Solo Overlanding in the Sonoran Desert

Come, the stars come to shine when it's dark From so far away, show us where we are What makes the sun go to sleep every night? And what's it dreaming of? Wonder Come, the sky sometimes hides behind the clouds Maybe it's just like me, a little bit scared of heights Why does the rain always keep on pouring down When it's gray outside? It really makes me wonder Yeah, it makes me wonder Well, good morning from Southern California again. We are back in the Sonoran Desert region because Kara and Danielle have their Rebel Rally training. Yesterday, we just kind of piddled around Yuma a little bit, got some grocery shopping done, you know, that sort of thing. And then came out to the Imperial Sand Dunes where Kara and Danielle's training is. And we kind of drove around the desert just a little bit and said our goodbyes for a week. It's going to be six days until we see each other again. Bye. Y'all have fun. Love y'all. Rooster, it's just me and you for the next six days. So while they're doing their training, Rooster and I are exploring the desert. We are in California today. I'm not sure if it's today or tomorrow that we will cross into Arizona. And then the rest of this trip will be just exploring the Arizona desert. We've got the Salton Sea right over there. I don't remember the history of all that. But the whole story with the Salton Sea. It is the saltiest body of water. Maybe next to the Dead, maybe second to the Dead Sea. Or maybe even saltier than the Dead Sea. I'm not sure. It's real salty. And right over here, that mountain range is a U.S. military gunnery range. So I did hear some gunfire taking place last night. I don't know if it's from people in the gunnery range or the group of side-by-sides that came through here about 11 o'clock last night. Went down there and came back. I'm not sure. But Rooster and I are going to have The plan is to just explore. I've got a general route lined out. I've got some campsites marked. But the goal is to just explore. We have no real agenda on this trip. I suspect this will be four, maybe five videos worth of content. So be sure and subscribe if you would. We are precious close to hitting 100,000 subscribers. And I need your help. We're going to get there very, very soon. And I'm super pumped about that. So if you're already a subscriber, thank you. But we're just going to explore and see what we can find. That's the goal. These are my favorite trips ever. With no agenda. So I'm going to finish packing things up. And then we're going to hit the trail. Oh goodness. Oh yeah. Morning. You ready? Alright, let's see what we can find. Let's finish packing up. Good girl. Alright, let's go. Let's go see what we can see today. You excited? Let's go. You'll learn in this series that I have fallen in love with the Sonoran Desert. It's the second largest desert in North America. And covers over 120,000 square miles. Extending from Southern California and Arizona into Northern Mexico. Of the four deserts in North America, the Sonoran is unique in that it doesn't have cold winters. Which makes this the perfect place to explore in the wintertime. With highs in the mid-70s and lows in the upper 40s and lower 50s very little rainfall it's a winter overlander's paradise. And because of the mild winter climate the Sonoran Desert is home to more plant and animal species than any other desert in the world. We do have the Gunnery Range down here to our south. A little in this area currently to our north. But this little section of trail is on BLM land. And this place is awesome. I don't know if I'm on an old riverbed here but it's just super wide and you can kind of choose your own route through it. It's pretty cool. What do you think Rooster? But that was the old Eagle Mountain Railroad Trestle. I don't think that's used anymore but kind of a cool little landmark out here. It just feels so desolate out here. I had side-by-sides driving by last night and there was that couple in their Jeep getting some stuff ready under the railroad bridge. I don't think it's as desolate as it appears. If you got something happened out here I think you would I think someone would find you pretty quickly. If you have missed the updates on Rooster here and missed the video in Anza Borrego where we introduced her let me let me fill you in. I take for granted that people have seen the previous videos when they check out a new video but I realize that's not the case. But she is Goose's half-sister and she has a very severe heart murmur. Go check out the first Anza Borrego video if you want the full medical explanation that Garrett gave out. She has a pretty severe heart condition where one of the valves in her heart is not fully formed and is basically blocked what should be a hole this big is a hole this big and has trouble pushing the blood through it and it comes out under high pressure. by the time you're watching this we will have already been to a canine cardiologist specialist in St. Louis and hopefully have had that repaired. The breeder who we got Goose from found out about her heart murmur and knew that we would be interested in taking care of her and loving on her and giving her the best life that we possibly could and so that is the goal. She is unique in that she has a long haired Frenchie with this beautiful Merle coat and she is just absolutely beautiful her little tongue is too big to fit in her mouth so it's always sitting outside like that she's got a cute little underbite and she's just the sweetest little pup ever she's 6 months old almost 7 months old now and she is taken to this whole camping and travel lifestyle like a champ and that's why she's here and Goose is not because we want to introduce her to this without the distraction and commotion of Goose because when the two of them are together it is a Frenchie battle royale a lot of times being siblings and all so that's why Rooster is here Goose is at home missing