5K+ miles West Cross Country - Pics/Video

2.5 weeks and over 5,000 miles of excitement. I started out from Richmond, KY and headed West early Thursday morning on September 6th. I had planned this route and adventure for around 8 months. Had purchased truck parts, extra camping gear i may need (mostly an excuse to buy truck parts), etc.



Colorado Springs
Garden of the Gods / Pikes Peak

Day 1 Drove 16 hours from Richmond, KY to Colorado Springs that day so it wasn't much an adventure other than seeing a few new states and a lot of farm land through Kansas!

Day 2-3
after i arrived was nothing short of amazement. Woke up to eat breakfast at Garden of the Gods located in Colorado Springs, then visited Pikes Peak National Park for a 15K mile ride up the mountain! The weather in Colorful Colorado was nothing short of great. Every day there was mid to upper 70's with a low of mid 50's! Perfect for camping!

 

Engineer/Black Bear/Imogene Pass
Telluride & Ouray Co



Night 3 Was trying to get to Ouray, so i hit up the Alpine Loop and took Engineer Pass over to mountain to try to get to Ouray, CO. The pass was awesome! Tight trails, right on the side of the mountain, but doing it at dusk/dark alone, wasn't the greatest plan i've ever had. Some sketchy spots to hit alone for the first time and some really tight curves right on the edge of cliffs, but what some excitement.

While working my way over to Ouray, I came through a couple mining roads near Silverton. With great views of the Canyon through the narrow winding road, I came up on Tacoma that had ran off the bluff. As I came up on the truck I noticed a couple dirt bikes that were on the road looking down. While I stopped and talked to the couple, the Tacoma that had went over the edge of the road was their son from a couple days prior. He worked in the mines there and had fallen asleep while leaving work early one morning. He was very, very lucky that the truck had not rolled but had went straight over the bluff instead. Still have no idea after looking how steep the drop off was that he didn't roll. Luckily he walked away with no injuries.


Day 4 i met up with @In4aride in Ouray, CO to hit up Black Bear Pass and Imogene Pass! We started out early that morning with Black Bear Pass first, hit the trail, then stopped at the end of Black Bear in Telleride, CO for some Pizza and to catch a little football while we ate lunch. After eating, we hit up Imogene Pass that evening for some more trails and excitement.





























Bridal Veil Falls Telluride





Looking back up Black Bear Pass before dropping down into Telluride



@In4aride and I on top of Imogene Pass

 

Million Dollar Highway to Mesa Verde

After leaving Telluride I made my way down to Mesa Verde for day 5 of the trip! I traveled through the town of Silverton and Durango through the million dollar highway and taking every back road through Colorado that I could find in between places I wanted to see!!



Million Dollar Highway






Taking the roads less traveled











Then Checked out Mesa Verde and pitched camp right outside of the park!

 

Monument Valley / Valley of the Gods
Run, Forrest, Run!

Day 6 I left Mesa Verde and headed towards Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley! Loved seeing the Red Rock come out of no where to standing tall in the middle of the desert. After leaving Valley of the Gods and arriving at Monument Valley, I got to talk and buy some goods off of some people from the Navajo Indian tribe. Very friendly people as I stood around and talked to them while watching everyone try to run into the middle of the road to get the famous "Run, Forrest, Run shot"











https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-zn00I1Tds

 

Flagstaff, AZ to Sedona, AZ

Day 7 & 8

I had some time to kill so after leaving Monument Valley area I headed towards Flagstaff, Arizona to camp for the evening. After talking to some locals, I added Sedona on my list to stop by while I had time to kill before picking up my friends in Phoenix, AZ! After a few beers and some info, I headed towards Sedona to find camp for the evening. While pulling off for camp my truck died! The truck would start up but wouldn't continue running. I knew it was getting fire, just seemed to not be getting gas. So I checked over everything I thought it could be and couldn't seem to find the problem. I began to think possibly my fuel pump was starting to go out or possibly had blown the fuse. Being 1500 miles from home that's all I needed was a fuel pump to go out. So I began to look over again and noticed my clamp to my intake had slid off and the intake had came off of engine! After throwing it back on, the truck began to run fine again. All the wheeling I had done the prior week and 1 small bump knocked the intake off!. After camp I headed towards Sedona, really enjoyed the small beautiful town for the day with some of the local food and shops. Even took a few hikes.

 

Phoenix, AZ

Day 8-9

After arriving near Phoenix a day early, I found a lake outside of town by the name of Lake Pleasant. Arriving during the week I had the whole bank practically to myself. Which worked out really well with 110+ degree dry heat of the Phoenix area. I set up camp the evening and got to enjoy the Lake before heading to pick up my friends in Phoenix! Worked well for another well needed bath/rinse!

 

North Rim Grand Canyon

Day 10

After picking up some friends in Phoenix, we headed back North to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I had seen the South Rim of the Grand Canyon around 7 or 8 years ago, but never seen the North! If you've never seen the Grand Canyon before, its worth the trip in itself to take a look over how big it truly is.







