Burning Man. I've never been and don't really ever feel like I will have the need to go, but the location - a big flat playa in the middle of a bunch of wilderness - has always intrigued me. Then, while I was researching side trips for our trip along the Nevada Backcountry Discovery Route (NVBDR) last year, I stumbled upon a few photos of High Rock Canyon, just north of the Black Rock Desert - wow! The desert turned out to be too far from the NVBDR for us to make the trip at the time, but ever since…
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We had unfinished business in Utah, after our Ruining Around Utah trip back in spring of 2019. An unseasonably wet winter meant that the higher elevation roads were still impassable due to snow, so one of our primary goals - the Lewis Lodge ruins - remained just out of reach. And I haven't gotten back since. I'd had so much fun on that trip - searching for Native American ruins - that I decided it was time to go back. This time, the plan centered almost entirely around ruins - Lewis Lodge, Hotel Rock, Moon House, River House, Jailhouse, and…
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I've visited the Owyhee region of Oregon several times, each time discovering something new, something special. The region, located in southeast corner of the state, seems to be an empty wasteland - and nothing could be farther from the truth. Surely, it is remote, and from any single spot the landscape can seem monotonous - but all it takes is a little looking to find the gems hidden in plain sight. With a few days to explore, I decided it was time to look for remote areas I'd never before visited. Stringing together a series of roads that I hoped…
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When my buddy Ben asked if I wanted to go to the Island District of Canyonlands National Park in order to run the White Rim Trail, I was pretty pumped. While I've been to the other districts - The Maze and The Needles - I've never been to The Island in the Sky, and have always heard about how beautiful it is; some even describe it as the Crown Jewel of the park. With a plan to meet in Moab on a Thursday just after lunch, I set out on the long drive south Wednesday. My plan was to arrive…
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Smack in the middle of winter, we found ourselves with a little extra time and nothing planned to fill the days. That, in addition to the fact that it was going to be cold and snowy in nearly all of Washington state, signaled to us that an escape down south would be a doubly worthwhile endeavor. The question was: where should we go? We'd been to both Death Valley (Nadeau Trail, Loose Ends), the Mojave Preserve (Short Days), and Owens Valley (Tragedies, Right Back to Owens Valley) a couple times in the last couple months - and while another trip…
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I'd been home less than a week after Tragedies in the Tablelands, and I still had the itch to get out and see everything I'd planned before things went all wonky. Even as we'd been driving home from that trip, I was ordering a new camera and lenses, and I was already checking the weather forecast to see how long it would be until snow rendered the area impassable for the remainder of winter. The good news was that the camera equipment showed up in a few days. The bad news was that there were only a few more before…
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Having recently visited the Volcanic Tablelands for the first time in search of and petroglyphs, we'd been delighted with what we'd found. So delighted - in fact - that I started researching the area for a return trip as soon as we got home! As I searched, I realized we could spend several days in the area, wandering. Several additional petroglyph sites, old mines, and views - of the Sierra Mountains to the west and the White Mountains to the east - would fill our days. That sounded great to us. Unfortunately, things had a way of working themselves out…
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Visiting the Mojave National Preserve has - unconsciously - become a traditional "last trip of the year." For three years now, the pull of the desert sun has drawn us south - out of the gloomy grey of the Pacific Northwest. This year the trip would center around foot travel - something that had been uncharacteristically difficult on our last visit - allowing us to immerse ourselves in our surroundings. Over the course of a week - at the end of this most unusual year - we'd take advantage of every moment of daylight to discover the solitude, history, and…
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I don't know whether it's an "oh, duh!" moment, or "can you believe it?" situation, but less than two weeks after returning from our Death Valley trip along the Nadeau Trail, we were headed back for more! I was jazzed, and - a little surprisingly to me - so was @mrs.turbodb! This time, the land area we'd cover would be larger than the last, with our plan to see several places that we've meant to visit over the last few years but that we've never gotten to - largely because there's only so much you can see on a given…
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The Nadeau Trail follows the west side of Panamint Valley, roughly in a north-south direction between the Argus Range and the valley's paved roads. Measuring a scant 27 miles long - and for the most part completely straight - the casual observer may wonder if allotting three days to travel this road is two-and-a-half days longer than necessary... I can assure you that it is not. Colorful side canyons, historic mine sites, glorious overlooks, and mysterious geological formations easily filled our days to the brim. And the icing on the cake? A hunt for, and ultimately discovery of, petroglyphs -…
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There wasn't much of a question in any of our minds as to where our two week trip was going to take place for 2020. After our setback the previous year - see Exploring Colorado Becomes Redhead Down - much of the winter had been spent getting the Redhead ready to hit the trail. A few smaller excursions to iron out the wrinkles after all the work, and we were ready to go. Colorado was calling. We wouldn't know if we were really ready until the end.