us terribly he's not happy when we leave without him so but he's just with me the whole weekend well we're deviating off the main trail just for a bit because apparently there's a slot canyon up here and I am a sucker for slot canyons so we're going to go check it out Wildberry Pop Tarts are my favorite and it's not because the icing matches my hair although it does they're just the best blueberry comes in second then strawberry this little spot is really cool it looks like there's a bunch of little slot canyons that go in and out of here but I'm looking for one in particular known as Red Canyon it should be right up here oh wow this is awesome I'm kind of wondering how far you can dive into this this is way cool this is where the road ends on the map so I'm going to stop here and walk a little bit this would have been a cool place to camp last night there's a fire ring here pretty cool one too but this would have been a cool spot I will mark it on my map as a place to camp just a few rigs check this out I found water in the desert I'd be seriously dying of thirst before I take a sip of that this is cool the largest pool of water there I'm guessing there's another pool of water up in that little bowl up there too where I parked the jeep was where the trail ended on the map basically just around that corner over there but this looks interesting looks like it would be a lot of fun but this is California State Land Trust so I don't know the legality of this obviously people do drive this I don't know if they do it legally or not I always think when you're out exploring like this stick to the maps don't do things that may be questionable plus I am solo and it would be foolish of me to do something foolish and go off on an unmarked trail fairly technical and risk something happening because I'm out here all alone I will say of all the trips that I have done this one makes me the most nervous because I've never done a solo trip to the desert I do have plenty of water I've got all the necessary things sat communications I've got my Starlink so I can communicate back at home when I get to camp but just being in the desert alone does give you a little bit of pause and so as I am excited about this trip I am also very respectful of what I'm doing and where I'm going and don't want to be stupid if I'm with my friends I can be stupid but solo in the desert is not the place for it Rooster likes soaking it in too she's just stopping and smelling all the smells and checking out little places she tries to get places that she can't but she does her best I'm back on BLM land now so let's go see if this little trail pops up on top with a cool little view and a campsite curious oh yeah another nice little spot to camp nice and flat up here little fire ring I like it when you're out on your off-roading overlanding trips and you see little side spots that look like they might head up to a viewpoint or possibly a campsite be sure and take it and you might find something like that that would be a cool place to camp next time you're in the area and I would love to camp there wake up to those views and go to sleep with the sunsets and stuff from there I bet they're awesome so take your time explore a little don't just stick to the agenda I don't have an agenda so that's easy the name of this main trail that I'm on is the Bradshaw Trail and I know nothing about it other than I'm on it and it goes this way it does pretty much skirt the whole it does pretty much skirt the whole edge of the northern section of the Dennery Range so I don't know that much we're at one of the intersections here there's this cool sign and apparently they have big old desert tortoises here oh I want to see one of those I am here I think and I think I'll be going all the way out to Bradshaw Trail over here I'm not sure where Arizona is on this map also don't know if I'll make it all the way here but this is the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range live bombing range just by turning the corner we're now in the land of Ocotillo Cactus I really thought I'd see more cactus on this section but not yet DuPont Road most difficult apparently there's a mine this direction let's go check it out welcome to the stars where it's dark from so far away show us where we are I guess this is it danger, abandoned mine let's check it out well there's an old bed spring old wood ties some clue what that metal thing is down there maybe an old furnace purely guessing but where's the mine well I hate to say it I don't know where the mine is we walked up onto that point over there and I think it might be on the other side of that it doesn't appear to be here I don't know I don't know where the mine is at least where the mine shaft is this was obviously remnant of some of the buildings and stuff here a random post I don't know it's a pretty drive up here all these teddy bear cactus sure are cool I don't know where the mine is alright the plan is let's just make our way back off of this trail since it's an outback and not too far from where we turned off to come up here are some campsites I have marked on the map not going to stay there, it's not even noon yet it's only just after 11 but I figured that would be a great place for lunch so the next goal is to go check out those campsites have lunch and then carry on well I got a little bit of cell signal and decided to do a quick google search on this Bradshaw trail that I'm on and apparently it's an overland stage route from western Colorado to southern California part of that this is a remnant of that much longer road that was established in 1862 by William Bradshaw hence the name and it was the first route that connected the gold fields near La Paz in the US New Mexico territory to southern California's more populated west coast so there you go that connected the mining districts to the California west coast coming on a bit of history here from the late 1800's well we've deviated