The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[mosesburb]

Not sure how bad that road was, I have been on it in an Astro and I didn't think it was very bad.

Not even worth mentioning, but because the German cat made such a big deal out of it I thought I'd pass it along. Part of the fun of traveling is the people that you get to meet along the way.

Do you get allot of time off work or are these mostly weekend trips?

Almost everything in here is either a day trip or an overnighter. This particular trip is longer, but I used a couple strategic days off along with the fourth of July and a service anniversary to get a few days off in a row.

Very cool to see man! Love the scenery!

Thanks!!

My new motto for life: Safety third.

There are always a couple things more important that safety, right??

 

[mtnman]

There are always a couple things more important that safety, right??

Absolutely!

 

[max 02]

Almost everything in here is either a day trip or an overnighter. This particular trip is longer, but I used a couple strategic days off along with the fourth of July and a service anniversary to get a few days off in a row.

Thats cool!

 

[mosesburb]

So after we left Monument Valley, we headed north toward Mexican Hat UT. Not far out of Monument Valley the north end of the valley becomes visible. It is amazingly huge. It took six pictures to do a panoramic shot of it. This is one looking back toward the main concentration of monuments:

Gratuitous truck shot:

Shortly after those pics we came upon these super-cool hills that looked like sand sculptures. Rolling hills with bending colors throughout them:

We get through the thriving metropolis of Mexican Hat and head up toward Valley Of The Gods. We find an old Chevy truck with a stinky gas motor sitting off the side of the road there:

A few miles in we came upon this cool looking stream bed:

I think this one was the two women and the washtub or something:

View from camp that night. We camped on the lower base of Baker Butte:

A little later:

 

[lectric80]

I have wanted to get into Valley of the Gods but havn't managed to do it yet. It might just be time soon though, I am looking at what activities the family and I are going to do next year.

Still loving all your pictures and explorations.

 

[mosesburb]

I have wanted to get into Valley of the Gods but havn't managed to do it yet. It might just be time soon though, I am looking at what activities the family and I are going to do next year.

I would say that Valley of the Gods is a good end point (camping spot) or place to pass through. Kind of like Monument Valley in that there is some great stuff to see, but once you have seen it, well, you have seen it.

Still loving all your pictures and explorations.

Thanks!! I'm glad you like them and take the time to post up!!

 

[mosesburb]

So when we left here we were camped on the base of Baker Butte in Valley of the Gods, UT. I didn't get a good pic of the camp but I did get one that was mildy presentable after dark on a timed exposure. It is not as clear as I would have liked, but it is all that I have:

The view when we woke up was fantastic. Ironically, we had cell service and I was able to send a pic of the view to a few people around the country so they too could see what we woke up to:

Eventually, we found it necessary to pack up and leave. Larry was first out.

Some generic beautiful scenery on the way out:

Once we got back on the road we were greeted with this sign--and they mean it:

I'm no stranger to narrow dirt shelf roads, but this one was a little creepy for some reason--no idea why. A view of the road from near the top:

A view from the top:

There are two old square bodies in this picture:

Generic scenery on the way to Hall's Crossing. There are six finger mesas in this pic:

This area was really cool. It looked like it should have been a dump for industrial waste back in prehistoric times.

We made it to Hall's Crossing on Lake Powell. Larry needed gas because he runs a stinky gas engine in his truck that is not very fuel efficient. I really didn't, but decided to top off because I have no idea where we are going and how far it is to get there. I followed Larry to the shack. Our destination is the building directly behind the shack in this pic--maybe forty yards in??

Larry's MIL had a pass of some sort and they rolled in for no charge. My truck had no passengers with a pass so the old battle-axe that was working the booth demanded fifteen dollars to enter the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. I tried to explain to her that I was just going to the gas hut right there and I will be gone in ten minutes and that she would never see me again. In some old battle-axe scratchy voice she rather impolitlely told me that even going that far is using the Glen Canyon Recreation Area and I have to pay fifteen dollars to enter. I paid. When all was said and done I paid just over six dollars a gallon for the fuel I bought. My boy actually does a pretty good impression of the battle-axe demanding her fifteen dollars.

 

[lectric80]

I'm looking at this view of that road and I can hear the gears turning thinking of how much fun that could be in the right small car. I'm thinking something with decent horsepower, rear wheel drive and a really grippy weight would be a blast if you could be sure the road was clear all the way down. Then again, I have been accused of having a very twisted imagination for fun.

Keep it up, I really do enjoy seeing it. I think it is a bit sad that so many of these places, in my home state, I have never seen.

 

[jt512]

Great pictures as always thank you soo much for continually updating this, for guys like me on the other side of the country your pictures may be as close as I'll ever get to seeing a lot of these places.

Thanks again, congrats on GMOTM, well deserved and as always I absolutely love the rig your adventures and narration of them



Always awaiting more

 

[mosesburb]

I'm looking at this view of that road and I can hear the gears turning thinking of how much fun that could be in the right small car. I'm thinking something with decent horsepower, rear wheel drive and a really grippy weight would be a blast if you could be sure the road was clear all the way down. Then again, I have been accused of having a very twisted imagination for fun.

The hitch in your plan would be the switchbacks--they are paved. Other than that, your plan would be a hoot.

Keep it up, I really do enjoy seeing it. I think it is a bit sad that so many of these places, in my home state, I have never seen.

Use this as a menu to select the places you want to see. Saves time and money. Like the yellow pages for outdoor fun !!

