Vans in the Wild (Photo Thread)

84603 Views 693 Replies 112 Participants Last post by Lolaeliz, 1 d ago

Powderhunds

Discussion Starter · Feb 8, 2020

5

Many of us got vans to take us to pretty places, where we could then take pictures of the van. I thought it might be fun to share some pictures of your van in the wild. I'm afraid my initial contribution will be of my former Transit, but hopefully I can add some Promaster pictures in the next few months. One caveat for everyone, please remember that individual users retain the copyrights to their pictures! Don't grab pictures off of here, whether they are marked or not, for use elsewhere!

Only one rule to post - PICTURES MUST INCLUDE YOUR VAN!!!

Lake Louise Campground in Banff/Jasper National Park.

Snow Vehicle Car Winter Van

Bonneville Salt Flats, UT (when they were flooded in January).

Water transportation Vehicle Calm Fjord Boat

Artists Drive, Death Valley National Park

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Beginning of the Alaska Highway, Dawson Creek, BC

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Camped on the Homer Spit, Homer, AK

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641 - 660 of 694 Posts

Baxsie

· #641 · 2 mo ago

3

Parked overnight in the gravel parking lot for the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area. Camping free. Quiet. Several other rigs bere. Pit toilets (pretty bad, recently the area flooded because it is in a wash), one covered table.

The formations are pretty good, definitely worth it. The hike is flat and the firm sand makes for great walking, but you have to walk a mile or two to get to the start of the good stuff. Take layers, sun protection, and water.

Also, make sure you have an offline hiking app and the maps loaded, cell service is poor and there are no trail marks.

Sky Tire Cloud Vehicle Wheel

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larry barello

· #642 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

4

(Di-na-zin is fabulous and top of the list for surreal landscape. The following is in addition)

Check out "Valley of Dreams" about 20 miles south (as the crow flies). Same stuff, more compact. Lots of fossil wood. A lot quieter!

Sky Cloud Landscape Bedrock Formation

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Baxsie

· #643 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

3

Camping at Farmington Lake, NM City campground. Trash and pit toilets, table, and fire ring. Some sites have shelters. No other services. $7 per night for two people:

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The site was huge, 70 ft by my pacing,

We used it as a launch point for Aztec Ruins National Monument:

Cloud Sky Landscape Archaeological site Soil

And Salmon Ruins. Salmon Ruins may seem unassuming -- and it is not a "National", but it has a very nice museum and had the best interpretative walkthrough yet, IMO. They loan you a laminated book to take along on the tour $4 per person:

Cloud Sky Natural environment Natural landscape Tree

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Dennis CampMaker

· #644 · 2 mo ago

Camping in the snow. March 2023. Somewhere in western Oregon.

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Baxsie

· #645 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

4

Sand Island Campground near Bluff UT. BLM site. Pit toilets, shared water tap, $15 / site. Has a boat launch to the San Juan river - which appears to be used by rafters.

Sky Plant community Plant Mountain Natural landscape

That image is looking south across the San Juan from the Petroglyph panel. You can see VanMargrit in the lower left. The petroglyphs have some vandalism, but many of the originals are still intact. Lots of deer and bighorn sheep images (more photos).

Brown Wood Wood stain Tints and shades Flooring

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Olaboss

· #646 · 2 mo ago

Petroglyphs are amazing! I saw some on the silk route in Pakistan that were > 2000 years old.

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RV8R

· #647 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

4

Lake Havasu ,,, Well not actually “In The Wild”;

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I have heard Rivers be related to the World’s Blood of Life ,,, or the Veins & Arteries off ,,, Not something I thought about when I was a kid, but I share that opinion now.

But, in the 60s & 70s ,,, Say Coke or Pepsi era for me, the suggestion of buying bottled water was ,,, laughable.

So here I sit in Arizona staring at California ,,, & pondering such things,,,

well that & this tune from the past ,,, bonus points if you figure out why 🤷‍♂️ ;

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Baxsie

· #648 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

2

Winslow, Arizona:

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Meh. At least there was good food & beer close by. Much more impressive was the La Posada Hotel.

Real destination is the very nice Homolovi State Park.

Campground : $18 for a dry site. Water and dump included. Clean toilets. Showers.

Cloud Sky Tire Wheel Automotive tire

The park has a large ruin. Very little is recreated - some historical damage from looting but still impressive that such a large community existed here so long ago.

