.…
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Having arrived in Shoshoni extremely early in the morning, and with no refueling necessary, we rolled out of town as soon as we'd snapped a photo of the "Welcome to Shoshoni" sign on the edge of town. As we did, a couple dual-sport riders passed us in the opposite direction, and we wondered aloud if they were riding the BDR from north-to-south. Making our way along Badwater Road, toward the little town of Lost Cabin, a familiar theme appeared along the side of the route. There was no gas plant lining the public road, but there were plenty of wells…
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Heading out of Atlantic City, we were both looking forward to a leisurely stroll around the ghost town of South Pass and the nearby Carissa Mine. I actually envisioned them as similar to - but perhaps better than - the amazing ghost town of Bodie, California, which I'd visited the previous fall. As we approached, it was immediately clear that SOMETHING WASN'T RIGHT. We'd felt that Atlantic City had been crowded, but South Pass was something else entirely. Above the town, an entire hillside had been converted into a parking lot, and hundreds of vehicles - of all types -…
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Heading out of Alcova, we were driving into the sun. I'm never a huge fan of this, since it makes it harder to enjoy the landscape into which we are adventuring, and I hoped that we'd find somewhere to camp quickly, or that we'd turn north so that the sun would at least be to the side. Not that I'd looked at the route and known that neither of those things were in the cards. When the sun is in your face and everything out the windshield is all shadows, remember - there's always a side view mirror! Before we…
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We had a hell of a time getting out of Elk Mountain. Well, not exactly out of town per-se, but out of the Conoco fuel station along I-80, just a few miles away. With gas prices as they are, I'd downloaded the Conoco app to save $.10/gal; let me tell you - that thing is a piece of crap. Credit cards added to your wallet are "lost" from your profile every time the app is restarted, requiring all the details to be reentered. The problem is that you can only enter five cards total, and the back end seems to…
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Having pulled into the Centennial Historical Museum for a photo of the train depot, @mrs.turbodb and I each spotted displays that we wanted to check out, so we popped out of the Tacoma for a few minutes to do just that. I headed over to an old Union Pacific caboose, and she wandered into the museum to see what sorts of historical information was available. One of the nicest cabooses I've come across. I've never seen the original system for running water inside before; I got a good chuckle out of the drain. Knowing what we had in store for…
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Unlike most other BDRs we've done, getting to the start of Wyoming Backcountry Discovery Route, for us, meant travelling just a bit of the route backwards - south on WY-789 towards Baggs - first. And Baggs - it turns out - is a couple miles north of the Wyoming-Colorado border. So, upon arriving, we drove right through town - determined to run the entire route, from border-to-border. We were, we convinced ourselves, not cheaters! We may not be cheaters, but I guess we were faking it a bit. This wasn't really the first time we'd entered Wyoming! Well hello Baggs.…
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Having arrived at our middle-of-a-random-field BLM camping location just after midnight, there was no getting up for a pre-6:00am sunrise. Rather, we climbed down the ladder at nearly 8:30am to temperatures that were already in the mid 70s °F. With no breakfast to make - as we'd decided to skip bringing milk in favor of more room for lunch and dinner fixings, we set about breaking down the tent and prepping for our first day on dirt. We still had a few hours to drive to the beginning of the trail, but then we'd be setting off on the first…
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More than 30 years ago, my dad found what is now his only camp spot. For the last five of those, I've been lucky enough to join him at least once over the course of the summer for a few days of relaxation and soaking in of the sights, fresh air, and some staying-in-one-place rather than the usual travels of my adventures. This year - like last - was up in the air for a while. Much of the Sierra National Forest is still recovering from the Creek Fire of 2020, and there are quite a few places that are…
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My exploration of Blue Valley complete, and a bit of my curiosity satiated at the Hattie Harrell Homestead, it was time to scratch another itch that had been bothering me for more than a year. On the same trip where I'd seen the Harrell Place across the river, I'd spotted a road high up on the eastern escarpment of the canyon. A series of switchbacks, I made a note to investigate when I got home. I year earlier when I spotted this zigzag I thought, "Doesn't that look intriguing!" Making my way back up through Blue Valley - completing yet…
