< more recent | 22-28 February 2021 | older >
28 February 2021: Continued the journey into Arizona today, picking up a segment of Route 66 that goes through Hackberry where there is this really cool little general store site. It was a nice relaxed day of unhurried highway driving to reach the Cottonwood/Sedona area …
27 February 2021: Drove out of the Alabama Hills this morning, turning back towards the east to begin the route to Arizona today. Said “goodbye” to the campsite and the cold in the shadow of Mount Whitney, the “western-most” point on this entire journey …
26 February 2021: A strange day of exploration that included the Reward Mine trail, the Manzanar site, and a loop south from Lone Pine through some mining history and a surreal encounter with a coyote hunter and his young son by the ruins of some charcoal kilns in Owens Valley …
25 February 2021: Followed the “Movie Road” trail map into the Alabama Hills where there were RVs and campers everywhere. Decided to stake out a nice spot under a rock overhang that was sort of “cave”-like to set up camp. There was some decent protection against the wind and a beautiful view. There were even pictographs on the rock overhang, though probably not “real” historical ones since they were not protected. Maybe they were from a movie set. Anyway, it was a great place to camp …
24 February 2021: Woke up just in time to catch the sun coming up behind the Pinnacles in the morning, then spent a little while there playing in the surreal landscape before continuing the journey northbound up into the Panamint Valley. Made a short stop in the ghosttown of Ballarat and another short stop at Father Crowley point in hopes of seeing jets flying in Rainbow Canyon (later learned that the flights have been suspended due to an accident). Continued on to Lone Pine where the strong winds picked up again …
23 February 2021: In the morning continued the drive with a loop to Inscription Canyon and a short hike to view the petroglyphs in the cold. The sun was bright, though, and the wind was subsiding a bit, and once we reached the Trona Pinnacles it was a little bit warmer. The area of the Pinnacles was relatively “full” with some big RVs out in the middle of it all. Looked for a good camp spot away from the “crowd” and found nice a place between some of the outlying Pinnacles with a great view. It wasn’t even too cold while up late watching the stars …
22 February 2021: Followed Opal Mountain Road to Black Canyon, then took a detour to Scout’s Cove to camp in an old miner’s dug out there. The cold weather continued and the fact that the “cabin” had no door made for a chillier night than expected …
THIS MONTH:
Advanced sand dune training with Barlow Adventures at the Imperial Sand Dunes in southern California. This three day driving and navigation program focuses on moving safely and effectively through large dunefields. Skills-building exercises are intended to improve pace, line choice and vehicle control, as well as developing precision map and compass navigation technique…
COMING UP SOON:
Joining in on a Ladies Offroad Network camping adventure in Arizona: Five days of fun learning out on the trail and in camp with Charlene Bower and a small group of adventure-minded ladies. The event consists of three core days of trail runs and training, and two days with additional optional activities designed around the event theme…
Trail Guiding for the California 4-Wheel Drive Association’s inaugural Death Valley Experience 2021 fundraiser event running from March 10-14, 2021. Each day will feature a choice of runs to some famous, some infamous and some secretive points of interest within Death Valley National Park. The runs will depart from Furnace Creek and from Stovepipe Wells. Some of the points of interest we will visit during Death Valley Experience 2021 include Zabriskie Point (famous), Barker Ranch (infamous) and the Racetrack (learn the secret of the moving rocks). Other points of interest include Dante’s View, 20 Mule Team Canyon, Artists’ Drive, Chloride Cliffs, Aguereberry Point, Skidoo, Titus Canyon, and Darwin Falls. All of the trail runs are suitable for novice drivers and SUVs with high clearance and 4-wheel drive…
Every Day Is a Clean Up Day in 2021. Ladies Offroad Network has partnered with TreadLightly! to create a year-long program that encourages members to pick up trash on the trails whenever they are out off-roading. Participants simply pick up the trash, weigh it, take a photo, and log the location and time it took, then upload the details. At the end of the year there will be a series of prizes based on pounds of trash removed from the trails as well as participation in other TreadLightly! initiatives. This is a great way to do some good on a local level and make a larger impact via the national program…
Looking ahead to a return to Paris as soon as possible to reconnect with friends and some favorite places in the city of light. Timing is still uncertain due to the pandemic, but we hope the trip is back on the calendar for early 2021…
THE ALABAMA HILLS
