My 4 Years Of Slowly Planning Road Trip!

The trip was amazing! Only regret you'll have is if you don't do it!

 

Day 13-

Left Zion, and headed to Bryce Canyon National Park! Bryce was another one of my favorites in Utah! Almost everywhere you look would be an awesome picture! It was beautiful! I hiked Queens Landing, Navajo Loop, and saw Sunset Point, Sunrise Point, Inspiration Point, Bryce Point. Then drove to the Natural Bridge and Rainbow Point!

 

Day 14-

Left Bryce Canyon and headed to Capitol Reef National Park! The park was nice but this was the point where everything started to blend together. Don't get me wrong, the park was beautiful but I was just getting tired of the scenery. Saw a lot of stuff then left to go to Moab. The night before I was on Facebook and noticed one of my old friends was in Moab! I got a hold of her, met up in Moab and had a great time. I met up with her, her boyfriend, and his friends to have dinner and get some ice cream afterwards. Her BF happened to really like Jeeps so we had a lot in common of liking off roading. He really liked my truck and said I was living his dream! LOL! Found a campsite and called it a night.











On my way to Moab, I stopped at a diner in the middle of nowhere and another well built tacoma parked next to me while I was eating! He must be on this forum since he had a TacomaWorld sticker on his back window. Whoever's truck it is, clean looking truck!

 

That's @cmj

 

Awesome write up! Looks like you had such a kickass time.

Have the pin point or location of those sites on lake powel in Utah by chance? Have been looking to do that!

 

Day 15-

This was probably the worst day of the road trip. The truck was developing a clunk in the suspension and figured the I shouldn't wheel it and risk breaking something. I thought it was the outer tie rods since they had some grease coming out and had a lot of play. So, I changed them and it just ended up making it worse. I decided to let it be since it was just sitting in my camp site and wait until a shop opens the next day to get it looked at. In the mean time I decided to take the bike out and ride up to Slick Rock. Little did I know that it was 3 miles away, uphill and 100 degrees out. Got to the top and rode the practice loop. After that I made it over to the actual Slick Rock trail. I think it was a combination of things but I hated it! I was constantly riding my brakes on the steep decents and then when you get to the bottom its super steep that I would have to get off and walk. I was not happy. Soooo, I decided to ride back into town and just wander around for a little while. Riding around town I ran into another TW members truck (@utroda)! He just happened to be walking to his truck when I got there and talked to him a little while! Good dude and loved his truck! After that, it was just too hot so I went to a Mcdonalds and sat in there for a while cooling off and charging my phone. It was like torture seeing all these bad ass rigs driving by and not being able to wheel mine! Got some dinner then called it a night.

 

If you're leaving out of Page heading north on RT 89, there's going to be 2 campgrounds. One is I think a campground with hook ups on the Arizona side. Go pass this one and cross the Utah state line. The road is Lone Rock Road and the camping is Lone Rock Beach Primitive Camping! I paid 14 bucks for the night but that was with a military discount. I don't think it would cost much more than that though.

 

Awesome, really appreciate it!

Do you know if fires are allowed on the beach by chance?

 

Day 16-

Woke up early to go to a repair shop. I didn't have to tools to change the inner tie rods but I had them with me so I had them change them while they were in there. The clunk ended up being a worn sway bar end link! I was glad it wasn't anything worse. Unfortunately, they only had one end link in town so I had them change it and would pick up one for the other side in another town later into the trip. I also got an alignment. Once everything was done I went to Canyonlands National Park! The park reminded me of a mix of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. It was a pretty cool park! Good views then headed back to Moab for the night.

 

I can't remember exactly but i'm pretty sure you can. Never mind, I just looked it up and it said you can!