off the Bradshaw trail just a little bit wanted to come up here had another campsite marked and another point of interest apparently there's an abandoned boat up here good firing wonder if that's it well that is an odd place for what looks like to be a sailboat very odd indeed why is there a sailboat in the middle of the desert rooster you know that's weird well there's this nice little washout area looks like a good place for lunch it's very private nice sand it is so unbelievably quiet peaceful out here I'm really shocked I haven't seen anybody today I'm 40 miles into this today I've covered a lot of ground so far but with all the side by side traffic that I saw last night at camp really surprised I haven't seen anybody else on the trail today except for that couple that was at the bridge but I don't know where they went it's just so peaceful well on the move again I'm definitely interested to come back and check out that Chukawalla trail because it says extremely difficult extremely difficult I'd be interested in coming back out with some friends and seeing how extremely difficult that really is sounds like fun but not today I think I've got a little game plan now there's a camp spot that I got from Chris Shawn's Venture Forward that is right next to a hiking trail as well and I want to do some hiking while I'm on this trip just see what we find if it's difficult I just want to experience as much as I can and would love to do some hiking so I think I'm going to just book it down the Bradshaw trail if I see something cool, stop but it's 1230 so I've got plenty of time but I also don't want to get into camp after dark and there's some other campsites between here and there that if it's not going as fast as I think I can stop there and go check it out tomorrow but that's the plan right now so we'll see how it goes what the heck is this? looks like another boat but with the metal frame I don't even understand why it's kind of a cool section just a big wide four lane sandy highway I can see lining up like four side by sides here in drag racing Christian and I have just been cruising down the desert highway about 25-30 miles an hour I just love the little pops of yellow flowers along this section of the road they just stand out so well against all the beige all of a sudden it just changed to a very nice graded almost blacktop road Rooster and I stopped for gas back in Palo Verde a very little town, they did have a gas station that had frazzles these are so good I love them now we are about to cross into Arizona and find camp somewhere in the wilderness that's the plan alright, driving over the Colorado River it's beautiful it's blowing pretty good too welcome to Arizona beautiful view of the river turned off the river road there start making my way over into the inland well camp is basically straight ahead at the edge of the mountains or maybe slightly in the mountains that was the first time I actually had to engage four wheel drive that was a good one I like that one a lot I think this is going to be a lovely spot up here into the mountains just right over there where the wilderness area begins no vehicle traffic back there I think Rooster and I will take a little walk that way in the morning check it out not exactly flat through a lot of this but there's old remnants of a fire ring here so yeah, we'll get camp set up it's nice and early we've got time to chill got a couple looks like can't tell if those are Apaches or Cobra well I think it's time to feed Rooster almost got the next video finished so it's a good time to take a break dropping a little bit but I want to show you a couple new things that I'm testing on this trip this is a Rucks tote this is their biggest one and lid secures with kind of bungee things pull it off the lid folds up nice and small like that I'm using it as my food tote for this trip but when you're not using it you can punch the sides in here and collapse it flat which I think is awesome so the Rucks tote so far a big fan of this one and then you saw me get it out this is Kamek's outpost Kamek set up and it's designed to have legs on one side and attached to the vehicle on the other and I think this is absolutely brilliant because it's this little ball so you can swing it around to the side, you can swing it whichever way you want to and this is designed to clamp on different racks or do like this and mount to the tracks on the inside it's really awesome, I think Rooster liked it I think we're going to lay down in it in a little bit I didn't bring the full set up otherwise I might sleep in it, but Rooster's never slept in a hammock so I don't know how that would go but I think it's awesome especially when you're in the desert like this, there's no trees to hang from, none at all so if you're a hammock camper and you want to come to the desert this is how you do it it's way awesome I think she might actually do okay in a hammock I might have to give it a shot one time and I haven't had cornmeal chili in a long time probably a reason looks like something Rooster would eat oh yeah that's a dang good chili though that's real good yep excellent wow you can just see the moon coming up over the mountains there, have a little bit of a haze around it it's very beautiful but I think it's time to take little Princess Fuzzybutt to bed she's been asleep in my arms most of the evening it's been a good day for her, she's done so awesome I hope that you have enjoyed this one I am pumped about tomorrow whole new stuff to see and experience and soak in and can't wait to do that so if you would like the video please subscribe for the upcoming videos and help us reach that goal of 100,000 very very soon and come here alright and check out the Patreon link in the description check out the Shop Overload Apparel link in the description if you're interested in all of our merchandise hats, shirts, patches stickers, that sort of stuff and I'm going to bed now have a good night