AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

Oh, It's Time - New Tacoma LBJs

Over the last couple years, I've learned - mostly from others experience - that it's a good idea to keep an eye on 1st gen Tacoma lower ball joints (LBJs). If you do lots of bumpy, off-road style driving, every 30-50,000 miles is a reasonable interval to change this part of your truck, in order to prevent a catastrophic failure.

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Now, I'm not all that great about actually checking my LBJs, but I do generally try to keep an extra set on hand, and then as part of my annual winter maintenance - where I also change all the fluids along the drive train for instance - I give the LBJs a check, and usually end up changing them out. It works out well for me because I tend to drive about 30-35,000 miles per year.

So, today I headed out to the shop to check my LBJs, and here's what I found. This time, it's been 15 months, and it's definitely time for replacement.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/bu2rQMxXV2M

The first step in any project like this is gathering the parts and tools. Parts are straight forward - you need ball joints. I always use and recommend OEM LBJs, since other brands are known to have premature failure (and no one likes premature ... well, you get my drift ).

When purchasing OEM LBJs, you have two choices on a 1st gen 4WD Tacoma (or Prerunner):

1. If you also need 4 new flanged bolts to secure the LBJ to the lower control arm (LCA), then you should purchase part numbers - L: 43340-39585; R: 43330-39815.
2. If you plan to re-use your 4 exiting LBJ bolts, then you can get - L:43340-39436; R: 43330-39556.

Personally, I tend check prices on all of these and then purchase the cheapest L and R option, and then replace the bolts only if necessary.

From a tools perspective, I mostly ended up using several sockets, a ball joint separator, and my impact and torque wrenches:

• Misc sockets (set)
  • 22mm socket to remove the castle nut on the outer tie rod
  • 24mm socket to remove the castle nut on the LBJ
  • 14mm socket to remove the four bolts holding the LBJ to the spindle
• OTC 6295 Front End Service Set
• pliers for the various cotter pins (cutting) (needle nose)
• Milwaukee mid-torque impact wrench
• A torque wrench for re-installation of critical components.
• A floor jack and jack stands.
• A bit of blue Loctite (242)

With everything in hand, the replacement process is reasonably straight forward. First, jack up the front of the truck and support it securely on jack stands. Remove the wheels. Now, with access to the hub assembly, remove the 4, 14mm bolts that secure the LBJ to the hub.

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Next, remove the cotter pin and loosen - but do not remove - the 24mm castle nut that secures the LBJ to the lower control arm (LCA).

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By loosening, but not removing the castle nut, you can keep the joint from jumping too much in the following step. This is the point at which you want to use a pitman arm puller to push the stud of the LBJ out of the LCA.

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Next, repeat the cotter pin, castle nut, and pitman arm puller process on the 22mm castle nut that secures the steering (outer tie rod) to the LBJ.

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At this point, you can simply lift the hub assembly up and out of the way, in order to remove the old LBJ from the LCA.

Installation of the new LBJ is also straight-forward and essentially the reverse of removal. In fact, it all went so quickly that I only snapped a couple photos. However, the steps and torque specs were:

1. Position the new LBJ between the spindle and LCA, careful to use the side-appropriate part. At this point, you can set the hub assembly back in place to relieve a bit of the stress the CV axle boots are likely experiencing.
   
   
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2. Install the new 24mm castle nut that secures the LBJ to the LCA and hand tighten. Don't torque it yet.
3. Install the old 22mm castle nut that secures the outer tie rod end to the LBJ and hand tighten.
4. Install four new 14mm bolts through the LBJ and into the spindle. Tighten them reasonably tight to ensure everything is aligned correctly; then back out one at a time to apply some blue Loctite and torque to 59 ft-lbs.
5. Torque the 24mm castle nut that secures the LBJ to the LCA to 103 ft-lbs (plus any additional necessary to allow installation of the cotter pin).
6. Torque the 22mm castle nut that secures the tie rod end to the LBJ to 67 ft-lbs (plus any additional necessary to allow installation of the cotter pin).

And then it's done!

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Hey, anyone interested in purchasing some low-mileage, never-seen-dirt, OEM lower ball joints for a great price before they go on Craigslist as "like new"? I'll even throw in four bolts, a couple castle nuts, and one cotter pin for the same low, low price!

Relax internet, I'm kidding.

