Grand Canyon, Mojave, Death Valley road trip

[paddlenbike]

Just got back from a little road trip to the Grand Canyon, Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley. We took the Subaru to give the 4Runner a break, but that didn't stop us from offroading anyway. :thumbup:

Saw lots of wildlife on this trip; elk were everywhere. They would walk right into camp and hang out with us for a bit. They stopped just short of sitting down at the picnic table and having lunch with us.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2223.jpg


Grand Canyon South Rim. Plateau Point trail in foreground. It's 8.9 miles one-way from the rim to Plateau Point, then another 4.5 miles to the Colorado River bottom. Little bit much for a day hike.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2259.jpg

Lunch or dessert? Trust me, it is both. http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/emoticons/lickout.gif
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2260.jpg

South Rim and Colorado River, looking upstream toward Lake Powell.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2284.jpg

South Rim, again.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2357.jpg

Did I mention there were elk everywhere?
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2379.jpg

To break up the 12.5 hour drive back to California from the Grand Canyon, we left a day early and spent a day in Mojave National Preserve. Here the Subaru poses for a picture.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2448.jpg

Hello.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2450.jpg

We had Hole in the Rock campground pretty much to ourselves.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2457.jpg

The Subaru makes a nice road trip vehicle. I dig the interior.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2470.jpg

Gotta throw some vehicle content in here to keep this post offroad/car oriented. :D
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2481.jpg

This is roughing it:
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2477.jpg

Road that leads to the Mojave Road 4x4 trail:
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2495.jpg

I stopped to photograph this slow moving train. I was well off the tracks, but that didn't stop the engineer from staying on the horn as he rolled by at 10 mph. I need a train horn for the 4Runner...if you haven't noticed, they're loud.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2503.jpg

We did a 15 mile stretch of the Mojave Road 4x4 trail. It was quite easy, just a lot of "whooptie doos" and soft sand driving. This Outback is the turbo model with a 5-speed manual transmission, which comes with a viscous coupling center diff and a limited slip in the rear. The automatics have VDC, which will cut the throttle back if the wheels start to slip. What's the fun in that?
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2509.jpg

Big horn sheep:
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2519.jpg

More wildlife. A wild burro spotted at the Cinder Cones/Lava beds:
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2525.jpg
And yes, Indie dog likes her new toy.

Cinder cones/lava beds:
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2527.jpg

Random shot of the straight highways heading home. We cut two hours off the GPS's estimated ETA coming home. :shake:
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/2008_GrandCanyon/IMG_2533.jpg

Saw two more really cool things on the way home--either a large bobcat or a small mountain lion at the beginning of Monitor Pass and a full-on 200 pound mountain lion on the other side of Monitor Pass. Even though we were safe inside the car, the sight of this thing made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

Overall, good trip. Weather was great, not too many tourists and we had no problems making reservations at any of our stops. Grand Canyon was relatively quiet, with the exception of the temporary chaos that occurs when a tour bus pulls up and everyone pushes each other out of the way to get off the bus and take photos. Mojave and Death Valley were virtually empty, making this a great time to travel.

[04 Rocko Taco]

Awesome!!! Looks like a great trip, me and Mrs Rocko were out in Vegas last year, and we took a little time and drove down to the canyon also, we drove back through Ca, just so we could say we had been there. :) Thanks for the pics!!!

[cooldry]

Thanks for that trip report. Looks like you guys had a lot of fun. I've got to make it out to the canyon some time. Very inspirational pics.

[corax]

Great pics. I was hoping to do a similar trip at some point . . . but alas, I didn't make the time and we're far away from there now. I like the car too, how'd it do fuel wise? I was thinking of trading the Lex in for one in the future

BTW, if you really want a train horn set, check out this site -> Horn Blasters (http://www.hornblasters.com/) <- they also have videos you can check out to see how their horns sound

[paddlenbike]

I've got to make it out to the canyon some time.

Whether you've been there before or not, the views are impressive--well worth a long drive out to see it.



Great pics. I was hoping to do a similar trip at some point . . . but alas, I didn't make the time and we're far away from there now. I like the car too, how'd it do fuel wise? I was thinking of trading the Lex in for one in the future


EPA estimates are 19 city 26 highway. We get 20 mpg mostly city with a bit of highway thrown in there and about 24 mpg highway. On this trip, we did much worse. Two tanks at between 20 and 21 mpg, two tanks at 22 mpg and one at 25.5 mpg. For the most part we were on remote highways doing about 82 mph (speedlimit is 75 mph), and a little faster for short periods of time. To give the car some credit, we were loaded and always going over some kind of mountain pass, but even on flat ground I wish it got about 2 mpg better--or around 27-28 mpg.


BTW, if you really want a train horn set, check out this site -> Horn Blasters (http://www.hornblasters.com/) <- they also have videos you can check out to see how their horns sound


I've seen that site before...hilarious.

[wifesaysimadumbass]

when exactly did you go and how hot was it in mojave?

[paddlenbike]

We left Mojave on Sunday October 5th and I remember the car's outside temperature showed a high of 91-degrees. October is a great time to go to the desert.