Mojave Trail April 14-17th 2011

gon2srf · Post by **gon2srf** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:16 am

FJ-Ollie led a group of 8 rigs over the Mojave Trail this past weekend and I covered the rear as tail gunner, it was by all description the perfect trip. Good weather, good food and friends and no real carnage. Those that had never been before were treated to a great example of what a well organized overland trip should be like and had the opportunity to see many sites/sights they would have more than likely missed without a well thought out plan and lots of research. I have hundreds more photos and video to follow but here are a few pages of my favorites. Thanks again to Ollie and everyone who came for being so generous with your food, gear and knowledge.

North of Hwy 40

The Avi Hotel

Flowers everywhere

West to Fort Paiute

Lots of color at Paiute Gorge

Mark and Maria

Larry and Vanessa

Looking up the gorge

Climbing out of Paiute Valley

Looking down into Paiute Gorge

Shane and William. Shane aka Ollie. Shane did a great job organizing this run, we saw a lot of the usual sites but some fantastic new ones as well.

Looking West of the Paiute Gorge

As we reached "The Bus" a very large hawk flew away from a Joshua Tree and landed a few hundred yards onto another one. Come to find out she was tending to her young in a very large nest and although irritated at our presence she waited patiently for us to leave. She is sitting atop the Joshua if you look closely.

"The Bus"
The colors have improved over the years.

gon2srf · Post by **gon2srf** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:43 am

Lounging in the old drivers seat with Martin and Vanessa's sweet pitbull "Butika" sp.?

William

Joshua Forest

Quite a bit of water at Rock Spring and not too many bees thank goodness, the weather was just fantastic for this trip.

I had never noticed the pictographs at Rock Spring before, maybe they are modern day etchings?

This my friends is as close as you want to get to a "Green Mojave", the deadliest snake in North America

One of the guys in our group never saw him and drove right up over him and parked. They are known for there aggressive behavior but this fellow just wanted some warm sun and time alone.

The driver Ben slowly backed up and the Mojave slithered away. Awesome.

Great video about the Mojave Green.
Orry Martin: Texas Snake Hunter -- Mojave Rattlesnake | ChaCha Answers

BorregoWrangler · Post by **BorregoWrangler** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:00 am

Great pictures so far. Love the snake!

I can't wait to get out there again myself. Looking forward to more pictures!

gon2srf · Post by **gon2srf** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:05 am

The Rock House.

Artsy barbed wire shot .

Government Holes

View from Ryan's new Inti rack. This kid is getting this rig set up real nice and he is a pleasure to wheel with.

Larry's rig. The most imitated FJ in California. Dang!

Mid-Hills Campground was packed so we setup in a nice little spot on the outskirts of the campground.

Ryan getting ready to taste some homemade chili.

Campground scenery.

Eerie but beautiful evidence of the past fire.

Backside of Hole in the Wall

This little plant had the skunkiest, sagiest smell.

Blooming cactus and beautiful flowers were everywhere.

There is still active ranching on the Mojave Preserve and the Spring Round up will take place soon. This is one of my favorite pics of the trip.

http://digital-desert.com/mojave-preser ... story.html

gon2srf · Post by **gon2srf** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:25 am

I used my GoPro camera for shots of Vulcan Mine and Hole in the Wall, I'll add those later.

It was getting hot so we visited the Kelso Depot Museum and enjoyed a shake at the Beanery. Ah, excellent!

Kelso Depot

Approaching train.

Kelso Jail

Mailbox

Frog Shine

Cinder Cones

Corral on the way to the lava tube

Soda Lake

gon2srf · Post by **gon2srf** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:53 am

One of the greatest pranks or secrets of modern day Mojave history, The Megaphone. Why, what and how, no one knows for sure but it sure was cool to see in person.

Afton Canyon Trestle

Ansel Adams

Parking in the shade of another train trestle

Afton Canyon Pillars

We did some hiking in a very narrow canyon that became increasingly narrower and steeper until climbing gear would be necessary to continue.

Lots of water in the Mojave River.

gon2srf · Post by **gon2srf** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:54 am

Finished the trip off with meatloaf, potatoes a strawberry shake and good friends at Peggy Sue's!

OLLIE · Post by **OLLIE** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:18 pm

Thanks for the props Scott. I'm processing pics too. I thought I took about 600 pics. I was wrong... I got took over 800. All in RAW too so I've got a lot of processing to do... Don't know if I can add any more to what you've posted. I'll get some of my favorites posted up tonight though.

gon2srf · Post by **gon2srf** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:39 pm

OLLIE wrote:Thanks for the props Scott. I'm processing pics too. I thought I took about 600 pics. I was wrong... I got took over 800. All in RAW too so I've got a lot of processing to do... Don't know if I can add any more to what you've posted. I'll get some of my favorites posted up tonight though.

Come on now I can't wait to see all of your shots especially the night shots.

salad_man · Post by **salad_man** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:14 pm

Awesome report and trip, too bad I had to miss it...

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