Roads and Destinations

While thousands visit Mexico each year despite media reports of its dangers, few explore Baja as one can in a truck camper. Baja is a large tract of land roughly 1,000 miles from Tijuana to [read more]

Truck Camper Adventure (TCA) hosted its very first overland rally on California’s Bradshaw Trail earlier this month. This free trip, scheduled immediately after our truck camper rally in Quartzsite, Arizona, consisted of 14 truck campers. [read more]

Any tour of Big Bend National Park should include several drives. The most popular of these include Ross Naxwell Scenic Road, the Basin Road, and the Rio Grande Village Road. These roads are popular because [read more]

If you’ve never been to Big Bend National Park, you’re really missing out. This underappreciated, 800,000-acre park located in west Texas offers not only stunning beauty with hundreds of miles of hiking trails, but also [read more]

Washington state’s Olympic National Park has long been one of our favorite parks to explore and relax in. While Hurricane Ridge, the Hoh Rainforest, and Rialto Beach get most of the park’s 3 million visitors, [read more]

There is nothing like an early spring trek to Canyonlands National Park, Utah and its environs to drag you out of the winter doldrums. However, old-man Winter had one more hard punch in store for [read more]

It’s hard to leave an old friend. Easy going familiarity creating a layer of quilt-like comfort over your travel experience. The people, food, traits, language. The every day no longer a challenge as eight months [read more]

While on my first journey across America along the Trans America Trail I became fascinated with the idea of finding or building the ultimate overland rig. In my mind, I have played out all sorts [read more]

No Labels I am not an Overlander. At least I no longer use that shackle as a definition. As labels go, Overlander may already have passed its sell-by date. Overlanding’s Australian bush travel origins being [read more]

It’s 1977. Spellbound moviegoers watch agents of the evil empire approach the droids in Star Wars. Feeling the need to protect his tin friends, Obi-Wan raises a wise hand and breathes the immortal line, “These [read more]

ALL BOW DOWN Utah. The staid Mormon state that slaps you in the eyes with every corner, every turn, every time. The beer is good; commonplace session ales that average 3.2 percent alcohol by weight, [read more]

Truck Camper Adventure is proud to present this trip report by off-road guru and contributer, Jeff Reynolds (aka Jefe4x4). Anza Borrego Desert State Park is one of the best state parks in the entire country. [read more]

The Grand Canyon has become a victim of its own greatness. A reader who had recently revisited the South Rim after several years was shocked at how much more commercialized and busier the national park [read more]

When asked which road within the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was the best and most scenic, a Ranger at the Cannonville Visitor Center said without hesitation, “Cottonwood Canyon!” This was a little surprising to me [read more]

If you’re a daredevil who enjoys thrilling, hair-raising drives then you’ll love tackling the Moki Dugway in southern Utah. Located on Utah-261, the dugway twists and turns 3 miles and drops 1,100 feet from the [read more]

Did you know that it’s possible to drive to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in a truck camper or a Jeep? We didn’t know such a thing was possible until about six months ago [read more]

One of the great things about the great state of Arizona is its geologic diversity. In fact, of all the states in the union, few offer a landscape with more color and variety than The [read more]

Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument has a checkered history. After its creation in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the national monument was known as one of the prettiest parks with some of the [read more]

Truck Camper Adventure is proud to present this article on a different kind of road and destination, historic Route 66. Even though this famous highway was decommissioned in 1985, it’s popularity continues to grow with [read more]

Have you ever been blown away by the natural beauty of a place that you totally underestimated beforehand? The Needles Highway (Route 87), located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is one such place, [read more]

No tour of the American west would be complete without a stop at Monument Valley. Few places are more striking, more iconic, and more well known than Monument Valley’s massive red buttes and mesas. Indeed, [read more]

Along with the Grand Canyon, Sedona is one of Arizona’s most popular tourist attractions. The reason lies with Sedona’s towering buttes, canyons, and spires. Simply put, there are few places in the American west more [read more]

If you’re like me, you have a bucket list, a lifetime wish list of things to do and places to see. My bucket list is pretty extensive. It includes destinations and 4×4 roads from Alaska [read more]

Whether you’re into mountain bikes, dirt bikes, ATVs, Jeeps or 4×4 truck campers, the state of Arizona is a paradise for the off-road enthusiast. A countless network of roads and trails crisscross the state from [read more]

Southern California’s Joshua Tree National Park has much to offer the off-road truck camper enthusiast. The park, which hosts over two million visitors annually, lies at the convergence of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. Because [read more]