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This is Not a Jeep Commercial

I was going to title this story Our Snowy Adventures in the Cascades, but our last day in the mountains changed all that. So, let's get right down to it.

Day 1
Our adventures started out early one morning - probably way too early - as we packed into the car at 5:00am and headed north. Our objective for the day - at least for us - was unusual. There was to be no off-road driving, no hiking to splendiferous overlooks. No, today was to be about sitting and then sliding, then sitting... and sliding again. We'd do it for as long as we could muster - our energy sure to wane before the day was through.

And it was a beautiful day.

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We arrived just in time to grab some gear, get suited up, and get @mini.turbodb off to her lesson before our first episode of "sitting" for the day. Sure, we were a bit chilly and the chair we sat in wasn't the most comfortable, but by the time we were back on our feet, we were confident that it was worth it - the views both up and down the mountain were about as good as they get.

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With 90 minutes of not-our-second-time-ever-skiing to enjoy, we lost no time in sliding our way down and then sitting our way to the top again as quickly as possible. Still, the 90 minutes was over in the blink of an eye and soon we were back down at the lodge, excited to pick up the kiddo and enjoy ourselves even more. She was too, and let us know that of course she wanted to do a few more runs before lunch, duh! So back up we all went!

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Having skipped breakfast, it only took a few more runs until all of our stomachs were growling - so we grabbed our lunch out of the car and awkwardly ski-boot-clanked our way up three flights of stairs to the top floor of the lodge... the only level where peons - those who aren't buying $26 cheeseburgers from the resort - are allowed to eat.

Joke was on them though - this high up, we had the best view!

Lunch was a quick affair - all of us eager to do a bit more sitting and sliding - and just as everyone else was leaving the mountain for some $18 chili, we were headed back out to enjoy some of the least-crowded slopes we'd ever experienced.

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Of course, through all of this, @mini.turbodb was confident that she was in a league of her own when it came to skiing - I mean, who were these two old people that were constantly cramping her style and that she always had to wait for at the very bottom of the hill? "I'm riding up the lift by myself," she informed us. And so she did.

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By the end of the day - which for us was right around 3:30pm - we were all beat. Some of us because we're just old, others of us because we were holding a #yardsale several times per run. I don't think any of us would have changed anything.

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Except maybe to edit out a few more of the falls in the resulting video...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/WXLQVK47sPU​

Day 2
As I think anyone who's ever skied before can attest to, one day is never enough. And, for the last few months, @mrs.turbodb has been on me to go cross country skiing with her, so we once again piled in the car and headed for what @mini.turbodb calls "bad skiing."

This time we were headed to a sleepy little town just north of Leavenworth, WA that may be familiar to some - Plain. This is the same Plain where NW Overland Rally is held each year, but during the winter it's a hot spot for cross-country skiing. With kilometer after kilometer of trail, there's plenty of room for everyone to get their fill of sliding along the snow, ski-hiking.

As with downhill, we arrived reasonably early - though, not as early - and got ourselves situated with gear before heading out. Interestingly to me, the way one is "measured" for cross-country ski length is by getting on a scale rather than by height. Perhaps this is so your skis are long enough to keep you from sinking too far into deep powdery snow? Or perhaps it's just to be different - I mean, the trails are measured in kilometers, and the ideal temperatures in Celsius, rather than Freedomheight

We tossed our skis and poles into the back of the truck and set out towards the trails. Now, normally I think we'd have been able to ski out the back door of the rental shop, but the weather had been so mild the last couple weeks that we had to drive a mile or so up the valley to find a bit more snow than was present in town. This, it turned out, was a good thing for us - for several reasons. First, it meant that we had another day of great weather to enjoy the outdoors; second, it meant that we had just a few fewer kilometers to travel - something we'd be glad about several hours later; lastly, it afforded us a more out-of-town-and-in-nature experience than we would have had otherwise - always a good thing.

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Scooting along, we found our way - after one small detour - to a 9.4km trail that worked its way up the valley, and found a short, kilometer-long offshoot up an expert-rated trail to what we hoped would give us a stunning overview of the area. It probably would have 50 years ago, but all the trees have grown up again, so it was back down the mountain - a direction that is much harder in cross-country skis - and back onto our trail along the valley floor.