Sweet little old rock village on the way to the Grand Canyon

 

Horseshoe Bend/The Wave/Buckskin Gultch

Day 11

After traveling to the Grand Canyon, we headed up to Page, AZ for the night. This night was probably the only night we didn't get much sleep. Arriving late and pitching camp on one of the only free camping roads in Page, some moron in an old SUV kept flying up and down the road, slinging sand, and revving his engine in the middle of the night. After he finally calmed down, we were able to get some rest in time to wake up and see Horseshoe Bend right outside of Page. To get an idea on the size of Horseshoe bend, if you look closely on the left in the water, you can see some smaller boats along the Colorado River.






After visiting Horseshoe Bend that morning, we headed West towards Zion. We crossed into the state of Utah and checked out Buckskin Gultch and the Wave area for a few mile hike! Talked with a couple other group of guys while leaving that were in an 06 Sport Tacoma. They were doing kind of the same sites as me but working their way East instead of West while hopefully ending up somewhere in Florida along their way. Talked about some truck stuff for a little while before working our way West towards Zion!

 

Zion National Park

Day 12

Day 12 brought us to Zion National Park, probably one of the most beautiful National Parks and pieces of land I've been on. The cliffs of Zion don't do justice unless you are there. Only thing I didn't like about Zion would be that you had to take a shuttle everywhere throughout the park instead of driving. However, the views were top notch. The cliffs and views inside of Zion were amazing. We stayed an entire day in Zion, hiking the Narrows because the famous Angels Landing was closed due to a landslide in the park. From the beginning of the park to the end, the scenery is top notch. Even sucked it up and got an actual camp site in the park so we could enjoy a nice warm shower for a change. Couldn't argue too much with still having that kind of view at camp.

 

Bryce Canyon/Peak A Boo Canyon


Day 13

After leaving Zion and arriving at Bryce canyon that prior evening, we got to catch the sunset at Bryce Canyon. The wildlife and colors of Bryce Canyon were fantastic, especially at sunset. We didn't get to spend a lot of time in Bryce because the following morning got a little crowded, so we decided to head out for a little waterfall hike outside of Bryce before heading to Peek A Book Canyon.










After leaving Bryce we got to experience one of the sweetest hikes I've ever been on. The road getting to Peek A Boo Canyon was a long one, about 30+miles of dirt road into the middle of nowhere. It felt like we were never going to arrive. After finally arriving on top of the canyon we began our hike down into the bottom. After arriving at the bottom of the canyon we had to make a climb up the rock into a narrow gultch. After getting up, the red rock and climbs were top notch. Full of red rock arches, tunnels, tight squeezes, climbs, etc! Definitely worth the boring drive and hike after getting to experience the views and climbs of the red rock gultch of Peek A Boo Canyon

 

Lower Calf Creek Falls/ Burr Trail Road


Day 14

Day 14 brought of the of the best scenic back road drives I've ever been on. After leaving Peek A Boo Canyon, we picked up and headed East across Burr Trail Road in route to Moab, UT to try to get in a little more wheeling before heading back home! Before hitting Burr Trail, we stopped for a quick view of Lower Calf Creek Falls along the road way!

Burr Trail road is a 66 mile scenic road near Boulder, AZ. Definitely recommend taking this scenic route across South Central Utah if you are in the area. The road took us about 2 hours to complete the 66 mile journey but the views were fantastic. From wildlife, to switchbacks, the trail was worth every minute!

 

Moab, Utah


Day 15-16

We arrived at Moab! Overall, I loved the town of Moab. First Day we were there we hit Hells Revenge! From the main entrance of the trail going across Devils Backbone, to the very end, Hells Revenge was pretty epic. Just a different feeling of wheeling over Red Rock instead of mud, dirt, and sharp rock like we have here in the South. The views seem to go for days as I was quite surprised how well the all terrains grabbed on the rock. Some of the inclines had the driver and passenger looking straight into the air while the truck pulled up hill, even the downhill declines found you holding everything in place in the cab as you descended or it was all coming towards your lap. Was definitely nice having a passenger without a front camera because some places on Hells Revenge you didn't want to turn driver or passenger without some consequences. The trail was marked along the way with painted triangles to help you along your way. The following day we hit up Top of the World trail before heading back home. The trail had some decently challenging spots along the way. The truck started to overheat a little as I got to the very end of the trail but the view at the end was to die for. The trail definitely lived up to its name as you felt you were indeed on top of the world at the end!

Panorama of Top of the World!








Devils Bathtub

 

Video's!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-zn00I1Tds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrXJ0PtcSgU

 

Colorado!


https://youtu.be/9_feZ2sVVpA

 

A look of all the scenic areas of the trip


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP9XKMGsC-g

 

Awesome trip! I can't wait to start making some treks like this. I'll be forwarding this thread on to my wife for sure. We've got the truck and most of the gear, now I just need some vacation time!!

Thanks for sharing all the pics.

 

Thanks. I did the first part of the trip by myself then picked up some friends along the way. Had a fantastic time and was the first time I've ever did something like this on this large of scale for this long. By the time I got home I was already thinking of where I could go to next!

 

Starting to plan my next trip. Thinking about heading up North/Northwest near Yellowstone, Glacier, Montana area. Any recommendations?

 

I'm afraid I've got no suggestions, but I'm interested in hearing what you come up with!

 

May just go out on a limb like I did my last trip. It seemed to turn out great! Took me about 9-12 months of planning and mapping. Guess I better get started!