I know that's a pretty big swath of land to cover, but I'm headed to Tucson for work in a few weeks, and I'm thinking of taking up to a week on the return trip to do some light to moderate wheeling and camping. I say "light to moderate" because I'm still fairly inexperienced, I'll likely be riding on stock tires (unless Full Traction can get their act together and ship my lift before then), and I'll have two other people with me who will probably not be so thrilled to ride shotgun through a place called "Axle Alley."

The exact route is not at all determined yet, but I'm thinking head north from Tucson a little bit, then cut west to the general Mojave/Death valley area, then head northwest-ish for home.

Camping areas along the trail would be a plus, and excellent scenery would be a big plus.

Any ideas?

 

I suggest you pm wayolife. From what I've seen so far he knows every trail on Planet Earth!

Ps. I used to live in Portugal and knew a guy named Mccurdy. You're not him are you?

 

That is definitely a large amount of land. There are tons of options in the areas you mention and you'd probably be super happy with most of them. I might recommend getting your hands on the Backcountry Adventures Southern California book to help you decide. It's missing some trails, especially more of the challenging ones, but will give you a really good idea of where to wheel and what to expect as well as lots of history and background on each area. It also has fairly decent maps and GPS waypoints.

If you are looking at Mojave Desert/Death Valley, you'll need to get yourself up towards I-15 westbound. At that point, you could do the Mojave Road, which takes 2 or 3 days and is over 100 miles long. It's not too technical but it's very remote so you need to be prepared in case you end up getting stuck. I know there are lots of camping options along the road and tons of great sites to see. I've never done it before, but I've always heard amazing things about it.

Another option would be to get on 1-15 west to Baker, CA and head up to Death Valley. If you took the route that we took with the "wayoflifes" in the opposite direction, you'd end up near the 14 which will eventually take you up to I-5. There are also plenty of spots along 14 between DV and 1-5 that offer great wheeling and camping with some amazing scenery.

A totally different option would be to stay on I-10 out of AZ and check out Anza-Borrego State Park-- you'd end up more South than with the other plan (more near San Diego), but there is awesome wheeling and camping there and it's a straight shot to I-5 from there.

I agree with CLACKEY573(_!_) that wayoflife will know a ton about this stuff-- but feel free to PM me if you have any questions or need other ideas!

 

totally forgot about that lol

 

I actually have that SoCal book already. It seems really good, but I was also hoping to hear from folks who have actually driven them or have personal favorites for whatever reason.

I'm really liking the idea of Mojave Road (it's #1 ranked in that book for "Favorite," and "Scenic" as well as "Longest"). Am I getting in over my head if I take that on? Anyone actually done the whole thing end-to-end? For the most part it seems pretty easy, and the couple of places the book mentions may be tricky (sticky lakebed mud, etc.) seem to have bypasses.

Thanks for the replies -- sounds like I at least need to wait for wayoflife to chime in (hint, hint)

 

Hey mmccurdy, the Old Mojave Trail is a great trail to do that is very scenic, super easy and offers plenty of camping opportunities along the way and if you do it end to end, it's almost a necessity. Fortunately, it starts right out of Laughlin so it's kind of in your direction anyway and there are plenty of roads that intersect it and if you needed to cut out early, the 15 or the 40 are just north or south of the trail.

Now, if you wanted to start your trek west a little lower down south, I would probably recommend Desert Trip #10 in your Back Country Adventures book. The Turtle Mountains are really beautiful and I would definitely take the spur to the Lost Arch Inn. When all is said and done, you will be dumped out on the 40

Again, both are easy trails and very pretty this time of year. If you keep your eyes peeled, you might even see a desert tortise or a huge tarantula or two crossing the trail

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Yeah, that author has some great books, the only problem in the binding. After some trail use, it tends to come apart. I suggest you buy it off of his website where he offers spiral binding.
http://www.funtreks.com/index.php


what did I miss? What am I not laughing at this? Please, enlighten me.

 

the bradshaw is a nice trail to run as well.
i spent 2 weeks once in a pinzgauer traversing the deserts of california and arizona. can tell you i drove a lot of dirt trails and my only stry to asphalt was a gas station. never got to see the PHONE BOOTH but met many characters on my trail runs.

can not wait to get the adventure trailer for some real long treks.

the rockster

also you can get some good info at
http://desertusa.com/

 

If your going to cross over to Cali via HWY 40 I'd say stop in Sedona Az and do Greasy Spoon trail and or Broken Arrow Trail. The town of Gerome has some cool trails and is a nice place to stay the night.



As for Mojave Rd...yep..easy but route finding can be a problem. If there is ANY rain at all stay off the Soda Dry Lake..I got stuck for about 4 hours there.

Afton Cyn area is really cool too.

Big Bear lake area in so. cal is a GREAT place to wheel...while your up there stop in at http://www.boulderbars.com and talk to Quinn ,Heather or Steve.. they'll give you the 411 (probably hit a trail w/ you too if they have time.

 

Yeah those are great trails. I like "The Devils Staircase" on Broken arrow, but those tour jeep driver's are jerks. I, personally, can't stand Jerome. You also couldn't catch me going to Crown King (AZ) alone, or at night, or alone at night. That place is scary.

BTW, nice pic.