Overland Expo WEST 2018 - Flagstaff, AZ - May 18th-20th

Was able to just go up for a day last year and had fun. SOO looking forward to going up for the weekend and camping this time. Here is some information from the website.Tickets go on sale Feb. 1st!

https://www.overlandexpo.com/west

 

Actually had a few questions for people have attended the entire weekend in the past.
Are the classes worth the extra price?
Is it easy to obtain the free dispersed camping?
Just looking for more info!

 

Interested.

The link is broken.

 

Should be fixed now

 

Thank you for information. Would be interested in camping with a group.

 

To clarify a little. The onsite camping is likely difficult to get a prime spot let alone a large group spot.

Offsite out in the forest is much easier.

I passed last year with the new site and extremely unlikely to go into the show again. Camping with AZTW is a maybe for me.

 

I go every year now, and I spend the whole weekend with a group of friends. We go on Thursday and pick a good campsite on the grounds before they fill up. It's nice to park and deploy all of the RTT's, awnings, etc. and just walk around the grounds for a couple hours and then go back to camp for meals, hammock naps, drink re-ups, etc. Others argue that it's not worth the cost, but I think it is more than worth it. No hassles with driving in from offsite to sit in lines, find shitty parking, walk around, then have to squeeze out the gates and go back to an offsite camp. I prefer to walk when I'm drunk, not drive. But, to each their own. The past 2 years have been a blast (well, 2016 was a bitch because the Mormon Lake area was a frigging 60mph windstorm for 3 days) but the Fort Tuthill grounds were perfect. Camping in the trees out of the wind, you get shade, access to water spigots (over by the horse pens) and flat ground that isn't all postholed. It's a little bit of a longer walk from the onsite camping area to the vendor area (about 1/4 mile) but no big deal at all. Just bring a daypack with you for swag, purchases, snacks/drinks, etc and you're good to go. It's actually nice to walk around for a bit to keep the legs from getting stiff after sitting around camp the rest of the time.

One bonus is that every year we have always camped next to cool people from around the world and made some new friends. In 2016 we camped next to an Aussie dude that was chill as hell and had some amazing stories about traveling the world. This year, we camped next to a German couple who had driven across Europe in their Range Rover, shipped it to Quebec, and drove down to the US and across the entire country on their way along a full expo trip down to the tip of South America. So awesome walking around making friends in the camps and checking out their rigs for REALISTIC ideas on how to overland properly. Real people with real rigs are what makes the show worth it to me.

You can guarantee I'll be online on Feb. 1 buying my weekend pass with camping. So will 3 other friends, and probably a couple more on this trip.

 

@Tsumara
@riz_atx
@Tynan
@TX_Lucian
@pixelsailor

 

DUDE!!!!!

Its going to be an exciting year! Jambo and then 2 weeks later, this!

 

Word.

 

Just made a reservation for a small cabin at Fort Tuthill on the military side. They said they still have hotel rooms avail if anyone eligible is looking for a place.

 

Awe yiss. Let's do this.

 

I was thinking of camping somewhere outside Flagstaff (maybe end of the world), then driving over to Tuthill for 1 day pass at the Expo.

 

Damn really, I still haven't been up there yet. Thanks for the info.

 

Thanks again for the info. May try my luck on a site, but it its that crowded I may just head south (from Tucson) that weekend.

 

It feels like just yesterday I went to the last one. Time flies.

 

Anyone have any idea what North Rim/Toroweap is like during the expo? I'm guessing it could likely be busy. If I'm making the drive all the way to AZ I'd like to throw in a side trip up there but maybe it wouldn't be worth it if it were crowded.

 

Depends on how much time you have and are you actually wanting to spend time at expo.

Cause it takes almost as much time (ok 1/2ish) as your drive from TX to get from Flagstaff to Toroweap.

I haven't been, but I doubt it's ever busy and maybe not noticably different that week.