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My most recent adventure marks another of the many times I’m thankful I get to work on Epic Trails. As host, I get to go to some pretty amazing places where I am able to learn, have my eyes opened and my horizons expanded. That’s exactly what happened on our recently completed, road-trip style shoot in California. The shoot spanned the Mojave Desert region in the south, through Yosemite National Park, and northwards into Butte County.

The Epic Trails team and I first headed to Mojave Trails National Monument. Haven’t heard of this monument yet? You are not alone. I too was just introduced to this shining gem which is one of the latest US national monuments to be recognized. Not only is it a beautiful landscape worth protecting in its own right, but it connects other protected lands, such as Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve, and more—making it a continuous corridor through the heart of southern California.

 

At a remote junction along the iconic Route 66 in the heart of the Mojave Desert at high noon (clearly the stuff movies, or at least TV episodes, are made of), the team and I met up with local guides, Kyle Sullivan and Kelly Crawford. Kyle has the unique distinction of being the Mojave Trails National Monument Manager for the Bureau of Land Management, and as the title implies, the new monument is his specialty. Experiencing this place guided by Kyle, with on-going live narration in his field of expertise, is amazing. Our supporting guide, Kelly, runs Joshua Tree Excursions, an adventure outfitter in nearby Joshua Tree. He is the perfect blend of logistical support and all-around great guy to hang out with.

The Mojave Trails National Monument is stunning. It’s also the desert. Sometimes the beauty of the desert is matched by its harshness, making it not always the easiest place to explore. But that’s one of the reasons why I love it. You have to work for it a little bit. “It’s ‘choose your own adventure’ out here,” Kyle says. There are almost no manicured trails, no visitor centers, or pull-out parking lots guiding tourists to the easiest photo ops. And that’s why this place is amazing. It’s a vast landscape, a wilderness untrammeled by man. To explore requires getting out and having a wander, which is probably why I am so drawn to this place.

On our first night, Kyle and I backpacked into the Cadiz Dunes to watch the sun go down and spend the night amongst the solitude and quiet of the rolling sandy hills. I’ve spent the night out in sand dunes before, an experience which can be surreal—almost perfect silence. This was exactly the experience in the Cadiz Dunes. The air was clear and the star gazing as good as anywhere on earth. No surprise this region is recognized as among the best places to avoid light pollution in the world. We knew it would be well worth waking up early to catch the sunrise, as the sunset in the dunes on our first night was special with the light playing off the textures of the rippled sand.

The Mojave Trails National Monument is full of oddities and showcases the diversity of desert landscapes.  Knowing that there is so much to explore in this desert, Kyle, Kelly, the team, and I packed up and drove two hours to hike the rim of Amboy Crater, an old volcanic cone in the middle of the Mojave desert. It’s strange and beautiful to see the black volcanic rock rising from the sandy and scrubby desert, and its height gives hikers a great vantage point for the surrounding desert and mountains.

Our next stop, Afton Canyon, provides another opportunity to be surprised. This cobbly canyon eroded in unconventional fashion, leaving behind fluted mud spires and even slot canyons. Kyle knew of one special side-canyon and elected to take us on a proper adventure scrambling and climbing our way up and down the strangest slot canyon I’ve ever seen—a huge testament coming from an Arizona-boy. A long stretch of this canyon is so narrow that it’s pitch-black at the bottom. To see anything, you need a headlamp, even at high noon. We explored the canyon further than Kyle had ever gone before, something that is only recommended for experienced, guided teams as there’s a big pour-off that requires solid climbing skills and a good head space to navigate.

From the Mojave Desert, we headed north to easily one of the most staggering landscapes on earth, the well-known Yosemite National Park. All the praise this place receives is well earned. The team and I drove through an ominous rain storm and enter Yosemite Valley just as the storm is retreating. The clouds pulled back to reveal the towering faces of El Capitan and Half Dome. It was a sight to behold and the perfect way to see this place for the first time. We had a busy few days in store for us in and being in Yosemite National Park in the off-season allowed for some wonderful adventures with very few people around.

We met up with guides Scott Gediman, representing Yosemite National Park, and Greg Coit, of Yosemite Mountaineering School & Guide Service (YMS), to do some Nordic ski-packing. Our plan was to ski out to Dewy Point - a lookout and campsite high up in Yosemite where the snow is still ten feet deep. For me, Nordic skiing is…not graceful. And while carrying full-backpacking weight, it’s a bit of a circus! I’ve done plenty of downhill skiing, but this is a new animal. I admittedly fell many times en route to Dewy Point but all the humiliation caught on camera is worth it. Dewy Point is amazing. My tent was perched on a snow-platform looking straight out at the single most impressive monolith on the planet, El Cap. It’s a hell of place to spend the night! I definitely recommend it.

No trip to Yosemite is complete without a little climbing so it was advantageous that we are arrived just as the season was kicking off. Yosemite has been the setting for some amazing climbing films recently, most notably; The Dawn Wall and Free Solo. Yosemite has been at the center of the climbing universe ever since people thought it would be a good idea to scale terrifyingly high rock walls. Lucky for me, Greg is an expert climber and works with YMS, the only climbing outfitter allowed to operate in the park, which is celebrating 50 years of guide service. He’s climbed El Cap himself, and regularly takes people of all skill levels climbing in Yosemite. Together we decided on a few routes to tackle. We are a bit conservative because here, almost everything is traditional crack climbing. Climbing a crack is totally different than what you might climb in a gym, with a series of holds to grab onto all the way to the top. When you climb a crack, you rely on the way your hand and/or fingers fit into the narrow slice in the rock. I’ve done it before, but I haven’t honed my skills at it. Luckily, Greg is an excellent guide and together we make it up a few pitches, all while staring at Half Dome across the valley. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend the day.

With great sadness, we had to leave behind Yosemite Valley. Luckily, there were more incredible places to explore! Further north we found more sunshine in Butte County, home to Chico, California, superb mountain biking, insane wildflower explosions, and some damn fine beer from Sierra Nevada. Not knowing much about the City of Chico, we took a moment to enjoy the small town feel of the city and our morning coffee before we headed over to North Rim Adventures to get outfitted for a sexy, full-suspension, Trek bike to take to the local trails. I got to ride with Tim Olson, a former pro who makes his home out here. The trails here are amazing—technical and rocky, just like the ones I like riding in Flagstaff, Arizona. Tapping into Tim’s knowledge of the trails, and comfortable with the terrain, I felt right at home.

 

This winter was very wet in much of the Sierra Nevadas so conditions favored an excellent wildflower season, and boy did this place deliver! Some call it a “super bloom”, but not knowing what the technical distinction is, I’d even venture to suggest this year it was a “super-duper bloom”. The most notable example of the bloom were seen on our hike to Table Mountain with local guide, Jason Mandly. It was an absolute color explosion! Challenging ourselves to find yet another equally spectacular example of color, we hiked out to Phantom Falls near Oroville. Here, the ribbon of water cascading over the sheer edge of the “table” was surrounded by stunning bursts of color everywhere.

The amount of activities and visual variety our team experienced in one short, nine-day, road trip could only be possible in California. The stunning images captured on this adventure can largely be attributed to accommodating and knowledgeable locals who welcomed us and shared their expertise. This immersive glimpse into three unique regions of California will not only make for an excellent episode of Epic Trails, but it is an incredibly special adventure that I won’t soon forget.

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