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Eventually, we stopped for lunch at a snowed-in campground. Interestingly, though all the tables all standing on-end for the winter, and all the fire pits were under a couple feet of snow, there were still a few RVs parked there - and it appeared they'd been there for quite some time. Beyond the campground, we eventually figured it was time to turn around and head back the billions of kilometers (that's only a few freedom miles) to the truck, each of us looking forward to what we knew was going to be a great dinner at one of our favorite spots in Leavenworth - the Kingfisher Restaurant.

Kingfisher is special because it's essentially a fancy buffet, sort of. Really, it's all-you-can-eat of whatever the chef happens to make that night, and no matter what that is, it's always delicious. Over the years, we've gotten to know the chef, and he's gotten to know us - and that means that when we show up, a really nice steak is generally on the menu. And, like everything, it's all-you-can-eat.

So, I end up with a lot of plates that look like this. (Well, generally there are fewer potatoes, and more steak - but this is what the first plate looks like.)

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Having enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, we soon found ourselves looking forward to the following day - a day we planned to spend exploring some of the backroads in the area, searching the mountains for those dramatic, snow-covered views. Little did we know that the day would be nothing like we planned.

Day 3
Our bellies full from our tastylicious dinner, we got a slow start the next morning. No matter, it was to be a day of wonderful wandering anyway, no real destination - with the exception of "up in the snowy mountains" - in mind. By 11:00am, we were headed up Mountain Home Road - a road we'd been on once before as a reroute on the WABDR - to see how far we could get into the mountains.

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From our position in the valley, the route looked reasonably dry but it turns out that the canopy was simply hiding the snow from view. As we transitioned from pavement to dirt, there was snow on the ground - though not a ton - from the get-go, and with our elevation climbing quickly, I wondered how far we were actually going to get. Before long, a small tree blocked our path.

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The angle here is deceiving - we couldn't make it under this tree - but no matter. Though I'd left the chainsaw at home, I had my handy 10" Japanese pull saw and made quick work of the 8" trunk, giving us - and anyone coming through in the future - plenty of room to explore at will. Soon, we popped out of the trees for a moment and got to enjoy our first mountainous view of the day.

It was bittersweet - I mean, the view was sweet, but the amount of snow was...probably going to be limiting in our excursion.

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Continuing to climb, we eventually crested the first ridge, passing by a small trail tunnel that we'd seen before and assumed was part of a now-defunct mining operation, though we really have no idea...

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It was at this point that we started to wonder if we should turn around since there was plenty of room to do so. The snow on the road was about a foot deep, with the top 4-6" reasonably compacted, and the bottom 6-8" still very fluffy. That meant that as long as we didn't break through the top crust, we were totally fine, but breaking through would result in traction woes and probably some digging.

Several snow machines had clearly driven the road, and we could see one set of (highway-tire) vehicle tracks had gone before us, so we decided to push on - at least to the next turn around point. Or so we thought. Less than a quarter mile later, the snow depth on the road had increased to 18-24" (with the same 4-6" crust on top) and I figured I out to get out and evaluate the situation again. As a single vehicle, and without traction boards, I wanted to make sure we weren't being too... ambitious.

That's when I saw this. Well, almost - @mrs.turbodb wasn't yet out of the truck and chatting with Peter and Mauricio, but you get the idea, generally.

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Turns out those highway tire tracks we'd seen not too far down the road stopped here, and Peter was busy trying to dig out the Jeep using a Samurai sword and an ice scraper. It'd been a long couple hours already, and they weren't any less stuck than they'd been when they slipped out of the compacted tracks and into the soft snow beside them.

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Now, armed with my shovel, we started digging - well, Peter started digging and @mrs.turbodb and I pulled the truck forward and started spooling out the winch, since it was clearly going to be difficult for the tires on this Jeep to get any traction in the soft snow. Soon, we were setup and ready to go.

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With the Tacoma winching and Peter trying to feature the Jeep in reverse, he made progress back, but not back onto the tracks. Looking back now, it might have been a good idea to switch drivers at this point, but I assumed that it was a traction issue rather than driver - so we stopped and re-evaluated. My goal here was to pull the Jeep six inches to the driver side, and so out came the Smittybuilt snatch block which we secured to a 10" diameter tree along the driver side of the road, to try again.

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We were simply too far up the trunk of the tree for this to be successful - probably 10 feet or so from the base - and as I spooled in the winch line, neither vehicle budged an inch. The tree on the other hand leaned over further and further - there was no risk of it snapping, but I have no doubt it would have been laying on the ground if we'd kept on going. That wasn't going to work either.