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How could it be that we hadn’t explored this area? I have no idea, really. Most likely, it's simply a side effect of the total lack of exploration we've done in our home state of Washington - opting instead to explore areas in other surrounding states, where weather is consistently warmer, or at least drier. But, what could be viewed as an oversight, we viewed as opportunity. With dirt roads less than three hours from home, we didn't have to rush out in the dark of early morning - instead, we got a leisurely start around 9:30am, and made it…
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Summer is a great time in the state of Washington. While much of the rest of the year might be dreary and gray, the long days and clear air between mid-July and September are nothing short of perfection for getting out to enjoy the mountainous terrain in the western part of the state. And this time, we were headed as far west as we could go - all the way to the Olympic Peninsula, for an epic hike along one of the highest ridges around.
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I've been asked by folks who don't go on as many trips as I do, "How do you know that the roads you plan on a route - using satalite imagery - are open?" The answer, of course, is that not every trip goes exactly as planned - and that's a good thing. It is what makes a trip into an adventure. This trip, to Idaho and Montana with Mike @Digiratus, Zane @Speedytech7 and Dan @drr was exactly that - an unplanned adventure - nearly every road we'd planned to take, CLOSED.
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Having just completed the Nevada Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR), we now found ourselves in at the southern most tip of Nevada, quite a distance between us and home. We found ourselves there with a week to spare, having finished the trip a few days sooner than we'd originally expected. Only the timing was unplanned however, as we'd run the BDR this direction on purpose. By doing so, we hoped that we could meet up with Pops on our way home at the same spot we'd spent a few days with him just a month before. Well, as it turned out,…
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Nevada's BDR is known to be a bit different than some of the others. Most interesting is the temperature differential between the northern and southern ends of the route - even as the north is still covered in snow, temps in the south reach over 100°F. For that reason, a lot of travelers split the trip into two - doing the southern route in winter or early spring and the northern bit come summer. But not us; we're not that smart. Well no, that's not it exactly - it's just that the time we had to do the trip happened…
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I can safely say that trips to with Pops have now become a tradition. I suppose I could have said that after the second trip to this special place, but with a third in as many years, I hope it continues for many more. This time, for the first time, @mrs.turbodb came along - and she, like everyone else who discovers this magical place, enjoyed herself thoroughly.
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Any other year, a trip to Icicle Creek near Leavenworth, WA in early June would be our second or third visit of the season. But with everything going on this year, the Forest Service delayed opening of the road - generally used to access campgrounds and trailheads until after Memorial Day weekend. In fact, even as we visited, all of the developed campgrounds and several of the trailhead parking lots were still closed to encourage social distancing and prevent the spread of the virus. Still, as we drove up Icicle Creek Road, we found ourselves happy to be able to…
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It seems like we were just in the Owyhee Uplands - because we were! We'd wrapped up our previous trip from Idaho's Owyhee Uplands to Oregon's Alvord Desert less than a month earlier, but when a few buddies wanted to get together for a Memorial Day adventure, it seemed like a great place to return! This time, we'd start at the north end of the Owyhee Canyonlands near Lake Owyhee, and head south towards Three Fingers Rock and the north edge of Jordan Craters. Then, we'd turn east through Silver City, Idaho to the Big Jack Creek Wilderness and eventually…
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In all of our trips to the Owyhee area, we've only ever really explored the western half - the Owyhee Canyonlands. Of course, there's some really cool stuff there - Three Forks, Coffepot Crater, the Honeycombs, Snively Hot Springs, and Juniper Gulch - but the Owyhee area is quite a lot larger than its Oregon acreage. With this trip, we were going to change all that - and then some! Our plan - at least at the beginning - was to hit up the Owyhee Uplands Backcountry Byway, a ~100 mile journey from Grand View, Idaho to Jordan Valley, Oregon,…
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