 

Appreciate it! Looking forward to the posts of the remaining trip days

 

I think I only have 2 or 3 days left to upload! lol

 

Austin,

Thanks for all of the effort put into the retelling of your trip. I've lived in CO, UT, CA, & AZ ever since I left the USAF back in 1989 - where my last duty station was TINKER AFB, haha - massive base. Anyway, all of the pictures and tales you've recounted remind me of different visits I've had to the very same places.

Next time you do this kind of run, I can't emphasize enough to do South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon.

 

Day 17-

The day of the last national park. Arches National Park! Woke up to see a bad ass camping setup across from me! Dude had a F450 with a flatbed. On the flatbed he had a rock crawler. Then he had a camper attached to the truck. I was impressed. Made my way to Arches and I was glad I saved it til last! I pretty much saw all the famous arches. I saw the Balanced Rock, North and South Windows, Turret Arch, Double Arch, Garden of Eden, Delicate Arch, Fiery Furnace, Devils Garden, Landscape Arch, Partition Arch, Navajo Arch, and Double O Arch! Did a good amount of hiking too! After exploring the park, I was tired of the heat and headed back to Breckenridge for the night!

 

That's awesome! Iv'e actually already been thinking of taking a trip up around that area like, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, and other places around there!

 

Day 19-21

Stayed in Breckenridge for another few days because I love it up there and I can see my family. My aunt and uncle had to work so I took there dog on a hike they recommended. I went up to Mohawk Lakes and it was absolutely beautiful up there. On the way up there were old buildings, lakes and amazing views. Once I got to the top the trail opened up to the upper Mohawk lake at eye level! I took a little break once up there, looked around and saw some mountain goats! There were 4 mountain goats up there! Pretty cool to see since iv'e never really seen them before. Luckily my aunts dog was good and didn't even pay attention to the mtn goats. She even posed for a good pic!

 

Awesome trip, I've done 3 similar trips this year, but for 7-10 days at a time, however long I had. I'd love to do one really long one like you did, that would let you spend more time at places/go farther. Once you're done building the truck you might as well use it! Everything out west is so different from what we have down here in the southeast.

Just a friendly tip, there's lots of free campsites that have spectacular views, plus you'll be the only one there. I recommend getting a Charles Well's guide to Moab/Colorado next time you head out there. Lots of good descriptions of the trails, and it lists campsites too. Another good resource is freecampsites.net for finding campsites.

These are just some of the free places I've stayed.
Utah:
DSC05565a by Unner Unner, on Flickr
Wyoming:
DSC07204a by Unner Unner, on Flickr
Colorado:
DSC08539 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I'm working on finishing up the trip report for my Colorado trip. The one for my Moab trip has been posted for awhile now. If you're ever bored check them out, I think we are very like minded. I love seeing what else is out there, road trips are awesome.

 

Day 22-29

Slowly making my way back to Charleston visiting a ton of people along the way! Pretty much went something like this. Left Breckenridge to Oklahoma City to see my friend one last time. Had a good visit. Left OKC to go to Nashville. I had a buddy who just moved there and moved in right across the street from Vanderbilt! We went downtown to Broadway street and had an awesome time! Got a few hours of sleep and then took off to Wright Patt( Dayton, OH) to see an old friend who joined the AF after I did. Caught up for a while then left to go to Bowling Green, OH to see my best friend from high school who is getting his masters this year. Had some good food, caught up again, then he had to go to bed since he had a class early in the morning. From BG I drove back to my hometown in Lorain, OH. Stayed there a couple days then I had to start heading back to Charleston. On the way back to SC, I stopped to see more family in Raleigh, NC. From Raleigh I finally make it back to Charleston. Around 7,000 miles and 17 states later my trip is over! It was the best thing I think iv'e ever done and i'll remember it the rest of my life!

 

That looks awesome! Part of the reason or me paying for campsite is I needed wifi to check my work email and it was nice having showers, laundry, etc...

 

Fair enough. I just go off the grid when I'm out haha. The showers would be nice though, and laundry if you're gone for as long as you were. So now that this one's done where are you going next?