It was about this time that I thought back to the last time it would have been nice to have traction boards. Our situation with the snow here was of course much less dire - with a shovel, it's just a matter of time when you're in the snow - but still, some Maxtrax or TREDs would have rectified this situation in mere minutes.

For us, it was time to dig again, and winch again. This time, with @mrs.turbodb manning the winch, and me giving much more forceful steering, braking, and forward/reverse direction than I had previously, the Jeep was finally back up on the packed snow and Peter and Mauricio seemed to think they were home free.

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I knew they weren't. There was no way these guys were driving out in snow that had become a slushy mess in the 50°F spring day - no, we needed to get them turned around, and even then, I wasn't sure they could make it given their tire situation.

To give us a fighting chance, the next step was to dig out the 24" of snow on the side of the road that was big enough for a 3- or 5-point turn and line it with fir branches for more traction. I'd turn around first in the Tacoma, and then guide them backwards down the road the 150 feet so they could do the same.

Unfortunately, 150 feet, for someone who's not used to driving in reverse - not to mention reverse in the snow - is like running a marathon, and within about 20 feet, the Jeep was off track once again. More shoveling and winching by @mrs.turbodb and me, and we slowly made our way - 20 feet at a time - to the point I'd dug out for turning around.

I flipped the Tacoma around without issue and then it was time for the Jeep. Once again sure that they were pretty much home free, it was at this point that Peter mentioned that the day was, "Basically a Jeep commercial."

"No," I said laughing and with a wink as we all distributed evergreens for traction, "today is a Toyota commercial."

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The first attempt at turning the Jeep around failed - as is often the case, operations were performed too slowly and the rear missed swinging into the turnaround. It was only at this point that I realized it might be better for me to be physically in the driver's seat, rather than instructing the driver on what to do - and sure enough, I got the Jeep correctly oriented and turned around in a few minutes.

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Still, we weren't home free yet. The 4-6" crust of snow on the road had thinned dramatically over the course of the beautiful day, and we decided it'd be best for me to drive the Tacoma out first to test the conditions. Boy, was the road soft - we made it, but I knew the same wouldn't be true for the Jeep - no matter who drove it, staying in the track was going to be near impossible, and slipping off was going to mean more hours of digging.

I suggested that they leave the Jeep for the night, and come back in the morning when everything had frozen solid again to pick it up - at that point, they'd likely be able to just drive it right out. As expected, there was some hesitation to this plan, but having seen the Tacoma fishtail as we drove some of the sketchier sections of berm, they eventually relented and grabbed their stuff for a ride into town in the back to of the truck.

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After unloading the greens - which we'd packed just in case we needed them for our exit - Peter and Mauricio climbed in and we set off down the hill. It was 4:15pm by this point and we were all ready for dry clothes and food after a long day of work. As we dropped the guys off, I asked them to text me when they got out and we shared handshakes, hugs, and thanks as we headed off.

The day hadn't gone the way any of us had expected, but it had sure been an adventure for us all. The next morning I got a text that they'd made it out - the cool night air helping road conditions immensely. Whew!

 

still skiing with the camo pants lol

 

I'm beginning to wonder if he owns any other pants.

At least step it up with a pair of Khakis!

 

To be fair, I usually wear a different pair on trips. Well, half the time.

Sacrilege!

Mike @Digiratus and Dan @drr saw me in khakis Saturday. Shop day - didn't want to mess up the camo's.

Ah yes, photographic evidence!

 

How do we even know that's you! This is not photographic evidence.



You should know the proper overlanding etiquette dictates us cultured enthusiasts always wear a collared button up and khakis!

 

Hey, here I am with Ben too. Not camo pants.

 

I knew something was off when I saw you that day...

 

At https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...d-and-adventures.484602/page-21#post-16872786 @turbodb illustrated:
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"Start by removing the plastic center lower cover (which contains the two 12v power receptacles. There are two small plastic clips holding this in place, and to remove them, use a screw driver to push in the center of the clip." [first 2 photos copyright turbodb}

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I need to find the PART NUMBER for this REMOVABLE clip.

Toyota Dealer sent me THIS, which does not release with screw driver push in the center of the clip:

Can anyone provide help?
@gunny1005 ??
@BartMaster1234 ??

