Let's see your Tacos in scenic places!

Oh yeah, huge washout near the beginning if you enter from the 15 side. Idk how it is entering from the silverwood side. The red pin is where the washout is at and seems like a jeep got washed down unfortunately, hopefully dude is alright. You can kinda see it in the pic.

 

From a couple months ago

 

what GPS do you all use for these scenic places (and hopefully shit your pants trails)?

last time I used an old Garmin it took me all the way around to the wrong side of a pass

 

wow that looks like Ireland or something

 

Badger mountain Washington

 

I feel like that's a highly underappreciated area - wouldn't mind going back and exploring more myself.

 

Majority I see use OnX but def looking forward to other suggestions

 

Sorry I was probably too late to help, but PM sent!

To offer a potentially unpopular opinion: I have the most fun exploring places with minimal GPS assistance. I enjoy scouring the internet to see where others have gone, to inspire destinations for my trips and identify key through-routes. But when I get there, I'm going to find my own way and have fun, even if I'm constantly lost and sometimes never make the intended destination.

Mainstream apps (e.g., Garmin, Google Maps, etc.) are shockingly useless for back-country navigation, as you experienced. It is so easy to request directions while you're driving using such apps, but I almost always wind up wishing I had just stopped to examine the maps myself, because the routes they suggest are often circuitous if not impassible, and frequently lead to distant trailheads or overlooks rather than the intended destination. Of course there are navigation apps better suited to off-road driving, such as OnX, but I don't use them because: (a) fuck software-as-a-service, completely and entirely, until the end of time; and (b) it is fundamentally more fun to drive around and explore places at your own whim, rather than following some pre-planned route on an ipad screen. If you want to get from A to B, take the interstate. If you are looking for a fun drive, put down your phone and look out the window, and take whatever road looks most interesting.

Personally, I enjoy using Back Country Navigator, which lets me pre-load old topo maps and coarse satellite imagery for the regions I'll be exploring. It shows me where I am on the map, and that's it. (Well, sometimes I'll enter coordinates of certain places I want to explore, too, but not specific routes or tracks or whatever.) I will occasionally reference the map, especially when I'm lost, to see if I'm going in the right general direction or perhaps to avoid dead-end roads. One thing I wish this app offered was a way to indicate wilderness boundaries, as the old topos often show roads through these areas. But I do my best to research routes online before leaving home, then keep an eye out for closure markers on the trail.

In any case, I absolutely love driving around without much GPS assistance--based on well-researched yet vague plans, and relying primarily on ground truth, spatial reasoning, and whim--and cherish the fact that I don't need to pay a monthly fee for this privilege.

 

Hear! Hear!

Ditto!

What he said!

 

I don't do that with my vehicles... but hiking I will look for interesting and pathless topography. Vehicle tracks tend to be more permanent and once made they invite others until the landscape is damaged... but most people don't even notice footprints and won't get out to follow them if they do. Some of my best hikes have been off the beaten path. Once I get my hovercraft all bets are off...

 

Moab Mojave Preserve

 

That first pic is at a great angle. Very nice...

 

Thank you. Surprised I didn’t twist an ankle getting to a spot where I could get the rock formation in there.

 

GAIA GPS is another option out there. I'm still trying to figure it all out but each time I use it I learn more.

 

yeah I really hope these Gaia and shit don’t require a monthly fee

in hindsight it would’ve been smart if I researched the area more (alpine loop) and maybe picked up a map of it ahead of time to keep in mind area layout and where I’m at within that

even in my case now looking for BLM trails and whatnot it seems to be the thing that exists for that is maps, not apps or GPS

 

Gaia for the win. It's my favorite BY FAR. Really good maps with layering of so many options that you can customize to your needs. There may be a free version but I pay and it is worth every penny.

 

Digging the alpha rex tail lights, considering the same ones. Do you have a pic of them during the daytime?

 

I'm a paper map guy myself. Did a ton of northern Arkansas last year that way.

Then when I eventually had to return, I just popped in the Peel Ferry to the truck GPS and went back

 

We got a Magellan in the not too distant past, '07ish or so, and in one of our first trips it took us up into the hills of South Dakota. Gravel roads turned into dirt trails and at the top of a hill it said to go off the edge of a steep grade and down, into a blind curve on a track that barely showed ruts... and it had water running down one of them. Might have been fun but we were alone and had no idea where that trail really led.
My Bro-in-law came to visit in the mining town we lived in, and his led him up a dirt alley that no one in town would drive on... and for no reason because there were perfectly good paved streets that went to the house more directly.

I'm sure you've all heard about the recent GPS snafu where the lady drove into the lake because the GPS said it was the way to go...

 

A former co-worker's son did that. He wasn't really familiar with that particular little lake, it was night, it was kinda foggy...GPS took him right down the boat launch, headed to another on the other side of the lake. He and his girlfriend got out OK but the car was toast. Said he never saw the water until about 10 feet before hitting it. The dead end sign was broken off and laying in the ditch.