Igor: Double Cab 4x4. Frankenstein's Helper

No Igor. Frank has stock brakes.

 

Not sure where else to put this..so figure here is good

In March i started planning a big two week trip and it was going to be mostly local stuff and to try and connect them all was the challenge at hand. I had been to some place, but hadn't to others. Devins job and my job both got sunday nights off and mondays. We didn't want to stay in the valley as it was hot as hell and no AC doesn't make for fun. so we took the time to go up into the mountains and check out trail conditions and if my google foo earth mapping had paid off. It being sunday night and monday we also missed the weekend "crowds". Which was nice!

We first went to the Big Horns as they always melt off faster. This is in June by the way...yes, very behind on my photos. Better late then never! I had been to all these places but one spot in particular i had not been too in over 10 years since i was hunting with my dad in our 86 toyota truck. wasn't even sure the road existed anymore outside of Hyatville. That was the goal for this as well as scoping out camp sites.

We stopped at the dino track site first because..its cool!

Big Horns.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After that, we continued down the road which i had never been to find our way to Hyatville.

Nothing like wide open spaces.

Big Horns-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Still snow way up high though..

Big Horns-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Remarkably, our road existed to the Medicine Bow historical site. Which was much more developed since i had last been there in boy scouts..probably 13 years earlier. The Petroglyphs looks great though!

Big Horns-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

It was the road out of this site that goes up into the Big Horns that was the one I wasn't sure existed anymore. But! It did! Had one little sketchy spot but nothing bad. Starts climbing right away.

Big Horns-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

We had brought the dogs on this trip as it was only a day run. They were a bit cramped but stoked to be in the hills like us.

Big Horns-18.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

A very wet winter meant the wild flowers had exploded this year. Was very green as well.

Big Horns-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

We made it to the top and decided to go to the Paint Rock Lakes just for fun and looked for camp sites.

Big Horns-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-21.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

At the lake, we let the dogs have their fun in the water.

Big Horns-23.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-24.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-25.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-26.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-27.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After that we headed back down.

Big Horns-28.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-29.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Big Horns-30.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Just before the highway, caught this guy right by the ranger station.

Big Horns-31.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Was a good fun simple day.

The following week, we head to the Pryor Mountains. A place i had barely been, ever. Was looking forward to it. A short 40 minute drive and we were in the dirt climbing up and up the mountain.

Pryors.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

We found a site next to an older cabin and enjoyed the awesome view and sunset.

Pryors-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The next day was a bit ambitious. We would end up going down and up the mountain about 3 times. Had to check out the cabin in daylight first though.

Pryors-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Weather was perfect. Nice clear day. The Beartooths were still very snow covered.

Pryors-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Flowers here were also up and crazy. Saw a blackbear around here too. No photo though.

Pryors-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

our ending point of the Big Horn Canyon could be seen here.

Pryors-18.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

No before we would come off of Big Pryor Mountain and go check out East Pryor Mountain though.

Pryors-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Found another FS cabin.

Pryors-21.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Found a different way that we will be taking on the trip rather then coming back down this way. Was pretty. But made the day super long and sights were sub par(if you can say that even). Was about 20-30 miles we will cut out.

Pryors-23.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Once on the main road it follows a cool canyon for most the road.

Pryors-24.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-25.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-26.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After a very very bumpy road, we made it to the Ice Cave and ate lunch before taking of on the short walk to the cave.

Pryors-27.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-28.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-29.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-30.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

This walk was weird. From where im standing, its 80º out. Where the mouth of the cave is, its 30º. Super odd.

Pryors-31.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Ice though year round.

Pryors-32.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After this we topped out the mountain and started down the back side and entered the Wild Mustang Preserve. And promptly saw two horses.

Pryors-33.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-34.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Which was cool. I hadn't really expected to see any honestly. But then we got to a big area and there were tons. I bet we would see 150+ horses from here on out. Again, this is not like open grazing and people own these horses. They are 100% wild.

Pryors-35.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-36.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-37.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-38.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-39.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-40.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

There were a couple large herds here.

Pryors-41.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-42.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-43.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-44.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-45.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After the big open area we stopped at Pen's Cabin.

Pryors-46.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-47.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-48.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-49.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Despite the threatening clouds, we didn't get rained on once.

Pryors-50.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-51.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Saw some wild turkey's too.

Pryors-52.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Once again we got to an overlook after the roughest section we had driven all day. Which was cake. But what a view of the canyon!

Pryors-53.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-54.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

These guys came charging up and ran by as well.

Pryors-55.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-56.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-57.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-58.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Our last horse of the day on the mountain. Saw more down below actually.

Pryors-59.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Finally made it off the mountains. We had driven a long ways in a day and covered about 80miles of bouncy dirt roads. Final stop was Big Horn Canyon.