 

That's the right clip part number AFAIK; my guess is that you just aren't pushing hard enough on the center bit to release it .

To install, you make sure to have it "out" as shown in your photo; then insert it into the hole; then push the center flush with the top surface.

Oak part number is 90467-07041-E0
Grey part number is 90467-07041-B5

 

Hey Turbo,
I have a regear coming up and it’s been about 30-40 yrs since I pulled an 8-3/4” Chrysler diff apart, I’m hopeful that I can get the axles out without damaging the seals, although I expect the worst due to the rough condition of everything else I have found when I tear int9 something on this rig. Any sage advice?

 

Sage advice? You give me too much credit.

When I got gears, I had a shop do it - still would if I were to do it again, esp. the front. Then it's their issue, hahahaha. Maybe that's my sage advice .

As far as the axle seals go though, I wouldn't worry too much. The seals themselves are reasonably easy to replace, and if you haven't recently, I'd just do it while you're in there. Don't forget the ~3" o-ring between the axle housing and backing plate too - that is what "looked the worst" when I did the job, and it's the easiest one to replace. I guess I'll also say that the OTC slide hammer ( to remove the axle seals made the job easier and a lot less stressful than the homemade tool I used the first time.

Good luck with the job, I'd love to help if I were closer!

 

No worries partner, I’m locked down on the eastern border next to Idaho for the foreseeable future till next spring at least. I have a lot of my stepfather’s tools over in a storage locker , I may have everything I need tool wise. I haven’t done anything like this since high school in his shop seems like forever ago. I’ll do this the modern way, you tube it and go from there. At least the diffs will be fresh from ECGS so that part should be golden. I kinda figured to just replace the seals anyway, since I’m already in that deep.
Boy am I going to be broke next summer.
Best of luck, you guys be careful over there. Cheers

 

Mojave East (Mar 2020)

Preface

You'll note pretty quickly that this trip took place right near the beginning of what has become a worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. At the time of the trip, there had been approximately 600 cases and 24 deaths across the USA. 18 of those deaths were from the Life Care assisted living community in Kirkland, WA. Schools at all education levels were still open, and while some companies were starting to allow employees to work from home, it was not widespread, and definitely not mandated. There were no travel restrictions - or even really talk of such restrictions on a broad scale - in place. We were healthy, and hadn't had any high-risk contacts.

I say this to give some perspective, since things have clearly changed since then.

Part 1

Leaving home for adventure was a little different this time. Looking back now, as we headed south out of the Seattle area, we were leaving behind what would turn out to be one of the early epicenters of the Covid-19 outbreak, just before more info on the severity would come to light and large-scale cancellations and closures would become part of our world's lives.

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Our moods were mixed - on the one hand, it was nice getting away from the stream of news for somewhere a little more relaxed; on the other, we were a little concerned about what might happen over the course of our trip, and how those changes might affect our ability to complete our adventure - originally planned for the next several weeks.

Our plan - you see - was to drive down to the eastern Mojave - between St. George, UT and Las Vegas, NV and explore for the better part of a week. Then, as we'd done the previous year (trip report) at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, we'd leave the truck in the desert (under the generous care of Brent @PcBuilder14) and fly home for ~10 days, before flying back for another week of adventure. That would amortize the long drive and give us a better dirt-to-pavement ratio by the time we were all done.

For the time being, we did our best to put the world's (still believed to be largely China at this point) situation out of our head as the miles ticked away, the truck humming along as happily as ever. By the end of our first day of driving, it was 11:00pm when we found ourselves just south of Wells, NV at a little spot that Mike @Digiratus and I had camped the last time I'd been to St. George, before starting the F.U.Rain trip through the Grand Canyon and vast lands to the east.

With several more hours of driving before reaching our final destination, we were up by 5:30am and out of camp 30 minutes later. The sun was just cresting the eastern horizon as we headed south, and it was going to be a beautiful day.

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Having skipped breakfast, our stomachs were screaming by 10:00am. When an opportunistic sign for Cathedral Gorge presented itself, we decided that'd be as great a place as any to feast on a few Cheerios before turning east towards Utah.

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The colors at Cathedral Gorge - precursors for what we'd see the rest of the trip - whet our appetite for more, so I pushed the skinny pedal a little further down to shave a few minutes off of our drive. Turns out, those minutes were used for a second unplanned stop as we passed through Mountain Meadows and the several memorials that dot the sides of the highway.