A few weeks ago we explored the 14-mile-long White Canyon Trail in the White Canyon Wilderness near Superior, AZ. The scenery along this 4×4 trail is pretty spectacular. In fact it was so stunning I [read more]

Having traveled on six continents and sailed every ocean, I consider myself well-traveled. I’ve seen a lot, but the geologic wonders of southern Utah never cease to amaze me. Some of these wonders are found [read more]

Of all the roads and trails I’ve explored in southern Utah, the Smoky Mountain Road is the longest, roughest, and most challenging of them all. The Smoky Mountain Road is a designated scenic backway for [read more]

If you’re looking for an incredibly scenic drive near Phoenix, Arizona that can be completed in a day or two that also offers excellent camping opportunities, then the Apache Trail (Arizona-88) is right for you. [read more]

“God created the Grand Canyon but He lives in Sedona,” the old saying goes. If you’ve ever been to Sedona, Arizona you know why. Sedona’s vivid red buttes, picturesque canyons, and mysterious vortexes are famous [read more]

Gieco Insurance has been airing a very popular commercial lately featuring the song Midnight Rider by the Allman Brothers Band. This commercial inspired us to do our own video featuring this music. This is a [read more]

Over time the forces of nature have sculpted some pretty amazing and unusual shapes out of solid rock. Here in the Western United States, we’ve been fortunate enough to see and photograph several of these. [read more]

The Lake Powell reservoir, on the Arizona and Utah border, is a major tourist attraction with close to 2 million visitors a year. Popular recreational activities include fishing, boating, and camping. Officially, the lake it [read more]

Well, the wife and I finally got away on Monday after a two-day delay due to a freak snowstorm that hit Northern Arizona last Friday. After the weird weather, we decided to see Sedona for [read more]

A couple of days ago, we had an opportunity to explore the nearby Bulldog Canyon OHV trails in our newly acquired 1998 Jeep Wrangler. That morning I just had a set of Rancho RS5000X shocks [read more]

We spent last weekend at Apache Lake, dry camping at the Burnt Corral USFS campground. As you probably already know, I’m not a big fan of campgrounds, in fact I hate them. I’d much rather [read more]

The great state of Utah is home to a large number of geologic wonders and breathtaking drives. The southeastern part of the state is where you can find several of these attractions. Among the best [read more]

For months my sons, who have been attending Eastern Arizona College, have been telling me what an incredible place Mount Graham is for camping and fishing. The place sounded great, but I kept putting it [read more]

The state of Utah is renowned for its state and national parks that feature incredible landscapes not seen anywhere else on earth. Among the best of these has to be Kodachrome Basin State Park. First [read more]

Unforgettable! Spectacular! Amazing! These are just a few of the superlatives that come to mind when describing the Burr Trail Scenic Backway in southern Utah. A former cattle trail, the Burr Trail provides the overlander [read more]

Last night we dry camped at the Lost Dutchman State Park Campground in Apache Junction, AZ. We’ve been here several times before in the past for hikes and cookouts, but never with the camper. As [read more]

If you’re looking for a moderately challenging 4×4 trail located in central Arizona that also offers beautiful landscapes and diverse terrain, then the Montana Mountain trail is made for you. Located in the world renowned [read more]

One of our favorite summertime locations in the great state of Arizona is the Rim Lakes Recreation Area in the Sitgreaves National Forest. Perched atop the Mogollon Rim at an elevation of 7,700 ft and [read more]

Dubbed the “Greatest Earth on Show,” and labeled one of the seven wonders of the natural world, the Grand Canyon is a must-see stop on your tour of the American west. Located in northern Arizona, [read more]

Arizona sunsets are special. No doubt about that. But Saguaro Sunsets are even better. Light clouds to the west provided an excellent opportunity to snap some terrific pics of the Saguaro Cactus at dusk yesterday. [read more]

One of my fondest memories of growing up in Tucson, Arizona was a field-trip I took in the second grade to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. What? A museum as one of your favorite childhood memories, [read more]

Nestled near the California border, Quartzsite, AZ is known as the boondocking capital of the world for Recreational Vehicle (RV) owners, but the small desert town is also renowned for its winter shopping, gemstones, and [read more]

Designated an “All-American Road” and placed on the National Scenic Byway register by the Department of Transportation in 1973, Utah’s Route-12 is a drive that should be on everyone’s bucket list. Offering some of the [read more]