The Alabama Hills are a range of hills and rock formations near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in the Owens Valley, west of Lone Pine in Inyo County, California. Though geographically separate from the Sierra Nevada, they are part of the same geological formation. The Alabama Hills are managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as the Alabama Hills Recreation Area. Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, towers several thousand feet above the Alabama Hills.The rounded contours of the Alabamas contrast with the sharp ridges of the Sierra Nevada to the west. The difference in wear can be accounted for by different patterns of erosion. There are two main types of rock exposed at Alabama Hills. One is an orange, drab weathered metamorphosed volcanic rock that is 150–200 million years old. The other type of rock exposed here is 82- to 85-million-year-old biotite monzogranite which weathers to potato-shaped large boulders, many of which stand on end due to spheroidal weathering acting on many nearly vertical joints in the rock. Dozens of natural arches are among the main attractions at the Alabama Hills. They can be accessed by short hikes from the Whitney Portal Road, the Movie Flat Road and the Horseshoe Meadows Road. Among the notable features of the area are: Mobius Arch, Lathe Arch, the Eye of Alabama and Whitney Portal Arch. The Alabama Hills are a popular filming location for television and movie productions, especially Westerns set in an archetypical “rugged” environment. Since the early 1920s, 150 movies and about a dozen television shows have been filmed here…
TRONA PINNACLES
The Trona Pinnacles are a unique geological features in the California Desert Conservation Area. The unusual landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires, some as high as 140 feet, rising from the bed of the Searles Dry Lake basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side. The unique formations have their origins in the Pleistocene, when massive runoff spilled from the Sierra Nevada into a chain of inland seas. The system of interconnected lakes stretched from Mono Lake to Death Valley and included Searles Lake. Deep beneath Searles Lake, calcium-rich groundwater and alkaline lake water combined to grow tufa formations. Similar (modern) formations can be found today at Mono Lake to the north. These tufa pinnacles formed underwater 10,000 to 100,000 years ago. The pinnacles did not all form at the same time. They are divided by age and elevation into three groups. The groups are dubbed the northern, middle, and southern groups because they formed during the three ice ages. The northern group is the youngest at 11,000 to 25,000 years old. These are the best examples of what are known as tufa towers. The northern group also include shapes called tombstones, ridges, and cones. The small middle group claims only 100 spires, but boasts the tallest “tower”, rising 140 ft . The southern group includes 200 tufa formations aged 32,000 to 100,000 years old. People have historically given names to the strange forms. These ancient spires were once dubbed “Cathedral City”. Geologically, the pinnacles are classified into four general shapes. Towers are taller than they are wide and rise 30–40 ft. Tombstones are stubby and squat and rise 20–30 feet. Ridges are massive toothy tufa ruins. Trona has three ridges, one in the northern tufa cluster and two in the middle group. Cones are less than 10 ft tall. The Trona Pinnacles have been featured in many commercials, films, and still-photo shoots. They were designated a National Natural Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1968 to preserve one of North America’s most outstanding examples of tufa tower formation…
Nesconset | Paris | Belgrade | Akron | St. Louis | Clinton | Grants | Yuma | Borrego Springs | Laughlin | Baker | Barstow | Ridgecrest | Lone Pine | Death Valley | Beatty | Sedona | Phoenix
MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
15-21 Februay – Mojave Road
8-14 Februay – Death Valley
1-7 Februay – Glamis
15-31 January – Roadtrip Southwest
1-14 January – Long Island
22-31 December – Holiday Roadtrip
15-21 December – Holiday Roadtrip
7-14 December – Holiday Roadtrip
1-6 December – Long Island
15-30 November – Long Island
1-14 November – Long Island
28-31 October – Roadtrip East
22-27 October – Moab
15-21 October – Moab
8-14 October – Moab
1-7 October – Roadtrip West
16-30 September – Roadtrip West
1-15 September – Long Island
16-31 August – Long Island
1-15 August – Summer Roadtrip
22-31 July – Summer Roadtrip
14-21 July – Summer Roadtrip
1-13 July – Long Island
16-30 June – Long Island
1-15 June – Bald Eagle
16-31 May – Central PA
1-15 May – Re-opening Trails
April – Lockdown NY
16-31 March – Lockdown NY
9-15 March – Roadtrip Home
1-8 March – Moab
23-29 February – Vegas to Anza Borrego
15-22 February – Southwest Roadtrip
Archive
EVENTS
LADIES OFFROAD NETWORK NONCON 2020
Recap from the Ladies Offroad Network camping and wheeling event, dubbed the “NonCon” as in “not the convention,” that came together after the official convention was cancelled due to the pandemic… [read]
RE-OPENING
Report from the first trail run with the Off Road Consulting group at Rausch Creek Off Road Park as the post-pandemic phased re-openings begin in Pennsylvania and some of our favorite local trails re-open to the public after the two-month shutdown… [read]
SPECIAL REPORT
A look into south-eastern Algeria on the border with Libya and Niger: overlanding with the Tuareg in one of the most remote corners of the Sahara … [read]