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We didn't spend long at the memorial, instead pushing on towards the hikes and discoveries on the beauty of nature that we knew would fill the remainder of our day. And so, right around lunch, we turned off of pavement, onto dirt, and towards our first trailhead at Lower Sand Cove.

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The hike through Sand Cove would eventually lead us a little over a mile - through an outcropping of red rock - to a tinaja known as The Vortex. We ate a quick lunch and then headed down and across a wash that separated the parking area from the colorful rocks that rose out of the ground in front of us. A Great Basin Collard Lizard scurried away as we made our way down.

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Soon, we were out of the wash and onto the sandstone, the colors and erosion patterns already dramatic as they ranged from white to red before our eyes.

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Here, we stumbled upon a fault line, its straightness - in the center of the photo - similar to, but conspicuously different than the rest of the cracks in the rocky landscape.

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While all uphill, the inclines were reasonable and we followed the path I'd loaded into Backcountry Navigator up through a large bowl towards the ridgeline. The higher we got, the more dramatic the views.

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A little more than a mile in, we reached the summit. There, we found a puzzling tinaja - I mean, we'd expected to find one, but this one didn't look anything like what I'd seen.

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As I roamed around taking photos of what I figured must be the tinaja, @mrs.turbodb did a bit of exploring herself, accidentally stumbling on a couple who'd decided that a rocky ledge behind the tinaja was the perfect spot to "get back to nature" if you get my drift. That discovery sent her back my direction and even a little further... I followed, and suddenly we stumbled on the tinaja we'd been looking for!

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Relieved that I wasn't going crazy - or crazier than we all already know - we spent a few minutes enjoying the perfect weather and views from this splendid vantage point and reading some of the names that had been carved into the brick-shaped sandstone that ringed the tinaja.

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As we were getting ready to head back down, @mrs.turbodb looked off into the distance and spotted what she thought was a secret garden of cairns. Neither of us had expected - and I'd not found in any of my research - such a thing, but there was no way we were going to leave without checking it out - after all, who knows if we'd ever be back this way in the future, or if the garden would still exist if we were.

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Like all good gardens, this one fit its surroundings perfectly, its creators surely pleased with their work. I know we were, even it if wasn't as natural as most of the wonders we find in the wild.

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With more to do in the day, we figured we ought to start heading back and choose a route down from The Vortex that was different than our leisurely route up. Much steeper, we got to do some fun bouldering and down-climbing as we made our way back to the base of the red rock back through the blooming manzanita - abuzz with bees - in the wash separating it from the Tacoma.

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From Sand Cove, we made our way west on dirt roads - through the small town of Gunlock - to what I hoped would be the first of many amazing petroglyphs for this trip. Of course, that would require us actually finding the ever-elusive rock art, since many times all that is discoverable beforehand is a general location - but that was just fine with us, that discovery is part of the adventure!

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The road to The Naming Cave and the petroglyphs it held was a fun one, requiring us to air down - something I'd hoped to avoid until the following day, knowing that we had a several dozen miles of pavement in front of us before turning onto dirt for the remainder of the trip.

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An hour later we found ourselves at the next trailhead. This one was theoretically shorter - in length - than the last hike, but we had no idea how long it would take to find the hidden petroglyphs once we were in the vicinity.

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As we explored the red rock outcropping where I thought The Naming Cave would be, I was pretty sure I'd discovered the cave from a distance - but there was a problem: how to reach it? The cave - you see - was on a ledge some 30 feet above us, and all routes to it seemed a bit sketchy without the proper equipment. The exploration for an access route provided several cool discoveries as well.

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Wind-swept sandstone, nature's cubby cabinet.​

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Mini-arch.​

Keen to get to the cave itself, I finally decided on what I thought was the least-sketchy route. Content to relax under the warm sun, @mrs.turbodb decided that least-sketchy still wasn't her cup of tea this afternoon, and so I pushed on alone - to great success!

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The cave, its roof having collapsed at some point.​

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The canvas.​

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The view.​

Thrilled to have found what we'd been looking for, and confident that if I'd made it through the sketchy traverse to the cave, that I could surely make it back, I retraced my steps to a peaceful @mrs.turbodb and shared the photos with her before making our way back to the truck, which had been standing guard at the trailhead.