Pryors-60.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-61.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The old canyon in the middle that has not river in it is call Natural Corals. Was used by ranchers for a long time.

Pryors-62.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Pryors-63.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

A great couple of days of exploring! Many other places to go still up there.

Next up was the area of Kerwin. I regret not taking more photos of this little trip. Mainly of the drive in. Its a very easy drive save for the water crossing can get huge. When we were there the river had just gotten down to a crossable level. But the road was still flooded in areas. We probably drove in straight water for over a mile. Was cool. The main crossing is about 200 yards wide and was still deep in spots. But we didn't have any issues.

Is a gorgeous area though.

Kerwin.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

We camped at the end of the road in the parking lot by Kerwin.

Kerwin-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Then spent the morning walking around checking out the old ghost town.

Kerwin-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Shame you couldn't drive the old roads in the town. One went way way up one of the peaks. We didn't have time to hike it though. All the mountains here were above 10,000' most at 11,000. We had camped at 9500' in the valley. But there was a short walk up the main trail to another cool mining site.

Kerwin-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After this we headed down exploring every side road we could. Most were short dead ends sadly. Found this big wheel though. Drove something at one point. Would have hated to be the horse's that hauled this thing in.

Kerwin-18.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Kerwin-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The old dude ranch in the area.

Kerwin-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-21.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-23.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

One side road was kinda cool and climbed up a ways. But dead ended sadly.

Kerwin-24.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-25.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After leaving Kerwin area we explored another area i had sprayed last year. As we were driving in, thought these were cows...but nope. Buffalo

Kerwin-26.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Then we stumbled on a large heard of elk!

Kerwin-28.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-27.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Kerwin-29.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


And thats all for now! We also went to the Big horns 2 more times and up Sun light. but I had Frankenstein for those and for got the camera.


Was a good summer of weekend trips though.

 

Nice pictures! Looks like another awesome place I'll have to check out sometime.

 

Love the open spaces and views, went to Utah last May and I been ready to get back out west again since I left.
Great pictures.

 

Thanks guys! Its nice to live where there is so much stuff to see within a few hours. And very few people.

 

Trying to get a group together to get back out there, Moab was 1600 miles one way. Everyone says no money or got to work, I will be back some day.

 

yeah only like 500ish for me haha

its awesome down there that is for sure.

 

If I were that close I would be there every weekend

 

yeah, but i have what i just posted up above less then 150miles in literally every direction from.

Makes for great summer/fall wheeling. Fall/winter and spring are for the desert.

 

Build Update:

Low Profile RTT mounts

So ever RTT comes with mounts. Most are 1/4'' flat bar and have bolts. No biggie. I've run mine like that for years. But with the Relentless Fab bed bars being fairly low. Which i love. My military cases stack perfect under them. But they have been catching the bolts that hold the RTT on so it can be an utter PITA to get the cases out.

To fix this i experimented with conduit clamps. but at like 1/16'' think, they just tore or bent and would let the tent slide around no matter how tight i torqued the bolts. I torqued the bolts so much the bots dented the aluminum sliders and would spin.

To fix this. I knew i needed more Beef! As usually.

I knew exactly what i needed but with not time to fab stuff much anymore. I did some shopping and found these tube clamps on Jegs.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Allstar-Performance/049/ALL14485/10002/-1

Lopro bed rack mounts.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I cut down the bolt barrels

Lopro bed rack mounts-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Then drilled out the Tent bolt holders to hold 3/8s bots. Cut down some 3/8s bolts to size and bam!

Lopro bed rack mounts-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Lopro bed rack mounts-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

PERFECT fit. The cases slide under the bolts with about 1/4'' to spare now. Ive wheeled with these now and they hold the tent like a rock. No problems.

Worthy upgrade. Should be a standard tent mount IMO.

 

Creeped this build the other day, good stuff on here as usual keep it up!

 

What is the O.D. on your relentless bars? !.75" or 1.5"?

 

1.75''.

They make these in 1.5 though.

 

Did you find them local or online? Yeah, my bars are 1.5"

This is a good idea. The clearance issue is real.

 

Monte you weren't kidding when you said steering racks were hard to wrestle with. Removed two of them today and I'm feeling it now.

 

get the tac weld mod done while its out. monte did it.

 

I didn't pull the column, that's easy to do anyway but I'll wait until I'm not on a super tight deadline. The grey trucks rack was pretty shitty, lots of play otherwise I'd have left it alone.

 

so u swapped interior and engine/tranny from the rolled one?> then suspension and shit

 

I didn't swap any interior besides the seats. The grey truck has a grey interior. But yeah I've been swapping everything else basically. Picking up my new bumper tomorrow and hopefully I'll test drive this pile on Tuesday.

 

somehow i stumble upon this thread. awesome pictures monte!!!! like mini ext of trip reports