Great pictures as always thank you soo much for continually updating this, for guys like me on the other side of the country your pictures may be as close as I'll ever get to seeing a lot of these places.

Thanks!!

Thanks again, congrats on GMOTM, well deserved

Hey!! I just noticed the checkered flag!! Cool!! Thanks to all those who cast a vote for the Suburban!!

and as always I absolutely love the rig your adventures and narration of them

Thanks. I like to give the narration because when I look through other picture posts there are some great pics of this or that or a cool place, but nothing is said about it. There are details that the person taking the pic saw (the reason thye took that pic) but when they don't say anything about it, the whole purpose is lost--other than to say it is a nice pic. I try to convey what was in the pic and or why it was taken so that other people can see the details that I saw.

Always awaiting more

I will see what I can do.

 

[lectric80]

Ok, change of plan, something with too much horsepower and not as much rear grip would work great to drift the switchbacks. lol

 

[mosesburb]

Ok, change of plan, something with too much horsepower and not as much rear grip would work great to drift the switchbacks. lol

I have heard of horsepower before but never in conjunction with a "too much" quantifier used before it. I'm no expert here, but I am not sure such a thing exists.

 

[mosesburb]

So we got back to Hole in the Rock Road. After airing down we hit the trail. The road starts out as barely a low spot in the sand. Larry is making the only tracks this road has seen in quite awhile.

After we got in a ways the road became a bit more discernable:

Down the trail a bit we came upon this old soldier: (it was a running driving truck when we got there, but Larry took it for a spin and well, the picture tells the story)

I think this may have been the only life form we saw on this trail other than us humans:

At this point Larry remembers going down a side road to see something (he was not the trail leader/navigator on that run). We take a right and head off towards some point unknown. Not too far in we come across another relic:

Well, we get down the road a bit further and Larry starts questioning our location and whether we are on the right trail or not. Obviously I can be of no help. Now, if you are ever wondering if you are lost and you see this out of your window, the answer is probably and you should probably turn around now:

So we turn around and head back to the remnants of the half-track. We get back there and continue down Hole in the Rock Road. We get quite a ways in and we come to a giant slickrock monolith.

The trail zigs then zags up the face and then over to an obstacle that we decided would prevent our forward progress. Could we have made it through and continued on?? Probably. The problem with doing things like that where we were is if something bad happens it can turn into a life and/or death situation almost immediately. I would guess we were 4.5-5 hours from the nearest town (not city) and probably six or seven hours from a hospital--just a hospital, not a trauma center. Being in places like this, with our tracks being the only ones in sight, keeps the adventurous side of me a little quiet. Had we been around home and with a few others and closer to civilization, I might have been a little more willing to attempt it, but not where we were. We decided to make this area our camp for the night.

Larry was leading so he went up first. He zigged and then zagged to get up the face. It seemed a bit difficult making the turns on the face. I decided to give'r straight up the face. That was the ticket right there.

 

[mosesburb]

This is a short vid that Larry shot of it climbing the face and getting into place for the evening.

[YOUTUBE]uPmoluJZULU&feature[/YOUTUBE]

 

[lectric80]

I have heard of horsepower before but never in conjunction with a "too much" quantifier used before it. I'm no expert here, but I am not sure such a thing exists.

Well, I did mean it in a more relative way. I'm not sure it exists either, but when I start talking about plans for my Camaro my Dad tells me all the time that it is too much horsepower. In this case, I meant more horsepower than the tires could reliably hold grip on, so too much for the tires not necessarily too much in general.

Good choice on the straight shot up the face, I really dislike trying to weave in those situations.

 

[mosesburb]

This is a view of camp that night: That is Larry and my boy up on top of the hill. He has a great pic from up there that I need to steal and post up.

This is the pic of the view from the truck that I sent out in the morning (had cell service here too).

After the load out, down the trail a bit:

I thought this looked cool:

Closer. I like how the dirt has eroded from around the bottom.

Gratuitous truck shot:

Some generic scenery:

Larry had a Code 14 on the way in: (I had a Code 60 on the way out)

More generic scenery:

Another gratuitous truck shot:

More scenery. It is very difficult to convey in pictures how awesome the scenery was in this area. I need a super-mega wide angle lens, but even that would not do it. Horizon to horizon. Amazing.

After we got back to the highway, we aired up and I found out my new compressor was only good for 2.5 tires. This is good when you have a motorcycle, but I happened to bring a truck on this run so it was not so good. Luckily Larry's compressor was good for at least six tires so we finished off my other 1.5 with his. After we hit the highway we rolled through a massive area of petrified sand dunes.

Pulling a hill that was part of the Hole in the Rock Trail long, long ago:

Random road shot that I liked:

Yep, that's where we are going:

 

[y5mgisi]

I like the code 14 and 60. Nice pics as usual!

 

[mosesburb]

I like the code 14 and 60. Nice pics as usual!

I like them better when they happen to other people . My Code 60 should not have happened, but I was looking at the scenery or something (very difficult not to do). I just gave it some more throttle and it ground right along. I knew if I stopped it would be all over.

 

[sponsoredbydad]

Nice! Just what I needed after a long long day. Does anybody else see (in that last picture) a dood with a pompadour belting out a high note?

 

[RockinChevy]

Does anybody else see (in that last picture) a dood with a pompadour belting out a high note?

I see it too, I woulda never spotted it if you hadn't mentioned it