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Out on the end of Owyhee's Tongue was one of the windiest nights I've ever spent in the tent. I think things calmed down for about two hours - between 10:00pm and midnight - but for the rest of the time, it was like sleeping in a washing machine. For how windy it was, I still slept relatively well - waking up now and then when the entire truck was rocked on its suspension, but always dozing back to sleep within a few minutes. I woke up an hour before sunrise and snapped a cell phone photo before zipping up…
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I always look forward to the changes of spring. Warmer weather pushing north means that the snow melts, opening up more places for exploration. For a short time, everything seems so green and colorful. Flora showing off their brightest colors to the world - perhaps with the exception of fall aspen - celebrating the longer days with enthusiasm. Usually - no matter where I'm headed - I look for routes that are through - or at least loop - routes, giving me as much new terrain as possible over my limited time in the outdoors. That - naturally - leaves…
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Having modified our itinerary a bit to visit the Black Dragon Pictographs, we popped back onto I-70 and retraced a few miles of freeway through the fins of the San Rafael Reef to one of the more popular areas in the San Rafael Swell - Buckhorn Wash. Hiking to the top of the fins seems like something that's in our future. Entering from the south - which seemed to be the less common way, given the 20-miles of gravel road to access the location - we made good time under an increasingly cloudy sky. Naturally, we stopped a few times…
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Initially making our way northwest along Temple Mountain Road before turning southwest through McKay Flat, I was glad we'd found a spot to camp so close to Temple Mountain the previous evening. In so doing, we'd avoided driving into the setting sun and now had the blazing ball of fire at our back, illuminating the road before us. With the sky clearing and sun shining, the buttes of the San Rafael Swell were out in their full glory. As we turned south toward McKay Flat, Family Butte rose colorfully to the west. A group of three wild horses were curious,…
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We wrapped up the four-trail loop - from Devil's Racetrack to Coal Wash to Fixit Pass and finally along Nielsen Dugway (see More Than We Bargained For - Swell #3) - right around 3:45pm. With sunset slated for just before 8:00pm - oh, how I do enjoy the longer summer days - I figured we at least had enough time to head south towards our next destination. Depending on the roads, I hoped we also had time for another short hike or two! And so, we passed back under I-70 from the Head of Sinbad, and rejoined Temple Mountain Road -…
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I have to admit that we were a bit nervous as we climbed into the tent on our little hill next to Sid and Charley. As I'd pulled onto the pedestal, we'd noticed dozens of little burrows, and were a little concerned that we'd wake up to mice in the engine bay munching on wires. Luckily, as I climbed down the ladder to greet the sun, no such fate had befallen us! The light show. It's starting. Purple giving way to orange. Crescendo. I knew we had a full day ahead of us, so my whistle to the one snuggled…
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A combination of ear plugs, not much wind, and sleep deprivation over the previous couple of nights meant that we slept pretty darn well on our Molen Reef overlook. And by "we," I really mean "me," because unfortunately @mrs.turbodb didn't have quite as restful a night as I did. So, as I climbed down the ladder in order to catch the light of day breaking over the horizon, she snuggled down deeper to get a final hour of sleep before I returned to camp and it was time for breakfast. In those last few minutes before the sun rises, the…
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I can't really believe that I've been exploring the western United States for nearly five years now and have yet to spend any time in the San Rafael Swell. That's not entirely true - technically. I did camp one night on - what I now know to be - the extreme eastern edge of the Swell, just before a trip into The Maze with Ben @m3bassman and Zane @Speedytech7, but since then, I've never even driven through this amazing place on the highway! This week would change all that. With eyeballs as big as saucers, I set about planning what I…
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Right smack in the middle of my Bradshaw Trail adventure, I was presented with an option - travel the trail as outlined in my guidebook - Gold Road to La Paz, an Interpretive Guide to the Bradshaw Trail - or take a 75 mile detour north over Graham Pass to a nearby desert attraction - Corn Spring. Normally, I'd probably have opted to just keep going, but this time the decision was a tough one. While not on the actual route, my book had included a photo of some petroglyphs at Corn Spring, and if I'm a sucker for anything,…
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As I transitioned from the middle segment of the Bradshaw Trail that'd ferried me across the Chuckwalla Bench, I was very much looking forward to the final - and shortest - segment of the journey. It was already quarter-to-five in the afternoon, so I only had a couple hours of light before I'd have to call it a night. I hoped that would give me enough time to find a great camp site in the Hauser Geode Beds. This spot - as with most of the other highlights of this adventure - wasn't on the main route, but was one…
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