2021 in one post

I joined TW in the thoughts of being more active in the community. However, working in healthcare during a pandemic has made my life hectic. So now that I have a free minute I wanted to show off a bit. I’ll try and keep the timeline straight.

So over the past year my taco has gone through a few changes and has traveled its fair share of roads/trails.

January-April
-a mishap with deer gave me the opportunity to upgrade the hood.
-planning our first overland trip to utah “required” a few upgrades. Or at least that’s what I told my girlfriend lol. The taco ended up outfitted with much love from uptop, decked, soft topper, and extreme led.

Michigan to Utah (April)
-Eight states (1800 miles) we drove to the start of our trip in St. George, Utah. With the plan to back track through the backcountry of Utah.
-using OnXoffroad I mapped out as much as I could.

-Our first night we spent at 10k elevation in Idaho Springs, CO just to catch a few hours of sleep. Camping somewhere up Guanella Pass. Nothing like walking up in the back of a truck to snow and 10° weather.
-The next morning we arrived in St. George to start our overlanding trip. Over the next 8 days we went through 5 national parks, 3 national forests, the majority of the escalante-grand staircase, and the Rocky Mountains. With the goal to stay off paved roads as much as we could.
-Bryce Canyon

-Zion


-Glen Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands





-We ended in Arches/Moab




-Following Moab we travelled the 1500 miles back to the Mitten. To plan our next trip.

(As I get time I’ll continue to update this post)

I still have 100s of photos to sort though from this trip and the remaining trips from this year (local state/national forests and the UP of Michigan)

 

I love it! We're planning a similar trip for the spring. MI to Moab. Hopefully the weather is good around the time we're going!

We went to CO and Moab last year and the whole time all I could think was "man, I wish I had my Tacoma."

 

That’s awesome! Going in April for us worked out perfect. Spent the entire time in shorts and a tee. While the night dropped maybe to 50. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. Definitely felt like the perfect time to be there. The worst part of the trip was traveling across Nebraska lol. I can’t wait to get back out there. We saw so much and know we barely scratched the surface.

 

Some great pics, OP. Thanks for sharing.

 

What part of April and how was Colorado at that time of year?

 

We went from April 17th thru April 25th. CO was perfect. Snow up in the mountains but the roads were well plowed and without any issues. We didn’t do much off-roading in CO but what we did was very accessible. I did talk with a local ranger who said most trails were not groomed during that time and any trail of higher difficulty would probably be impassable. They also post a list of trails that are marked “out of season”. I can look back through my plans and probably find it.

 

Did you stay in your truck that entire time or did you get hotels?

 

Most Excellent!

 

The only time we stayed in a hotel was one night on the way home. Only because we couldn’t find BLM or free camping in NE.

 

Wow!

Thanks for sharing those beautiful views! Looks like a tight squeeze to get in that bunk bed! lol

Ed

****

 

Oh this is just a small taste. I haven’t even started editing my go pro footage.

definitely not a lot of room. Just enough to not be claustrophobic and get a decent night sleep.

 

Good to know! I'll keep that in mind.

Also, in case you haven't seen it yet, you should check out this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/michigan-tacomas.26380/

We could always use some more west side people!

 

I highly suggest using OnXoffroad. The detail within their mapping is amazing. Shows BLM, trails with rating, land boundaries, etc…

I was not aware of that. Thanks for sharing. Always happy to meet some fellow trail riders