Roads and Destinations

Rita and I have explored southern Utah and northern Arizona on two extended trips last year. On these trips we visited over a dozen state and national parks, including the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, [read more]

The U.S. National Park Service has designated five free admission days in 2022. According to the release, the dates in 2022 are as follows: January 17: Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. April 16: First [read more]

My wife, Lindsay, and I were pretty naive when we set off to visit Alaska in our customized flatbed truck camper. Ok, we were incredibly naive. We had never camped in our rig before the [read more]

I remember the day well. It was a cold March morning in Sisters, Oregon. My good friend Rick and I were enjoying a cup of coffee at a shop named after our town. That is [read more]

“Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” These were the last words heard on the radio from Geologist, David A. Johnston, seconds before Mount St. Helens exploded in a massive eruption on Sunday, May 18, 1980. As [read more]

Six weeks of dirt, dust and dog food has been cleaned from our camper. We brought home enough of the Southwest, Midwest and Utah to amend a garden. It was a very successful and memorable [read more]

Arizona’s White Pocket has long been on our list of places to visit due to its remote location and unique geological formations. It is a photographer’s mecca, and until the last two years, a relatively [read more]

In the autumn of 1879, some 250 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—men, women, and children—and 40 covered wagons undertook one of the most challenging and dramatic pioneering expeditions in American [read more]

It’s been called the Devil’s Highway and the Way of the Dead, but the El Camino del Diablo has been used for thousands of years by Native Americans, Conquistadors and explorers traveling from Mexico to [read more]

The Tumco Historic Townsite is an abandoned gold mining district located near Yuma, Arizona on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. The Tumco Townsite is one of the earliest gold mining areas in California, beginning [read more]

One look at a map of Big Wash Road and you might just dismiss the drive as too rough for a truck camper. Located in the Cerbat Mountains of northwestern Arizona, the 4×4 drive features [read more]

The Bradshaw Trail. Most of us have heard about the Southern California Jeep trail, but few truck camper owners have explored it. When we first started researching this road in preparation for the 2020 Truck [read more]

With a world-wide pandemic and all, 2020 has been crazy year and it’s not even over yet. In spite of all that’s happened, David and Jenney Kiel, like most of us, still have been able [read more]

Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States encompassing 3,422,024 acres, and is the hottest, driest and lowest of all national parks in the United States. Approximately 93 percent of the [read more]

Big Bend National Park.  If you have been paying attention in the last few years, Big Bend keeps popping up as a National Park that you need to visit. We had read several blogs and [read more]

Pull up an online satellite image of Maine at night. Look for the big dark spot in the middle, where no man-made lights shine. Right in the middle of that dark spot is Baxter State [read more]

In May of 2019 we set off on a one-month trip to both the American and Canadian Arctic Ocean communities—Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, and Tuktoyaktuk in Canada’s remote North West Territories province. It was planned [read more]

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]

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]

Interested in living full-time in a truck camper and exploring North, Central, and South America? Michel and Sabina Robitaille of Ontario, Canada are making that popular dream a reality. After planning this trip for a [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]

Truck Camper Adventure is pleased to present this interview with Alex Blasingame. Alex and his wife, Julie, visited Alaska last summer and this interview is about their epic trip. First, a few facts. At 663,268 [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]