NEW: All Roads Lead To - 3 Corners

With the addition of the "3-Corners Western Route" trail, it now seems like this is the second sought after destination (right after Devil's Fire) as far as downloads and submissions are concerned.   [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Nevada Trails Master Map]

From the statistics, almost as many readers search and browse to the various three-corners tracks as do to the Devil's Fire map files.

For some reason it has also become a frequent destination of our own personal rides when we are snowbirding down that way. Perhaps it is due to the several directions one can get to it.

Trailheads can begin along old Route 95 just north of Beaver Dam, or along Lytle Ranch Road. We've also found ourselves at Three-Corners when we've ridden from the top of Mesquite Heights Road.

Additionally, just about any trail which takes you to Powerline Road over Flat Top Mesa or Lone Mesa or Toquop Wash can also get you to Three-Corners. As do trails coming from the north around Beaver Dam Wash.

Just about the only direction we haven't already taken has been from the far southwest –and now this trail begins from the Carp-Elgin exit off of I-15!

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NEW: Hatch-Panguitch-Paunsaugunt-Strawberry Pt-Aquarius-Hells Hole

Now that title is a mouthful; but, these additions to the southwestern region of the Utah Trails Master Map are a lot to talk about.   [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: http://offroadinghome.djmed.net/]

Offroading Home had an anonymous trail submission (at least that's what it turned out to be) of several trails which followed legitimate satellite image landmarks when verified; but, which attempts to verify the submitter failed.

We are most willing to accept any off road trail that we can receive, but always perform some verification (which obviously takes more time without the help of the submitter) so feel much more comfortable with the data when we can communicate back and forth a little. Unfortunately, this has to lower the priority level for posting and sometimes prevents them from being added at all.

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Elsewhere Offroad: Take Back Utah, Gold Butte and Havasu

The time has past when it was sufficient for you to simply work your job, attend to your family, and participate in church and local civic functions and just "expect" others (especially your government) to leave your recreation rights alone.

There are battles being fought against the double-talking "fiends" all across the country, who are frenetically pushing the government to "own" everything that isn't paved and basically close it off to everyone except the "elite" who can hike into it.

These three, that I've listed below, are all at different levels of involvement – they are battlefield reports from the "front lines."

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NEW: 9 Boulder City Nevada Trails

Ten new trails have been added to the Great Basin SUV Trails: Southern Nevada master map. Nine out of Boulder City and one out of Las Vegas. Most can be ridden by ATVs and Jeeps as well.    [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: http://offroadinghome.djmed.net/]

Despite the heat, Mike has been out in the field again verifying all the Lake Mead routes – tough work, but somebodies got to do it! One trail in the cool(er) mountains out of Vegas is a bit bumpy, but man what a view! Not a long ride but any chance to get off the pavement – it's all good.

The others all lead to water – and who can argue with that? I've given Mike's descriptions below so you can get a feel for what the routes are like. If you have ridden the area or are planning on going, please leave a comment about the trail.

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Utah Trails Master Map - Complete Re-Do

The Utah Trails ATV-SUV master map has undergone almost a complete revision and update.

The graphic interface for the whole file was enhanced, the entire Central Region was re-done almost from scratch and several new trails have been added which complete loops and from submitted trails.

A frequent trail submitter Michael Davidson added four trails near Beaver in Central Utah following a recent trip to the state: Forest Service roads 129, 137 and 147. They all go through beautiful country and to inspiring views. [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Utah ATV-SUV Trails]

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Summer ATV UTV Jamborees

The "Tri-State," "Outlaw," "Paiute Trail" and "Manti Mountain" ATV Jamborees are done for the year – the Paiute and Manti concluded this very weekend. That still leaves FOUR MORE to go however, for those of you die-hards who either can't ever get enough or those who just haven't been able to break free yet.

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Dry Fork Canyon Petroglyphs

If you ever find yourself in Vernal Utah, either as a passage home or going to see the dinosaurs, you've got more to see than fossils. And, no, I don't mean the city wide floral arrangement that is their main street.

There be PETROGLYPHS!

And they're not all that hidden or hard to find and they don't need ATVs or SUVs to get to them. Just about every motel will have a brochure rack of pamphlets and they all have many about different "day-trips" you can take while staying in Vernal – a great idea!

The one about the petroglyphs in Dry Fork Canyon, Utah, USA [N 40.545761, W 109.637028] immediately caught my eye, as it where, and I coerced my party to stop and see them the next morning on our way home.

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GPS Maps 106: Reading A Topo Map

[This post is part six in a multi-part series about understanding the GPS system and its coordinate grid.

The last (hopefully) in the series of posts about maps: how they're made and how to use them, I wanted to do something quite difficult (on this end) and that I hadn't tried before. Well… you saw what happened on the last post.

As it turned out, the "dummy down" policy of Google Earth [which supports their "paid version"] prevented anyone who didn't have a fairly new graphics card from viewing the presentation.

Therefore, lets attempt to do in writing that which I thought would be much easier in demostration; so, break out that copy of an actual topo map that you have in the glove box and follow along.

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GPS Maps 106: How To Read A Topo Map

[This post is part six in a multi-part series about understanding the GPS system and its coordinate grid.

Being (hopefully) pretty much the last post in this series about reading topo maps, what we are going to discuss today is really "rubber on the road" stuff and, in large part builds upon what we've already discussed as well as using a slightly different technique than we've ever used in the past.

This is where we actually hold that piece of crumpled, soiled, many-times-folded paper in our hands and try to find "where the blazes are we?" … No kidding — go get your topo map. It's better if you actually have something to look at. I'll wait.

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NEW: Willow Springs - Griffith Peak - West End Wash

Despite the heat, or perhaps because of it, a patron of Offroading Home has been taking his Jeep into the desert on trails listed in our maps as well as new ones in the area.

I'm sure riding in an air-conditioned cab has at least something to do with it; but as we've seen in previous posts there are other advantages to riding in this "alternate" season.

Michael Davidson has been helping verify, and add to, the Great Basin SUV Trails: Southern Nevada map and sending in his GPS tracks so we can remove the hand-drawn lines and replace them with actual, honest-to-goodness ride coordinates.

The Willow Springs Road trail is a great get-away from the heat haze in Vegas. The Mount Charleston area is just a hop-skip-and-jump west down Kyle Canyon Road (NV-157).

He lists two trails: one, to the Griffith Peak trailhead and the other an accompanying hike up to Griffith Peak, which is where the photo accompanying this post comes from.

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GEO-tography: Bokeh

To continue a series of geologically related images taken by superb photographers and displayed on the "net," I thought that today we would highlight an old classic – but recently very much in vogue – technique: Bokeh.

It's a nouveau term for basically using narrow depth of field to control the area of interest. Unlike most photographic techniques, this one has a tendency to call attention to itself in any photograph.

The "ladybug" on Ladybug Rock in Cottonwood Wash down Gold Butte is the center of focus; but, the slightly out-of-focus massive rose quartz rock is still "highly present" in your mind and vision.

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