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On our way once again, we headed south from The Naming Cave to Old Highway 91. The route was rocky and slow, several sections recently repaired - and already eroding again - from recent rains.

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Through all of it, the views were astounding. It seems I never tire of the brightly colored earth poking up through the trees, the orange and blue contrasting so well against each other, the clouds providing interest in the sky.

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At this point our plan had been to find camp on some BLM land near the trailhead for our first hike the following morning, but a quick check of the weather alerted us to the fact that rain was going to start around 10:00pm and carry on through the entirety of the next day. As such, we decided that it might be better to knock out that hike today as well!

And so, just outside the town of Santa Clara, we pulled into the parking area for the Anasazi Trail and started up the hillside. Being so close to town, the trail here was very well traveled, and we had no trouble finding our way. What I did have trouble with was remembering why I'd marked this trail in the first place. I had a route, but no waypoints along the route, so we simply continued on, hoping to find whatever cool thing had caused me to add the hike to our itinerary.

A mile in - and near the apex of the loop trail - we found what we were looking for - more petroglyphs! At first, we thought there were just a few, but as we continued to explore, it turned out that there were dozens of separate panels, each with their own unique art. It was quite enjoyable to wander amongst the rocks, discovering a devil-man over here, goats and a weird alien over there, etc.

A few of our favorite discoveries:

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You little devils, you.​

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Alien under a cloudy sky.​

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Is that a Stormtrooper on the right?​

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So many humanoid figures - more than I've seen at most other petroglyph sites.​

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By the time we'd had our fill - and made it back to the trailhead - it was a little after 7:00pm and time for us to find camp. I'd done a bit of research and found a nice little BLM spot just to our southeast, and so that's where we headed. Things are rarely as easy as they seem however, and this time was no exception - we scouted out several possible camp sites, but each had their drawbacks given the ominous weather forecast and several groups of 'mericans who were out on the public lands shooting their guns in several different directions.

Eventually though, we found what we thought would be a great little secluded spot on the hillside and setup camp before making what is my favorite camp dinner - tacos and guacamole.

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Everything seemingly sorted, we retired to the truck for a bit of reading, to download photos from the days adventures, and to wait for the storm - which we could see coming - to roll in. And then, a flash. And another. Now, we weren't the highest thing on the ridge, but we weren't the lowest either - and over the course of the next hour or so, as the lightning got closer and closer, we both started to get a bit nervous - it wasn't going to pass by to our east or west as it made its way from the south, it was going to pass directly overhead.

Just as the first drops started falling, we decided to seek lower ground. Luckily, we'd passed something in our earlier explorations that we thought might work, so we quickly folded up the tent and headed that way. And so it was that as the rain started, we opened up the tent and climbed right in. Tired from two long days of driving and hiking, I put in my earplugs and was asleep within minutes, dreaming of what the next day would bring.

 

Great pics as always! Can't believe all of that is just a few hours from me. I've been wanting to spend a weekend at Cathedral Gorge for a while now but it always seems to be packed...

 

I like that most people don't seem to realize how great it is in Nevada. It takes more work to find the best spots compared to Utah but it's usually better because there are a lot smaller crowds.

 

100% agree, Nevada is so huge with really only a few large cities. We've been lucky enough to find some great trails and camping spots on BLM land in central and Eastern Nevada. I still want to do some of the Nevada Backcountry Discovery Route and that that only touches such a small amount of the state.

 

eh, that depends on where you're going in UT I think. I've spent a lot of time and miles in UT and avoided plenty of crowds. Truth be told, it's really not that hard to go anywhere and get away from crowds in WA, OR, MT, ID, WY, UT, NV, AZ even CO. Theres just a lot to see and a lot of ground to cover.

 

I've started a few times to plan the Nevada BDR over a few trips but keep getting sidetracked. I think you have to do a spring trip for the southern half and a fall trip for the northern to get the best weather.

True but when you figure the amount of people coming into Las Vegas each weekend but it only takes 50 miles to not see a person.

 

I was considering doing however much as 4 full days would allow during Memorial Day weekend starting in Pahrump just North of the Southern start point, but that may be too hot. Just depends on how quickly we can push North and if it gets cool enough at night. I doubt I’ll do it now though with how much this virus will affect my future work schedule.