Monsoon Express

[rustyjames]

Perfect!!!

 

[jimi breeze]

All I can say is ... Nice!
Thanks for sharing.

 

[briansocal]

What a great trip with some great photos.

I made it out to Blue Canyon once several years ago, but didn't stick around long, as I wasn't sure of my 2WD pickup truck's ability to get me back up the sandy hills that lined the route that I ended up taking. My understanding is that the Hopi have officially declared Blue Canyon off-limits without a guide at this point, although I suspect the worst that would happen is that they would end up asking you to leave. I've also heard of a few camps of Hopi or Navajo folk along the back roads in that area that are of "questionable chemical or alcoholic sobriety" and don't take well to vehicles driving through or near their area. One particular story had the vehicle surrounded by the locals, who wouldn't let him pass for quite some time.

 

[pmatusov]

Thanks again for nice words, guys.

Brian - I completely believe that. Blue Canyon and White Canyon are on the boundary between Hopi and Navajo lands, and that may contribute to some lack of trust to strangers. Blue canyon is fairly remote; in about two hours we spent mulling around, not a single vehicle passed by. There are no signs leading to it whatsoever - essentially, the hints from the locals and _some_ GPS aid is what you get.

 

[Chris Cordes]

Great trip report! We made a similar trip a while back and it was the perfect getaway. By the way that camel trophy Disco you spotted is an authentic truck and actually has some significance but I'll let you find the thread on it in the LR section to find know why.

 

[Tohelluride]

EXCELLENT PICTURES! I love details and lots of pics!

The camel trophy is my truck.

Bought it out the desert thinking is was a fake and with all the info I've gathered, it is the winning truck from 1993.

 

[1leglance]

Great trip report....very honest on the highs and lows of the trip.
I don't like mushrooms but cool that you know enough to harvest them wild and it was neat to see that element of the trip.

Thanks for the details on highways for those of us who want follow your tracks.
Also thanks for the trip stats as that helps with comparison budgets.....looks like you got your moneys worth

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Simply SPECTACULAR! Thanks for sharing. :sombrero:

 

[pmatusov]

EXCELLENT PICTURES! I love details and lots of pics!

The camel trophy is my truck.

Bought it out the desert thinking is was a fake and with all the info I've gathered, it is the winning truck from 1993.

Thank you for keeping the truck outside and not hidden someplace. We've spent some quality time ogling it!

 

[pmatusov]

Thanks for the nice words, guys! We'll compile the video later on - but I doubt I'd be able to do much until after mid-October. I haven't finished even the May trip to Utah.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Great report, FANTASTIC pictures! I'm actually a little jealous, as I've been to many of the places you visited (even stayed at the Cannonville KOA back in 2008!) but my pictures don't look nearly as good!

If you don't mind my asking, do you use image editing software on your photos? Just wondering how you get such vivid colors. All my pictures seem to look bland and washed out. Maybe I need to use a different setting on my camera?

Again, great report, looks like you hit some of the greatest highlights in the 4 corners all in one trip.

 

[pmatusov]

If you don't mind my asking, do you use image editing software on your photos? Just wondering how you get such vivid colors. All my pictures seem to look bland and washed out. Maybe I need to use a different setting on my camera?

Martin,

thanks for the good words - about the images: I don't do Photoshop or Lightroom, but I occasionally use Picasa or other simple tools to tweak brightness/contrast or do some color correction. About halfway into this trip, I made a mistake of clicking on some of the camera options like "Expressive colors" - the photos looked nice in the viewfinder or on the camera screen, but appeared ridiculously overdone when I looked at them at home on a good monitor. I used Picasa to reduce the color saturation of the images, starting from Capitol Reef; the others are not tweaked at all. Then, I checked the images once again at work (with much better monitor), and found them still over-saturated, so I went back and toned them down a little more.
The camera was Panasonic Lumix GF2, with a 14-45 mm lens. Also, I found that a polarizing filter can make a huge difference in the image quality - light coming from the sky near the horizon is slightly polarized, so you can make the sky darker or brighter. Light reflected from the water surface is strongly polarized, so by turning the filter 90 degrees you can go from a mirror-like sky reflection to water surface being nearly transparent (you see stuff under the surface as if there was almost no water at all). The polarizing filter won't help you much with the cloudy sky - a gradient filter will work for that (need to buy one).

 

[Funrover]

What a great report and wonderful pictures!! Those little plastic plugs are fun, the LWB lost one on a camping trip. Such a little annoyance.

 

[bad luck]

I too am impressed by your great photos, and trip report. I have been to many of those places but not all. It looks like a wonderful trip. Thanks

 

[EricG]

Very nice I love to see when people take Discovery's on trips like I have an 03 and would drive it anywhere at a moments notice. I plan on a trip like this but from the east in a couple of years when my kids are older. Figure by then my truck will have close to 200 thousand miles.