Small tour

"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
03/11/2014 at 13:01 • Filed to: Cruisin

Was down in St. George this weekend for work and play and I thought I would start the process of getting the family ready for more overlanding adventures.

I would like to eventually do an over nighter, then a few days, leading up to a week long overlanding trip. The thing is, I knew I had to start small so instead of taking the wife and kids down on some 60 mile rock crawling adventure, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , I decided to keep it tame and do a scenic backcountry route that could have been driven by a Honda accord, although slowly.

The Area of interesting is about 20 miles south west of St. George in the Beaver Dam mountain range off old highway 91. I grew up with my Mom telling me about how they used to have to take 91 to get to southern California before the pass through the mountains was cleared for I15. I Think the pass is amazingly beautiful, but it was fun to drive the out of the way, less used route. Our plan was to drive all or part of the Mojave Desert Joshua Tree Scenic Backway, a 17.9 mile look taking you through a wilderness preserve and mining operations area and back to 91.

Its really just a graded road for the most part but the skies were clear and blue and the temps were just right.

The Joshua tree forest was interesting as its not common in Utah, being so far north, but the density of trees left a little something to be desired.

This Area is Geographically interesting to scientists because its the borderland between the Mojave and Great Basin environments, and as such you get both plant and animal species that are normally separated by geography.

Traveling from south to north we went through bulldog canyon/pass and onto the highlands of the beaver damn foothills overlooking St. George. There is a wash road that will take you into St. George from this road, but its was 30 miles long and would have added hours to our trip so we decided against it. That wash road is of particular importance to me as on overlander as its one of several key linking trails in an almost entirely off road southern Utah overland expedition. Starting in Nevada you travel through on the bunker pass trail to Indian springs to hell hole pass and then to 91, onto the Scenic byway and down to st. George via that road called Hollow wash road. This is a route I hope to work up to eventually, or at least that's the start of it. (it goes on to cross the entire state through several national and state parks)

The views on the high plains looking north and east are pretty great, but its still just the "ugly" part of this epic Utah tour I hope to do. Also part of my plan is to train another photographer to document my trips. As a video producer and hobby photographer I never get the pictures I want because I'm driving, or skiing, or biking and such and so I wanted to train up another person so I can focus on that task.

My current protege has a long way to go, as you can see, but she's pretty good all things considered.

I think there are 5 pictures out of 60 that are usable, but she has definitely caught the photography bug. It took us the better part of 4 hours to do the whole thing, including a picnic tailgate lunch but we all had a nice time.

Now, on to bigger trails!

DISCUSSION (13)

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > HammerheadFistpunch
03/11/2014 at 13:15

Looks like a fun weekend. I spent mine getting the road salt of the LC.

dinobot666 > HammerheadFistpunch
03/11/2014 at 13:31

I want to move to either St. George or Moab. Like, right now.

HammerheadFistpunch > dinobot666
03/11/2014 at 13:34

My wife and I were saying that living in Santa Clara or Washington (suburbs of St.George) would be nice, if it weren't for the stupid hot and dry summers. 50 minutes to Zion, 2 hours to lake Powell, 2 hours to Moab and...believe it or not, there is actually a pretty decent ski resort about an hour and a half away.

area man > HammerheadFistpunch
03/11/2014 at 14:16

So explain the process of acclimating your family to taking these adventures - who ends up whining the most, wife or kids? What do you do to counteract it?

dinobot666 > HammerheadFistpunch
03/11/2014 at 14:18

I don't mind super hot dry weather at all. Doesn't bother me in the least.

HammerheadFistpunch > area man
03/11/2014 at 14:22

the kids complain about the length (hours) of uninterrupted travel, the wife doesn't do terrain challenges (difficult terrain) well. for her I'm just building up the idea that it's a fun family outing and that overlanding isn't redneck (she feels all offroading is redneck and she's not into that). for the kids, it's about building up the idea of "adventure" and the idea that we are driving to see neat stuff. so far so good.

area man > HammerheadFistpunch
03/11/2014 at 14:30

Smart all around. I was in LA a few weeks ago and commandeered my girlfriend's dad's K5 Blazer for a few days. My girlfriend was fine with roadtripping up the PCH, not so fine with the fire roads and canyons I wanted to explore along the way. I tried to show her on Google Maps that they were just gravel roads, but the multitude of switchbacks made her nervous.

Overlanding has gotta be one of the best ways to spend a weekend. One of the main reasons I want to move West actually.

HammerheadFistpunch > area man
03/11/2014 at 14:33

Yeah, My 2 year old doesn't mind scary terrain, my wife freaks out if the trail has ruts and off camber sections. The trick with the kids is to stop often, the wife on the other hand doesn't mind the driving at all so long as we have picnics or other stops and distractions. Its just a matter of convincing her we aren't going to flip over and die.

Blind Willy > HammerheadFistpunch
03/11/2014 at 14:45

I'm living vicariously through you right now.

I did find an old mining road in NM that I want to explore. I may have talked a fellow FJ owner into a long weekend excursion there and back. (They don't play the banjo in rural NM, do they?)

He's a video and photography nut, so it would be well documented. He just put up a boat load of video up from his trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park.
IF you have time to spare, here's his vid of BBRSP

HammerheadFistpunch > Blind Willy
03/11/2014 at 15:52

You are in West Texas right?

Blind Willy > HammerheadFistpunch
03/11/2014 at 15:56

Nope, I'm in Arlington. Right in the middle of the D and the FW :)

HammerheadFistpunch > Blind Willy
03/11/2014 at 15:59

I lived in Euless and Colleyville for a while, pretty places. Its a long drive ANYWHERE in Texas, but especially to anything mountainous. San Angelo has some interesting places nearby for driving and mountain biking and there is always the palo duro area.

Blind Willy > HammerheadFistpunch
03/11/2014 at 16:24

You mentioned Palo Duro last time, I keep forgetting about that place. That would be a better weekend trip than NM. I just want to do the NM trip because I can hardly find any info on the road, other than a 9 yr old post from a travel writer. I did recently find some newer video's of bikers going down it.
You're right, everywhere is a long drive in Texas... even Krogers!