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supermoocow

· #649 · 2 mo ago

2

Winter Park, Colorado, G Lot:

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Tire Wheel Snow Sky Vehicle

They allow overnight stays here, and I parked next to another PM with Maryland plates. Probably the coldest I've done in the PM, it was -9F in the morning with maybe 2 inches of snow overnight. The Propex ran non-stop and was able to keep it in the mid 60s inside, so I was cozy.

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Baxsie

· #650 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

7

Route 66:

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Roy's on Route 66. Quite fun. Yes, gas was $6.85. Captive audience.

Camped down the road, off the road:

Tire Wheel Sky Vehicle Cloud

Found a BLM site that you can dig for trilobite fossils at. Fun:

Plant Wood Art Artifact Tree

VanMargrit got in a bit of an awkward position attempting the road:

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Bad girl. Stop eating your own mud flaps.

Not high centered, just two corners too high with no weight on the other two. Maybe this was driver error. VanMargrit gets a demerit on her permanent record, just in case. Some judicial application of the ARB traction boards and our DMOS collapsible shovel got us out.

Camped again the next night in Mojave National Preserve north of I-40 off Kelbaker road:

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Steve

· #651 · 2 mo ago

On the Dixie Mainline Road in Florida.

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Roblee

· #652 · 2 mo ago

Steve said:
On the Dixie Mainline Road in Florida. View attachment 95127

Very cool to see you "on the road again"

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rjcalif

· #653 · 2 mo ago

three of us at last weekends bay area meet up, this was the Friday night pre-party at our site.

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Baxsie

· #654 · 2 mo ago

2

Red Rock Canyon State Park:

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Beautiful. First come, first served. $25 dry camp. Water spigot available, pit toilets and trash. Looks like RV dump station is available for an additional $20 - we gave that a pass. Windy. Visitors center. A little bit of Verizon available down at the visitor center. Nothing up at the campground.

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MsNomer

· #655 · 2 mo ago

2

See Canyon road NW of Bullhead City, AZ. After crawling uphill in deep sand for several miles, it was time to kiss the dashboard and say, "Good Boy, Good Boy." We had intended to climb Spirit Mountain, but >2,000 vertical feet of pea gravel in 3/4 mile turned us back. (Yes, the van is down there.)

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Instead, we discovered Grapevine Canyon with the most petroglyphs I have ever seen.

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For the next couple days, I get to lounge in my Magic Place while MrNomer studies rocks with fellow geologists.

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Baxsie

· #656 · 2 mo ago

10

Wrapping up ~60 day ~8000 mile trip. Here are some shots I do not think I have posted yet:

Gold Bluffs Beach Campground: Camping for the Fern Canyon hike:

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At the Fern Canyon Trailhead:

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Big Lagoon Campground:

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Van Duzen County Park - Swimmers Delight Campground:

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Here is the base of the tall tree behind the van:

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Red Rock Canyon State Park:

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Mobius Arch Loop Trail:

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We 💗 this place !

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Death Valley National Park, Hole In The Wall S1 campground (link):

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Drove all the way up to the end of the Hole In The Wall road the next morning.

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CarKeys

· #657 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

@Baxsie , many thanks for posting pics of your 8k travels, makes me want to get out of dodge and explore with my lady .
I'll get the courage one day 😉

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Baxsie

· #658 · 2 mo ago

@CarKeys our excuse to go was that the remodel contractor wanted us out of the house so we would not be in the way.

Such a dumb and arbitrary excuse to get us rolling on a long trip. Otherwise we would still be stuck in our rut (not that it is a bad rut) taking short trips every once in a while.

The trip was a blast. Ms. Baxsie is fantastic at finding great places to visit and camp. I'm pretty good at keeping the yellow line on the left, and the white line on the right. Although sometimes I have trouble with right and left :-(

Find someone to pick up your mail, fill up the tank and go!

(I acknowledge that we are in a good position to travel, and that others may not be able jam such a trip into their schedule.)

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Alexx

· #659 · 2 mo ago

Baja Californai

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Baxsie

· #660 · 1 mo ago (Edited)

2

VanMargrit tucked into curbside parking, downtown Seattle.

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$1.50 for 1 hour using PayToPark app.

Breakfast at portage bay cafe, quite nice breakfast:

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