Our latest escapade on Haystack Rock Road brought back memories of other bad choices. This was one of the more frightening ones, but we have had some wild misadventures.
IDAHO
road from Arco to Minidoka, ID: huge mudwallows that took up the road width, exposed volcanic tufa, volcanic tufa boulders, narrow single track that began as a good gravel road, winding and up and down, sometimes had to drive in the sagebrush to avoid the mud, 62 miles in 7 hours
NEVADA
road to Delamar ghost town in eastern Nevada: off camber, narrow, exposed boulders shelf road, managed to find a switchback to make a several point turn, spent the night at the cemetery
road that follows the California Trail between exits 195 and 204 I 80 Nevada: starts off as a good graded gravel road then narrows to higher sides, ran over rotting wooden culverts, shelf road along Humboldt River, we could see I80
road from Goldfield to where it intersect with Silver Peak Road just off Hwy 95 in Nevada: begins as a good graded gravel road then deteriorates to narrow single track but not a shelf road, disappears at times in pot vegetation, old car parts, saw wild donkeys
OREGON
Haystack Rock Road south of Vale, OR: removed cottonwood limbs with bow saw, moved large rocks to be stopped by an old rock slide, single track along Owyhee River, rattlesnakes love this rocky habitat but we didn’t see any, gorgeous scenery, one of those fishing the river helped us move large tree limbs we cut, spent the night exhausted then figured out a place to turn the truck around by clearing brush and boulders in the morning, lost a Torklift Fast Gun that attaches camper to truck bed but found it
lost looking for Crack in the Ground, found it, then had to squeeze through junipers in the Lost Forest Wilderness Study area on roads built for ATVs in Oregon (Christmas Valley), this was our first misadventure
UTAH
Cathedral Valley (part of Capitol Reef National Parkroad switchbacks to Cathedral Valley campground: we were on 3 wheels while making an uphill tight switchback with nothing to stop us if we lost control, beautiful scenery
ATV trails south west of Salt Lake City where we had to wend our way through bushy junipers.
WYOMING
Big Spring Backway from Cokedale, WY to just north of Kemmerer: deep muddy mess; roads going everywhere, begins as a good graded gravel road then deteriorates to long muddy sections from melting snow, deep tire tracks, we didn’t follow the loop but backtracked after several muddy areas, camped along a creek with golden aspens
I am sure there are more but those are the most memorable. Most of these were before I used GPS relying on Benchmark paper maps. But, GPS isn’t always reliable nor are the map apps I use: Avenza, Gaia, and OnX. Neither are rangers. I should have used Google Maps as it shows where we were halted by an old rockslide on the Haystack Butte Road
IDAHO
road from Arco to Minidoka, ID: huge mudwallows that took up the road width, exposed volcanic tufa, volcanic tufa boulders, narrow single track that began as a good gravel road, winding and up and down, sometimes had to drive in the sagebrush to avoid the mud, 62 miles in 7 hours
NEVADA
road to Delamar ghost town in eastern Nevada: off camber, narrow, exposed boulders shelf road, managed to find a switchback to make a several point turn, spent the night at the cemetery
road that follows the California Trail between exits 195 and 204 I 80 Nevada: starts off as a good graded gravel road then narrows to higher sides, ran over rotting wooden culverts, shelf road along Humboldt River, we could see I80
road from Goldfield to where it intersect with Silver Peak Road just off Hwy 95 in Nevada: begins as a good graded gravel road then deteriorates to narrow single track but not a shelf road, disappears at times in pot vegetation, old car parts, saw wild donkeys
OREGON
Haystack Rock Road south of Vale, OR: removed cottonwood limbs with bow saw, moved large rocks to be stopped by an old rock slide, single track along Owyhee River, rattlesnakes love this rocky habitat but we didn’t see any, gorgeous scenery, one of those fishing the river helped us move large tree limbs we cut, spent the night exhausted then figured out a place to turn the truck around by clearing brush and boulders in the morning, lost a Torklift Fast Gun that attaches camper to truck bed but found it
lost looking for Crack in the Ground, found it, then had to squeeze through junipers in the Lost Forest Wilderness Study area on roads built for ATVs in Oregon (Christmas Valley), this was our first misadventure
UTAH
Cathedral Valley (part of Capitol Reef National Parkroad switchbacks to Cathedral Valley campground: we were on 3 wheels while making an uphill tight switchback with nothing to stop us if we lost control, beautiful scenery
ATV trails south west of Salt Lake City where we had to wend our way through bushy junipers.
WYOMING
Big Spring Backway from Cokedale, WY to just north of Kemmerer: deep muddy mess; roads going everywhere, begins as a good graded gravel road then deteriorates to long muddy sections from melting snow, deep tire tracks, we didn’t follow the loop but backtracked after several muddy areas, camped along a creek with golden aspens
I am sure there are more but those are the most memorable. Most of these were before I used GPS relying on Benchmark paper maps. But, GPS isn’t always reliable nor are the map apps I use: Avenza, Gaia, and OnX. Neither are rangers. I should have used Google Maps as it shows where we were halted by an old rockslide on the Haystack Butte Road
